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Tensions in beginning teachers’professional identity development,accompanying feelings and copingstrategiesMarieke Pillenab, Douwe Beijaarda & Perry den Broka

a Eindhoven School of Education, Eindhoven University ofTechnology, Eindhoven, Netherlands.b Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Eindhoven, Netherlands.Published online: 05 Jul 2012.

To cite this article: Marieke Pillen, Douwe Beijaard & Perry den Brok (2013) Tensions in beginningteachers’ professional identity development, accompanying feelings and coping strategies,European Journal of Teacher Education, 36:3, 240-260, DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2012.696192

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Tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development,accompanying feelings and coping strategies

Marieke Pillena,b*, Douwe Beijaarda and Perry den Broka

aEindhoven School of Education, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven,Netherlands; bFontys University of Applied Sciences, Eindhoven, Netherlands

This study examined tensions encountered by 182 beginning teachers duringtheir professional identity development, the feelings that accompanied these ten-sions and the ways they tried to cope with these. Professional identity tensionsstem from an unbalanced personal and professional side of (becoming) a tea-cher. Tensions that are often mentioned by beginning teachers concerned con-flicts between what they desire and what is possible in reality. Female teachersreported more tensions than their male colleagues, while final-year studentteachers did not differ from first-year in-practice teachers in the number of ten-sions they experienced. Tensions were often accompanied by feelings of help-lessness, anger or an awareness of shortcomings. Most beginning teachers triedto cope with their tensions by speaking to their significant others or by search-ing for a solution themselves. Insights into professional identity tensions experi-enced by beginning teachers are important in order to form a betterunderstanding of the support they need.

Keywords: tensions; beginning teachers; professional identity (development);emotions; coping

1. Introduction

Research in the domain of teaching and teacher education increasingly emphasizesthe importance of teacher identity (e.g. Beauchamp and Thomas 2009; Beijaard, Mei-jer, and Verloop 2004; Olsen 2008, 2010). Since teacher identity, or professionalidentity, has evolved into a specific research area in the last two decades, severalresearchers have tried to conceptualise and characterise teachers’ professional identity(e.g. Akkerman and Meijer 2011; Beijaard 1995; Lamote and Engels 2010; Mockler2011; Rodgers and Scott 2008) and how teachers develop this identity (e.g. Coldronand Smith 1999; Cooper and Olson 1996; Czerniawski 2011; Flores and Day 2006;Schepens, Aelterman, and Vlerick 2009; Trent 2011).

In literature on teachers’ professional identity, a distinction can be perceivedbetween a practical point of view, using professional identity as a resource forteachers to make sense of themselves in relation to others and the world aroundthem (MacLure 1993) and a more theoretical point of view, in which professionalidentity is considered as an analytic lens that is helpful to better analyze and inves-tigate the work and life of becoming and being a teacher (Beauchamp and Thomas2009; Olsen 2008, 2011; Rodgers and Scott 2008).

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

European Journal of Teacher Education, 2013Vol. 36, No. 3, 240–260, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2012.696192

� 2013 Association for Teacher Education in Europe

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Developing a professional identity is very important to become a successfulteacher (Olsen 2010). The process of learning to teach is not only a very com-plex matter (McLean 1999), especially since the teaching profession is constantlychanging, it is also a very personal process. Becoming a teacher means, amongother things, deciding how to express oneself in the classroom and how to adaptpersonal understandings and ideals to institutional demands (Carter and Doyle1996). Teachers should, thus, develop a sense of professional identity so thatthey will be able to ‘incorporate their personal subjectivities into the profes-sional/cultural expectations of what it means to be a teacher’ (Alsup 2006, 27).Developing a professional identity involves finding a balance between the per-sonal and professional side of becoming and being a teacher (Lipka and Brin-thaupt 1999). In the present study, we presume that many (beginning) teachersexperience tensions as a result of shaping their professional identity: if the per-sonal and professional side of (becoming) a teacher are not in balance, then‘what is found relevant to the profession may conflict with the personal desiresfrom teachers and what they experience as good’ (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop2004, 109). Such conflicts may emerge as tensions in the professional identityof (beginning) teachers and cause internal struggles concerning an undesirablesituation. For beginning teachers such tensions can be real dilemmas (Volkmannand Anderson 1998) when they feel as if they have to make a choice betweenequally undesirable alternatives (Berube 1982).

