Professional Identity Assignments to Support Beginning Teachers’ Growth into the Profession

Abstract

Developing a professional identity is a key element of the transition into the teaching profession. Limited research exists on professional development activities and ideas that support beginning teachers’ development of their professional identity in practice. For this study teachers participated in an induction programme that focused on beginning teachers’ professional identity. This study reports on the development and testing of three online professional identity assignments with 46 beginning teachers from 11 secondary schools. These assignments were based on research findings regarding the influence of ‘significant others’ and ‘stories to live by’ on teachers’ professional identity development. Analysis of the results reveals that the assignments each provide valuable input for doing identity work with beginning teachers in view of their further professional development. It can be concluded that the assignments we developed are useful for beginning teachers to reflect on and make sense of who they are and want to become.

Keywords

• Teacher identity
• Beginning teachers
• Induction phase
• Identity work,
• Identity assignments

References

1. Akkerman, S., Admiraal, W., & Simons, R. J. (2012). Unity and diversity in a collaborative research project. Culture & Psychology, 18(2), 227–252.
2. Akkerman, S. F., & Meijer, P. C. (2011). A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 308–319.
3. Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating personal and professional spaces. New York: Routledge.
4. Arvaja, M. (2016). Building teacher identity through the process of positioning. Teaching and Teacher Education, 59, 392-402.
5. Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189.
6. Beijaard, D. (1995). Teachers’ prior experiences and actual perceptions of professional identity. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 1(2), 281–294.
7. Beijaard, D., & Meijer, P.C. (2017). Developing the personal and professional in making a teacher identity. In D.J. Clandinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The Sage handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 177-192). Los Angeles/London/ New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC/Melbourne: Sage.
8. Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 107–128.

