Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux (original) (raw)
Related papers
Towards an Uncertain Politics of Professionalism: Teacher and Nurse Identifies in Flux
Journal of Education Policy, 2002
Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux Towards an uncertain politics of professionalism: teacher and nurse identities in flux 'Few professionals talk as much about being professionals as those whose professional stature is in doubt.' (F. Katz, in A. Etzioni The semi-professions and their organisation. Teachers, nurses, social workers 1969.) Our first purpose is to look at the epistemological, methodological and narrative strategies whereby 'professionalism' is currently conceptualised. We will try to show that the professional-as 'teacher' or 'nurse'-is an indefensibly unitary construct. There is no such thing as 'a teacher', and the notion of 'nurses' or 'teachers' is already too much of a generalisation. Similarly, we will hope to complicate the nature of 'professionalism', arguing that the analytical moves by which professionals are typified, staged, and judged betray a rather simple moral bias, chopping good from bad in unhelpfully crude ways.
2021
In this paper, two new and one established researcher (from Germany, Italy, and the UK) dialogue about researching professional biographies in education. The authors seek to build on a personal and scientific conversation to illuminate the critical and reflexive epistemological potential of particular perspectives in challenging the constraints of neoliberal discourses in education. The doctoral studies of the new researchers illuminate the limited conceptualisations of professionalism, shaped by dominant discourses pervading higher, adult and early childhood education. The two new authors explore similarities and differences in their work, including research questions, theoretical frameworks, methodologies, empirical data and interpretation. Biographical interviews and co-operative inquiry are used to collect stories about professional identity and ways of knowing. A common finding is that professionalism encompasses deeply personal dimensions in what is a complex conscious and unc...
Deconstructing Professionalism
International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation, 2011
The problematisation of the professional standards for teachers in the UK lifelong learning sector tends to focus on the discourses that the standards embody: discourses that are posited as being based on a restricted or technicist model of professionalism, that fail sufficiently to recognise the lived experiences of teachers within the sector both in terms of professional knowledge and competences, and professional development. This paper takes a different approach, drawing on a branch of material semiotics – actor-network theory – in order to shift the locus of problematisation away from what the standards might mean, to how the standards are physically assembled or instantiated. The paper concludes by suggesting that a first point of problematisation rests not in the discourses that the standards embody, but in the inherent fragilities of any material artefact that has the intention of carrying meaning across spatial, institutional or temporal boundaries.
A conversation of teachers: In search of professional identity
The Australian Educational Researcher, 2010
The authors describe teacher professional identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools, the educational space, which is their workplace. Activity theory is utilised as the broad theoretical lens and the design type and methodology are discussed accordingly. The school and the classroom are activity systems (Engeström, 1991), and social and semiotic ecosystems (Lemke, 1995). It is therefore in the tensions within the activity system that we capture and represent a constructed teacher conversation, composed of the voices of three social actors on an imaginary social stage, which is the empirical text of the article. Main findings speak to multiple roles, struggling voice and forging professional identity in the changing educational landscape. This article attends to teacher identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. In a young democracy such as South Africa, teachers play a critical role in educating the youth and advancing the social collective good. We argue that, in a society where the social capital divide is increasing, teachers are one of the last hopes for the young from especially rural and poor township communities. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools, the educational space, their workplace. This workplace is neither fixed nor static, but a site for intersecting networks of relations, technology (tools) and practice which extend in complex interrelations beyond what is seen as the institution (McGregor, 2003). All of these aspects are enlarged in a society in transition where there are numerous structural and semiotic changes. •93