It is expected that particularly beginning teachers will experience professionalidentity tensions. Firstly, the period of transition from student to teacher is often a‘struggle’ for (a great number of) beginning teachers, which usually remains invisi-ble to their teacher educators and mentors or colleagues in schools (Flores 2004;Kelchtermans and Ballet 2002). We assume that this ‘struggle’ may be caused by orlead to tensions. Secondly, the interaction between the personal and the professionalside of becoming and being a teacher is a dynamic and very complex process forbeginning teachers and influenced by many occurrences, practices and people(Olsen 2008). Many influences in this process may be experienced as competing orconflicting and, at least to some extent, cause or lead to professional identity ten-sions.

In this study, final-year student teachers and first-year in-practice teachers partic-ipated. Both will be referred to as beginning teachers, since student teachers in theNetherlands spend a relatively large amount of time in practice schools during tea-cher education. In their last year of teacher education, they operate, in most cases,as ‘responsible and independent’ teachers.

This study aims to contribute to understanding what tensions beginning teachersexperience in their professional identity development, including the accompanyingfeelings and ways of coping. Beginning teachers’ professional identity tensions thathave been described in the literature were taken as a starting point for the study(e.g. Lampert 1985; Smagorinsky et al. 2004; Volkmann and Anderson 1998).Based on this literature and interviews with beginning teachers about their tensions,a questionnaire was developed in order to obtain more information regarding theirprofessional identity tensions. Insights into these tensions may be relevant to teachereducators and mentor teachers in schools so that they may better understand andconceptualise the support that student teachers and beginning teachers need (Volk-mann and Anderson 1998).

European Journal of Teacher Education 241

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2. Theoretical background

2.1. Teachers’ professional identity

Researchers who study teachers’ professional identity seem to agree that profes-sional identity is not a stable entity, but rather a continually changing, dynamic,active and ongoing process, developing over time and influenced by the teacher’sown personal characteristics, learning history and prior experiences, on the onehand, and professional contexts, including significant others, knowledge, skills andattitudes that are found relevant by teacher educators, on the other (see e.g.Beauchamp and Thomas 2009; Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004; Cooper andOlson 1996; Flores and Day 2006; Hong 2010; Olsen 2010, 2011; Schepens, Ael-terman, and Vlerick 2009). Generally speaking, no agreement exists on what shapesa teacher’s professional identity. This particularly pertains to the various ways inwhich professional identity is being conceptualised in the literature on teaching andteacher education (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004) and how it is beingemployed as a tool to study teachers’ professional development.

Regarding the conceptualisation of teachers’ professional identity, Klaassen, Beij-aard, and Kelchtermans (1999), for instance, mention three perspectives: a social per-spective, which focuses on the changing conditions in the teaching profession, acognitive perspective, which merely focuses on the underlying processes and struc-tures of teachers’ thinking and teacher(s’ practical) knowledge, and a biographical per-spective, which adds to, and integrates with, the social and cognitive perspective.From a psychological perspective, Akkerman and Meijer (2011) use theory of dialogi-cal self to conceptualise teachers’ (professional) identity. They state that teachers’identity is both unitary and multiple, both continuous and discontinuous and both indi-vidual and social. Vähäsantanen et al. (2008) take the view that professional identityis the interplay between individual agency and social context, reasoning from a social-psychological perspective, while Lasky (2005) uses a sociocultural approach to under-stand the interplay among teacher identity, structure and agency. In order to gaininsight in the way teachers acquire their professional identities, Coldron and Smith(1999) draw on social theory and philosophy. They perceive teacher identity as partlygiven and partly achieved by active location in social space. Volkmann and Anderson(1998) used a hermeneutic phenomenological perspective, understanding professionalidentity formation as an interaction between the teacher’s professional and personalidentity. A different kind of, but often occurring, perspective on teachers’ professionalidentity is the narrative perspective. Several researchers presume that narratives, sto-ries or talks shape or construct a teacher’s professional identity (e.g. Atkinson 2004;Cohen 2008; Olsen 2008). Comparable is the work of Alsup (2006), who studiedteachers’ identity development through various types of discourse, as well as the workof Sutherland, Howard, and Markauskaite (2010) about the importance of reflection inteachers’ professional identity creation. All these different perspectives show thatteachers’ professional identity is differently understood and highlights a number ofdifferent aspects (e.g. narratives, discourse, reflection) that are found relevant in thedevelopment of professional identity. In addition, different terms are also used for theconcept of professional identity or even as a substitute. For example, professionalidentity is often linked to the concept of self (e.g. Lipka and Brinthaupt 1999; Nias1989), self-image (e.g. Beijaard 1995; Knowles 1992; Sutherland, Howard, and Mark-auskaite 2010), roles that teachers can take (e.g. Goodson and Cole 1994; Volkmannand Anderson 1998) or multiple identities (e.g. Cooper and Olson 1996).

