Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: an exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective (original) (raw)

Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2004

The studies considered in this review of recent research on teachers' professional identity can be divided into three categories: (1) studies in which the focus was on teachers' professional identity formation, (2) studies in which the focus was on the identification of characteristics of teachers' professional identity, and (3) studies in which professional identity was (re)presented by teachers' stories. In the studies reviewed, the concept of professional identity was defined differently or not defined at all. Four essential features of teachers' professional identity could be derived from the studies. Many of the reviewed studies appeared to be studies on teachers' personal practical knowledge. However, in only a few studies was the relationship between this knowledge and professional identity made explicit. It is argued that, in future research on teachers' professional identity, more attention needs to be paid to the relationship between relevant concepts like 'self' and 'identity', the role of the context in professional identity formation, what counts as 'professional' in professional identity, and research perspectives other than the cognitive one that may also play a role in designing research on teachers' professional identity. r

What should we understand from teachers' professional identity? An overview of the literature

Journal of Innovative Research in Teacher Education, 2022

The roles of teachers in organizing, directing, evaluating, and applying within the school place teachers in a critical position in determining the quality of education. For this reason, it is accepted that teacher qualification is an important indicator of the quality of education. At this point, the concept of professional identity, which includes teachers' professional learning, development, and practices, gains importance. The concept of professional identity emerged as a separate research topic in the literature after the 1980s and has gradually increased in the following years. Although current studies provide an important understanding of the concept, the formation and development of teachers' professional identities continue to be seen as one of the main problem areas in the literature. From this point of view, in this study, the formation and development of teachers' professional identities have been comprehensively discussed based on the relevant literature. The results of the research show that although teachers' professional identity has critical importance in teacher development and teaching practices, important questions remain about how teacher education can participate in identity construction. In this respect, it is thought that the results obtained within the scope of the study are important in terms of showing the basic elements that affect the formation and development of teachers' professional identities. In addition, it is thought that the study may offer various ideas to policymakers and practitioners to establish a standard professional identity development procedure that will prioritize the professional development of teachers.

Conceptualizing the Understanding of Professional Identity in Teacher’s Career

European Scientific Journal, 2014

The article deals with the research designed as the Grounded Theoryto explore and conceptualize the practising teachers' perception of their professional identity. The practising teachers -master students of the professional master study programme "Teacher" study module "Education for Well-being and Cohesion" taking the course "Educator's Professional Identity and Pedagogic Mastery" were chosen to help to formulate the theory. Analogies (metaphors) and narrative essays have been used as the techniques for identifying concepts. Making associations, brainstorming, coding, making concepts, conceptual sorting in categories, memoing and outlining theories was the procedure how teachers conceptualized the various elements used to construct professional identity.Word frequency list and keyword-in-context list techniques were used to carry out computer-aided content analysis and represented by the help of Wordle.net -the tool for generating "word clouds" from text that is provided. The outcome of this research is the content of teachers' professional identity discussed and analysed in the light of various theories and in close link with the concepts of "professional career", "personality development", "career" and "self-concept". Based on the keywords provided by teachers, the teacher's professional identity structure consisting of 4 components: professional "self-concept", harmony of professional identity, successful self-determination and creative professional activity was elaborated by adding criteria notions, as well as the content analyses of teachers' narratives was used to identify professional identity development statuses.

Teachers' sense of their professional identity

2011

The overall aim of this dissertation was to contribute to the conceptualization of teachers’ professional identity. Based on the literature and previous research, teachers’ job satisfaction, self-efficacy, occupational commitment, and change in level of motivation were perceived as indicators of teachers’ sense of their professional identity. The relationships between these indicators were explored using data of 1214 teachers working in secondary education in the Netherlands. Teachers’ relationship satisfaction (referring, for instance, to teachers’ satisfaction with the support they receive or their satisfaction with their co-workers) and teachers’ classroom self-efficacy play a pivotal role in the relationships between the indicators. By further analysing the same dataset, three distinct professional identity profiles were identified: an unsatisfied and demotivated identity profile consisting of teachers who scored relatively low on the indicators, a motivated and affectively committed identity profile consisting of teachers who scored relatively high on the indicators, and a competence doubting identity profile consisting of teachers with a more diverse score pattern. Differences between the profiles were observed regarding teachers’ beliefs about the objectives of education: ‘stimulating personal and moral development’ and ‘importance of qualification and schooling’. No differences between the profiles were observed regarding the teachers’ amount of experience. An additional exploratory study among eighteen teachers showed that the students of teachers with an unsatisfied and demotivated identity profile observed their teachers’ behaviours ‘providing clear instruction’ and ‘efficient classroom management’ more often than students’ ratings of teachers with a motivated and affectively committed or a competence doubting identity profile.