9. Clandinin, D. J., Downey, C. A., & Huber, J. (2009). Attending to changing landscapes: Shaping the interwoven identities of teachers and teacher educators. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 37(2), 141–154.
10. Clandinin, D. J., & Connelly, F. M. (1988). Studying Teachers’ Knowledge of Classrooms: Collaborative Research, Ethics, and the Negotiation of Narrative. The Journal of Educational Thought (JET) / Revue de La Pensé Educative, 22(2A), 269–282. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23768371
11. Clandinin, D.J., & Huber, M. (2005). Shifting stories to live by: Interweaving the personal and professional in teachers' lives. In D. Beijaard, P.C. Meijer, G. Morine-Dershimer & Tillema, H. (Eds.), Teacher professional development in changing conditions (pp. 43-59). Dordrecht: Springer.
12. Cobb, D.J. (2019). Initial teacher education and the development of teacher identity. In M.A. Peters (Ed.). Encyclopedia of Teacher Education. Singapore: Springer Nature.
13. Cohen, J. L. (2010). Getting recognised: Teachers negotiating professional identities as learners through talk. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 473–481.
14. Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1997). Teachers’ personal practical knowledge on the professional knowledge landscape. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13(7), 665–674.
15. Doecke, B., Brown, J., & Loughran, J. (2000). Teachers talk: the role of story and anecdote in constructing professional knowledge for beginning teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16, 335-348.
16. Feiman-Nemser, S. (2001). From preparation to practice: Designing a continuum to strengthen and sustain teaching. Teachers College Record, 103, 1013-1055.
17. Flores, M. A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers’ identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 219–232.
18. Hargreaves, A. (2000). Mixed emotions: teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(8), 811–826.
19. Hargreaves, A. (2001). The emotional geographies of teachers’ relations with colleagues. International Journal of Educational Research, 35(5), 503–527.
20. Hermans, H.J.M., & Kempen, H.J.G. (1993). The dialogical self: Meaning and movement. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
21. Izadinia, M. (2013). A review of research on student teachers’ professional identity. British Educational Research Journal, 39(4), 1–20.
22. Kelchtermans, G. (1996). Teacher Vulnerability: understanding its moral and political roots. Cambridge Journal of Education, 26(3), 307–323.
23. Kelchtermans, G., & Ballet, K. (2002). The micropolitics of teacher induction. A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialisation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(1), 105–120.
24. Korb, M. P., Gorrell, J., & van De Riet, V. (1989). Psychology practitioner guidebooks. Gestalt therapy: Practice and theory (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Pergamon Press.
25. Korthagen, F. A. J., Attema-Noordewier, S., & Zwart, R. C. (2014). Teacher-student contact: Exploring a basic but complicated concept. Teaching and Teacher Education, 40, 22–32.
26. Kurz, A., Reddy, L.A., & Glover, T. A. (2017). A Multidisciplinary Framework of Instructional Coaching, Theory Into Practice, 56(1), 66-77.
27. Leeferink, H., Koopman, M., Beijaard, D., & Ketelaar, E. (2015). Unraveling the Complexity of Student Teachers’ Learning in and From the Workplace. Journal of Teacher Education, 66(4), 334–348.
28. Leijen, Ä., Kullasepp, K., & Anspal, T. (2014). Pedagogies of Developing Teacher Identity. In C.J. Craig & L. Orland-Barak (Eds.), International Teacher Education: Promising pedagogies (pp. 311–328). Bingley, UK: Emerald.
29. Lipka, R.P., & Brinthaupt, T.M. (Eds.) (1999). The role of self in teacher development. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
30. Meijer, P. C., Korthagen, F. A. J., & Vasalos, A. (2009). Supporting presence in teacher education: The connection between the personal and professional aspects of teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(2), 297–308.
31. Olsen, B. (2008). How reasons for entry into the profession illuminate teacher identity development. Teacher Education Quarterly, 35(3), 23-40.
32. Olsen, B. (2010). Teaching for Success: Developing Your Teacher Identity in Today’s Classroom. Bolder: Paradigm Publisher.
33. Olson, M. R., & Craig, C. J. (2001). Opportunities and challenges in the development of teachers’ knowledge: the development of narrative authority through knowledge communities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(6), 667–684.
34. Pillen, M., Beijaard, D., & den Brok, P. (2013). Tensions in beginning teachers professional identity development, accompanying feelings and coping strategies. European Journal of Teacher Education, 36, 240-260.
35. Rodgers, C. R., & Scott, K. H. (2008). The development of the personal self and professional identity in learning to teach. Handbook of Research on Teacher Education (pp. 732–755). New York: Macmillan.
36. Rodrigues, F., & Mogarro, M.J. (2019, online version). Student teachers' professional identity: A review of reseaech contributions. Educational Research Review, 1-13.
37. Schaefer, L., & Clandinin, D.J. (2019). Sustaining teachers' stories to live by: implications for teacher education. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 25, 54-68.
38. Vähäsantanen, K., & Billett, S. (2008). Negotiating professional identity: Vocational teachers’ personal strategies in a reform context. In S. Billett, C. Harteis & A. Eteläpelto (Eds.), Emerging perspectives of workplace learning (pp. 35-49). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
39. Vähäsantanen, K., & Eteläpelto, A. (2009). Vocational teachers in the face of a major educational reform: individual ways of negotiating professional identities. Journal of Education and Work, 22(1), 15–33.
40. Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P.K., Paloniemi, S. (2020). University teachers’ professional identity work and emotions in the context of an arts-based identity coaching program. In L. McKay, G. Barton, S. Garvis & V. Sappa (Eds.), Arts-based research, resilience and well-being across the lifespan (pp. 233-256). Cham: Palgrave Mamillan.
41. Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P.K., Paloniemi, S., Herranen, S., & Eteläpelto, A. (2017). Professional learning and agency in an identity coaching programme. Professional Development in Education, 43, 514-536.
42. van der Want, A. C., den Brok, P., Beijaard, D., Brekelmans, M., Claessens, L. C. A., & Pennings, H. J. M. (2015). Teachers’ Interpersonal Role Identity. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 59(4), 424–442.
43. Wubbels, T., den Brok, P. , van Tartwijk, J., & Levy, J. (2012). Interpersonal Relationships in Education: An overview of contemporary research. Rotterdam/Boston/Taipei: Sense Publishers.
44. Zembylas, M. (2003). Emotions and Teacher Identity: A poststructural perspective. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 9(3), 213–238.