ecologize teacher identity

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Teacher identity

research question: How do teachers construct their identity

in order to be happy in their job?What can junior teachers learn from them?

Rudy Vandamme (BE)

[email protected]

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Education development is not a linear process to replace teacher-centered education by student-centered education, but to value all possiblities of the learning context, e.g. to construct education as a context of relationships and a platform for development.

NOT student-centeredNOT teacher-centeredNOT knowledge-centered

BUT relationship centered and development centered

Our vision on education development

3The Dialogical Self theory, Hubert Hermans

I as teacher I as student

Self as monolithic


My knowledge

My partner

My students

Students

I as transferring knowledge

I as in search for recognition

I as coach

Dialogue

Extended Self

Books

School

Dialogical Self

Dialogical Self


My knowledge My students

My teacher

I as exploring worlds

I as ambitious

I as student

I as transferring knowledge

I as in search for recognition

I as teacher

I as creative I as detached from education

The interaction between the dialogical self of the teachers and the dialogical self of students

6Research method: understanding teachers with the PPR and interview

• PPR = Personal Position Repertoire (Hermans), online instrument• Dialogue/interview• Professional (non-academic) higher education• 4 different schools (nurse, social work, HRM, communication)• 14 teachers:

– 3 men, 11 women– 4 young (< 5 years), 10 senior (> 10years)

• Procedure:– In every school one contact person who motivates the colleagues to

collaborate.– An opening email with a word doc attached, to frame the research and

to prepare for the online PPR.– Online PPR– Interview with each teacher (1,5 hour)– Dialogue amongst us (Erica & Rudy)

7PPR: choosen repertoire

INTERNAL I-POSTIONS

I as expert

I as facilitator

I as responsable

I as passionated

I as structuring

I as teacher

I as student

I as artist

I as narrator

I as knowledge transfer

I as colleague

I as role model

I as evaluator

I as researcher

I as developer of knowledge

I as I am

I as I should be

EXTERNAL I-POSITIONS

My partner

My father

My mother

My children

My students from class 1



My sister/brother

My colleagues

God

My best friend

Somebody who needs help

The world

A teacher who is an example for me

De schoolleader

+ 5 EXTRA+ 5 EXTRA

8Online PPR

9Raw data of the PPR

I as...

My...students

Internal positions

External positions

10Hierarchy of positions

11Correlations

12Some quantitative conclusions: hierarchy

10/12 teachers has strongest activation for I as I am

10/12 teachers indicatie lowest activation I as I have to be in school

Low internal: I as student, I as researcher, I as ego

High external: students (3 classes)

Low internal: world, God

Conclusions:

1.Typical for a teacher is to have a strong sense of being present ‘this is me’. They pace themselves in contrast with the school demands.

2.Teachers are very sensitive to connection with students! ‘their students’.

3.Doing co-creative research with students in placements, and contributing to the content professional community (writing a paper) is rare.

4.Teachers see themselves as translaters of knowledge from academic to professional context and helping their students to find their way through the learning career.

13Some quantitative conclusions: correlations

The half of the sample (6teachers) shows a positive correlation between I as teacher and I as expert, knowledge transmission, rolemodel, evaluator BUT also I as developer of knowledge and not with being a researcher.

High correlations between the three classes > Teachers tend to do the same approach in different classes.

Only in one case there was a positive correlation between I as teacher and I as artist.

14Discussion quantitative research

1.I positions are highly subjectively interpreted by teachers doing the PPR. Correlations are very unique for each teacher. It is not possible to generalise on a small sample. Each unique correlation profile has to be interpreted in dialogue with the teacher to become meaningful.

I as student - ‘no, I am not’ >> I as learning - ‘yes, always’

I as teacher - ‘yes, although I am a trainer, I still have a responsability’

I as Developer of knowledge - ‘yes I rewrite my syllabus every year’

I as researcher - ‘no, I am not working at university level’

I as artist - ‘no, I am not painting or sculpting’

I as coach - ‘yes and no’

2.The choice of I positions determines the outcome.

3.They have to learn to think ‘PPR’; it requires introspection.

4.Is it behaviour or narrative?

5.Is it created at the moment itself or is it a description?

6.Some connections are stupid, e.g. I as coach - a beloved person who is dead.

15Further research vistas

1.Finding a way defining I positions in a less intepretative way.

2.Reducing external positions, related to the goal under study.

3.Enlarge it to a general mapping of personality.

4.Taking a representative sample so that an individual or smaller sample can be compared with statistical obtained averages.