242 M. Pillen et al.

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While researchers view teachers’ professional identity from different perspec-tives and put emphasis on different aspects of the concept, it always seems toinvolve the interaction between the teacher as a person and the teacher as a pro-fessional, operating in a particular (educational) context (Beijaard, Meijer, andVerloop 2004; Day et al. 2007; Sleegers and Kelchtermans 1999). As such, it isa concept that covers the complexity of becoming and being a teacher and thatcan be useful as a theoretical frame or lens to study this interaction (Olsen2011). In the next section, the focus of the present study is explained on thebasis of this interaction.

2.2. Tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development

In the present study, we make use of a social-psychological perspective onbeginning teachers’ professional identity tensions, in which professional identitydevelopment is seen as the process of integrating one’s personal knowledge,beliefs, attitudes, norms and values, on the one hand, and professional demandsfrom teacher education institutes and schools, including broadly accepted valuesand standards about teaching, on the other (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004).Developing one’s professional identity, then, involves finding a balance betweenthe personal and professional side of becoming and being a teacher (Alsup2006; Lipka and Brinthaupt 1999; Olsen 2010; Volkmann and Anderson 1998).If both sides of (becoming) a teacher are not in balance or if the connectionbetween teachers’ personal subjectivities/ideologies and their professional selvescannot be made (Alsup 2006, 37), then ‘what is found relevant to the professionmay conflict with the personal desires from teachers and what they experienceas good’ (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004, 109). Such conflicts emerge astensions in the professional identity of (beginning) teachers. In turn, these ten-sions cause internal struggles concerning an undesirable situation. For example,in the work of Olsen (2010) on the development of teacher identity, one studentteacher experienced a tension about reconciling her prior and personal experi-ences with the professional aspects of teacher education. She conceived teachingin a teacher-centred or traditional way, while the university programme asked fora more student-centred approach, in which, for instance, cooperative learningwas emphasised and lecturing was rejected (see also Smagorinsky et al. 2004).The student teacher struggled with these seemingly contradictory approaches.Although she started to realise that the two approaches did not have to bemutually exclusive, she did not find a solution for this tension, but had to finda way to cope with it. Trying to reconcile her prior conceptions of teachingwith the newer ones she learned was emotionally difficult for her.

Some professional identity tensions can be characterised as real dilemmaswhen beginning teachers feel as if they have to make a decision betweenequally undesirable alternatives (Berube 1982). An example of such a dilemmawas described by Volkmann and Anderson (1998), who aimed at discovering thenature of the creation of a beginning chemistry teacher’s professional identity.One of this teacher’s dilemmas was that she still felt like a student, but wasseen by her students and colleagues as a ‘real’ adult teacher (299). She feltcaught between two worlds.


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2.3. A search for tensions in literature

In order to obtain a comprehensive overview of possible tensions in beginningteachers’ professional identity development, a variety of research literature in thefield of teaching education, nursing education and education in social work wasstudied. It seemed that the tensions encountered by beginning nurses and beginningsocial workers were similar to those experienced by beginning teachers (Kälvemarket al. 2004; Richards, Ruch, and Trevithick 2005). The three domains are all socialprofessions in which professionals, in one way or another, serve other people.

It should be acknowledged that the tensions derived from the literature wereoften not conceptualised from a professional identity perspective by the originalauthors, but were interpreted by us as such (e.g. Kälvemark et al. 2004; Katz andRaths 1992) because they met the needs of a conflict between personal and profes-sional desires of teachers. The following list of 13 tensions was derived from theliterature. Although a substantial amount of literature was studied, we do not claimthe list to be exhaustive:

(1) Feeling like a student versus being expected to act like an adult teacher.Beginning teachers may still feel like a student on the inside, but they areexpected by students (and colleagues) to behave like ‘real’ teachers and asadults (Fuller and Bown 1975; Volkmann and Anderson 1998).