In this article, I draw attention to the societal arrangements that permit or produce the autonomy of professions since professionals have the task of holding the tension among different perspectives. To do so, they must apply differing, irreconcilable logics of reflection and balance them in their decision-making. To gain a differentiated understanding of the complexities of these processes, I propose a met-atheoretical conceptualization of the dynamics of professions based on Gotthard Günther's theory of " polycontexturality, " which can be used both to analyse the in-teractional processes and to embed them in society. I illustrate this argument with an example from the field of medical treatment. The proposed approach also lays the basis for a differentiated understanding of phenomena, which psychoanalysis has traditionally described in terms of transference and countertransference. In this paper, I propose a systems theoretical conceptualization of professions. Particularly , I suggest that professionals act in specific domains of social interactions where different operational logics interpenetrate, often creating tensions as well as uncertainties or paradoxical behavioural expectations or both. As a consequence, professionals have to develop specific reflexive capabilities that enable them to cope with these tensions and insecurities and to reconcile conflicting expectations. I propose Gotthard Günther's (1976) theory of " polycontexturality " as a suitable tool for capturing the logic of such reflections in sufficient depth to do justice to the subject. One of the most important insights from viewing the sociology of professions from the standpoint of a polyvalent logic is that the professions are strongly confronted with aspects of a polycentric society that has more than one rationality, logic or locus of reflection. This is already evident in the interactional relationships that exist between the professions, which go beyond merely factual issues and must always also include the alterity of different, embodied subjectivities in the form of different logical and ontological domains (e.g., as described by Latour, 2013 in his book An Inquiry into Modes of Existence). While these subjectivities are not accessible epistemically, they still inform the actions of the members of the professionals. Thus, I open up a viewpoint from which the professions can be seen as expressions of the dynamics of a polycontextural society. In this light, they can be regarded as
Reissner and Armitage-Chan, Manifestations of professional identity work, SHE 2024, preproof
Studies in Higher Education, 2024
Professional identity formation (PIF) is an integral part of educating professionals. A well-formed professional identity helps individuals to develop a meaningful professional self-understanding that facilitates their transition to and sustainability in professional work. Although professional identity and its formation are well theorized, it is largely unclear how the underpinning interpretive process of professional identity work leads to observable changes in thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and how these insights can be used in educational practice. To address this gap, we conducted an integrative review of 77 empirical articles on professional identity formation and inductively developed a four-fold typology of professional identity work, through which individuals reportedly make the shift from individual to professional. The theoretical contribution of this article is a more nuanced understanding of the practical manifestations of professional identity work. As a practical contribution, the typology may be used as a heuristic through which educators of professionals can support their students’ professional identity formation, particularly where this is halted or complicated by obstructions.
Re-centring the Individual in Participatory Accounts of Professional Identity
Invited Lectures from the 13th International Congress on Mathematical Education, 2018
Studies of professional identity are generally conducted using participatory frameworks and from the perspective of a particular development initiative. They provide understandings of teachers' move towards more comprehensive participation in the practices the initiative promotes. Studies in line with this main trend, however, leave questions of teacher identity unanswered when teachers are not enrolled in long-term development programmes. I argue that to address such questions a different framework is needed, one that maintains the participatory stance, but focuses on the individual teacher rather than a development initiative. It is the intention of the Patterns-of-Participation framework (PoP) that I introduce to re-centre the individual in this sense. To make my point, I discuss how research frameworks may be conceptualized and compared and use the resulting "frameworks framework" to contrast studies of the main trend with the intentions of PoP.
Professional identities: contested discourses
2015
The aim of this research is to discover the impact of the role of the pedagogue has on children's learning in the great outdoors. Theoretical underpinning comes from Pelo (2013) and Rinaldi (2004). (Re) thinking teaching and learning in the great outdoors is discussed through the lenses of the Reggio Emilia philosophy and nature pedagogy. The methodological research approach was ethnographic. This is a theory to practice methodology drawing on research from teacher practitioners and situated in the workplace. Photographic images, video and voice recordings were used ethically with children's and parental consent. A sweeping movement worldwide to 'get back to nature', alongside a groundswell of interest in Forest Schools, Nature Kindergartens and Bush Kindergartens has drawn attention to the influence of the environment on children's learning. What is the role of the pedagogue in the outdoor environment? How do we make visible the engagement and meaning making of children? This presentation looks closely at the notion of finding a balance between nature as the third teacher, and the role of the pedagogue. Examples of practice from a 'bush kindergarten' setting in Australia will be shared and unpacked together. The research will explore the concepts of the pedagogy of listening and pedagogical documentation as critical aspects of the role of the pedagogue, and the powerful learning of children at play in a natural environment.