5.Using the instrument as a starting point or an in between point in a dialogical inquiry.

6.Using the instrument as an educational tool for teachers.

SOCIAL ROLESI as teacher in a schoolI as father of childrenI as researcher at university

PSYCHOSOCIAL POSITIONSI as your teacherI as a fatherlike personI as a researcher in life

VALUATIONSTeachingParentinginquiryingChildisch

16Interview questions

Interpreting data: What do you mean by...How are you doing education in classroom?From your biography, what is the psychosocial equivalent of being a teacher?How are you supporting the personal development (18years old) of the students?What challenges do you encounter in your own positioning?How do you develop knowledge through the interaction with students?

Dialogues

17From valuation (SCM) to I-position

Transcript

interview

Valuations

PersonalPosition Repertoire

I as

18Patterns in identity construction

1.Connect preferred I-position to the job.Ex. A teacher’s preferred I position is to have newness in the situation.

2.Add a pedagogical identity position to your repertoire.Ex. King, queen, mother, father, wise.

3.Integrate your wierd personality features into your teaching style.Ex. Being from a lower social class and being rebellious.

>> Lessons for juniors !

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I standing in front prima donna

Students

My choir

School

I trying new things

I, conductor

?I as teacher

I, creative organizerI

I, in contact

Conflicting preferred I-positions

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My PhD

I am a researcher

I like playingI am a creator

My students

Academiccommunity

Professional community

Knowledge

products

I, researching

I

I, King

I, feminine I, child

+

I am a teacher

Academic researcher

Knowledge creation as part of higher professional education

Neighboring pattern

21Some qualitative conclusions: composition teacher PV

I as teacher - structure, strict ‘they are sponges’

X

I as mother - caring, loving ‘I see it all’

X

I as passionate - I want them to think for themselves

X

I as story teller

X

I as physican - students asking medical questions about themselves

X

I as coach - listening to individual questions

X

I as being aware of my pedagogical role - I as role model (‘see, this behavior is possible’)

Nurse school, Teacher Physiology, anatomy

My students are my sponges

I admit I am not developing knowledge;The content doesn’t fit

with the idea of co-creation

22Some qualitative conclusions: composition teacher MdR

I as king - man, structure, giving direction

X

I as going for connection - woman, recognition,

X

I as Child - creative, playing, visualising ideas

X

I as producing creative result - integration of intership based data

Management, Teacher Human resources

I use my student to feed my own creative challenges.

Knowledge creation is the core of higher education;

integrating internship of students

23Some qualitative conclusions: composition teacher CR

I as structuring - prestructured shedule

X

I as facilitator - giving materials

X

I as confronting them - ‘I go into it’, ‘hé what is happening here’, ‘be authentic’

X

I as giving space - sitting back

I know now better how to arrange education in orderto arrive at the learning

outcomes

Trainer communcation for teachers course

Knowledge creation is applied knowledge

24Some conclusion

1.In general ‘structure’ and ‘connection’ will be present in any teacher’s profile. These positions are mixed in a way that brings together contradictory values of each (educational and humanistic).

2.Senior teachers can be succesful in different ways. Co-creation and knowledge development are not necessary to be a succesful teacher.

3.To be able to co-create knowledge development a teacher needs besides the general educational I positions (structure & connection ) a specific I position of creative knowledge development.

25Discussion qualitative research

1. Doing only one interview gives as endresult an assesment. It is not enough to obtain data and categorize them. The researcher is out of dialogue.

2. Positions are sometimes explicit, sometimes not at all. It is artificial to speak about ‘I as ...’ if the person has just a feeling of doing something. - ‘Well if you insist, you can call it a position’.

3. I took the perspective of understanding teachers in how to manage the multiplicity of their job. It was difficult to keep in mind the reference of my research question. Is it possible to combine an understanding modus with a testing modus?

26Further research vistas

1.Feedback the results to the teachers and discuss with them a mapping of there personality profile as teacher.

2.Doing a SCM with the material.

3.Looking for behavioral based patterning of I positions.

4.Starting with a general mapping of the dialogical self with a interview based agreement on the repertoire.

5.Using a developmental perspective to obtain a better inside in internal conflicts.

6.How can we study the open space (in between position) idea in the dialogical self?

7.Using constellation work to understand the relational field between teacher-students-knowledge.

8.How can we study deeper meanings of the presence of the ‘I as student modus’, discussed in literature as the necessary condition to connect with students?

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