A longitudinal study of the development of the professional identity of student teachers

2014

The development of teachers’ professional identity has been defined as “an on-going and dynamic process which entails the making sense and (re)interpretation of one’s own values and experiences” that have been influenced by personal, social and cognitive factors (Flores & Day, 2006). From the viewpoint that identity consists of meanings formed from moments and situations with relevance for the individual and by being hierarchically organised from the individual’s self-conception (Haamer, 2012), student teachers can be viewed as “developing selves”, gradually developing an understanding of one’s professional self, based on interactions with significant others and the environment (Lauriala & Kukkonen, 2005). In the current paper, based on interviews (N = 13) carried out at the end of a longitudinal study, we present an overview of the development of the professional identity of student teachers who have finished a five-year long teacher training programme. The aim of the study was to ...

A Comparative Study on the Professional Identity of Current and Prospective Teachers

International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, 2018

The main purpose of this study was to probe whether or not there is a statistically significant difference between the prospective teachers' perceptions of professional identity and current teachers' self-perceptions. To meet the end, the researchers applied the Teachers' Professional Identity Questionnaire, by Hasegawa and Kudomi, which contains 48 items on a four-point Likert system. This questionnaire was distributed among 440 Iranian professionals who had majored in one of the majors related to English language. After collecting the data, the researchers tapped them into SPSS software and analyzed them statistically. A Mann-Whitney test on the scores of the two groups of participants highlighted a statistically significant difference. Hence, data analysis indicated that there is a statistically significant difference between the prospective teachers' perceptions of professional identity and the current teacher's self-perceptions.

Profiling teachers' sense of professional identity

Educational …, 2011

"This study shows that professional identity should not be viewed as a composed variable with a uniform structure. Based on the literature and previous research, we view teachers’ job satisfaction, self‐efficacy, occupational commitment and change in the level of motivation as indicators of teachers’ professional identity. Using two‐step cluster analysis, three distinct professional identity profiles have empirically been identified, based on data of 1214 teachers working in secondary education in the Netherlands. These profiles differed significantly regarding the indicators of teachers’ professional identity. Teachers belonging to the found profiles did not significantly differ in their amount of experience. Keywords: Professional identity, Teaching, Identification, Teaching experience"

Teachers’ Professional Identity Construction: A review of the literature

Profesorado, Revista de Currículum y Formación del Profesorado, 2022

The construction of teachers’ professional identity (TPI) is a key issue in current research, so a wide range of scholars has focused their interest on that topic. Its construction and evolution are influenced by a wide range factors (personal, professional and contextual) along the initial training period. This review aims to know how TPI within initial training among Secondary Education teachers evolves, how teacher training programs approach it and which elements may influence its development. Therefore, a meta-analysis was used to examine the existing literature between 1990 and 2019. A total of 35 research studies were analysed showing an increase temporal tend coinciding in the definition of the main term (TPI) and the need to train it within initial training as well as the influence of determining factors in its construction, so they develop their commitment with future career. To conclude, this work makes a useful and updated contribution to the field and it brings insights ...

Student teachers’ professional identity

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2010

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative interview study of the professional identity of 45 student teachers. The students described their personal experiences in teaching their own subject and the positive and negative emotions that were evoked. Students emphasized failure or success but not what they had or had not learned. Broader social contexts and professional relationships within the teaching community were marginalized.

Teacher Identity as a Root of Teacher Selves: Professional Identity vs Personal Identity

2021

This paper sought to investigate the relationship/gap between personal and professional identity experienced by a group of elementary school teachers in Sintang, West Borneo. In gathering the data, the researchers used questionnaire and divided it into two parts: close-ended statements in a form of Likert Scale and open-ended questions which asked the opinion of the teachers related to their personal and professional identity. This study employed a qualitative research, using the snowball sampling. The researchers distributed the questionnaire in form of Likert scale and continued it with open-ended questions. The questionnaire was then followed up by individual interview. The questions were posited to identify teachers’ beliefs of their professional and personal identity. The research results reveal that there are three gap points between personal and professional identity within teacher, namely adjusting myself to the school’s environment, trying to be a good parent for students, ...