Publication details
Narrative and Social Construction of Expert Teacher Professional Identity
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2012 |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | There are various theories describing a teacher’s development and progress. They study, for example, changes in a teacher’s interpersonal styles throughout his/her career (Wubbels, Levy, 1993), the development of a teacher’s professional career (Foley, 2004), the constitution of various evolutionary phases in a teacher’s life (Steffy et al., 2000), and the development of skills and knowledge (Anderson, 2002). The lecture describes a qualitative research which studied six teachers from their professional beginnings to the present position of an experienced – expert – teacher. The research method used is life story, through which the teacher’s career is reconstructed. The key research question is: How did the teacher become an expert teacher? Specific questions: How does a teacher develop? How do an expert teacher’s opinions, methods and knowledge develop? The most important motor of change and particularly of a teacher’s development was his/her decision and commitment to the development of his/her identity (Pittard, 2003). Snow and Anderson (1987) label this process as work on one’s identity (it includes activities towards creation, presentation and maintenance of one’s identity). I will talk about different strategies, which a teacher uses to influence the environment in his/her own classroom (student-to-teacher feedback, peer feedback, moral teaching, innovation, routine, intuition, and cooperating with pupils’ parents) and at school in general (informal relationships, verbal distancing, diplomacy, open wars, gossip, and shaman’s strategy). |