(2) Wanting to care for students versus being expected to be tough. Beginningteachers may feel that taking control of the class might sacrifice the closerelationship they wish to have with students (Fuller and Bown 1975; Shapi-ra-Lishchinsky 2011; Volkmann and Anderson 1998).

(3) Feeling incompetent in terms of knowledge versus being expected to be anexpert. Students expect beginning teachers to be experts (in their subject)while they themselves feel that they are not and that they still have much tolearn (Fuller and Bown 1975; Katz and Raths 1992; Volkmann and Anderson1998).

(4) Experiencing a discrepancy between one’s own, usually implicit, lay theoriesand theories that are relevant to the teaching profession. Tacit or unarticu-lated lay theories (Sugrue 1997) about teaching and learning influence theways in which student teachers respond to teacher education (Bullough1991) and process practical experiences (Holt-Reynolds 1992). These laytheories, regarding what teachers personally desire and experience as correct,may be in conflict with theories that are seen by others as relevant to theteaching profession (Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop 2004).

(5) Experiencing conflicts between one’s own and others’ orientations regardinglearning to teach. Student teachers and mentors, for example, may differ interms of how one should learn the teaching profession (Alsup 2006; Rajuan,Beijaard, and Verloop 2007).

(6) Being exposed to contradictory institutional attitudes. Student teachers haveto deal with both their university (teacher education institute) and the prac-tice school. These different institutions may ask for contradictory attitudestowards teaching and learning from student teachers (Hatch 1993; Olsen2010; Smagorinsky et al. 2004).

(7) Wanting to invest time in practicing teaching versus feeling pressuredto invest time in other tasks that are part of the teaching profession. When


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beginning teachers want to accomplish all their tasks to the best of their abil-ity, they often feel that they do not have enough time (Fuller and Bown1975; Kälvemark et al. 2004).

(8) Wanting to respect students’ integrity versus feeling the need to work againstthis integrity. Beginning teachers may be taken into confidence by one oftheir students. This situation becomes difficult when they are forced todecide whether to respect this student’s integrity or to act against it, whendoing this seems necessary in order to protect the student or other people(Kälvemark et al. 2004; Shapira-Lishchinsky 2011).

(9) Experiencing conflicting loyalties towards students and colleagues. Conflict-ing loyalties may be experienced by a beginning teacher when a studenttakes him/her into confidence regarding a colleague (Kälvemark et al. 2004;Shapira-Lishchinsky 2011).

(10) Wanting to treat pupils as persons as a whole versus feeling the need to treatthem as learners (or vice versa). If beginning teachers have not (yet) devel-oped a clear perception of how they view students, it makes it hard to decidewhether to treat students as persons as a whole or as learners (Berlak andBerlak 1981).

(11) Experiencing difficulties in maintaining an emotional distance. Beginningteachers may be closely involved in the lives of their students (Veenman1984) as they want to show their students that they care about them. Thiscould possibly make it difficult for beginning teachers to distance themselvesemotionally; at the same time, however, in order to ‘survive,’ they experi-ence the need for this distance (Fuller and Bown 1975).

(12) Experiencing difficulties regarding approaches to teaching. Teachers can, forexample, adhere to a content-centered or a learning-centered approach toteaching (Kember and Kwan 2000). If beginning teachers lack a frame ofreference regarding what a teacher should know and do, this makes it diffi-cult for them to position themselves as teachers with a certain curriculumwithin the school.

(13) Misconceived career perspectives about the teaching profession. If studentteachers hold misconceived views of the teaching profession, teaching maynot appear to be what they are looking for, which makes it difficult to con-tinue their study (Rajuan, Beijaard, and Verloop 2007).

Considering this list of tensions, some can be considered as real dilemmas, whileothers are more constraints. Experiencing them may be serious, emotional mattersthat beginning teachers have to cope with.

2.4. Tensions: emotions and coping

According to the examples of the beginning teachers given above (see section 2.2),tensions can be very serious and may have a great influence on beginning teachers’learning and functioning. For beginning teachers, coping with their situation is emo-tionally difficult. Feelings are an inherent part of teaching anyway (Hargreaves2005; Kelchtermans 2005; Olsen 2010). Nias (1996) argues that the emotional reac-tions of teachers to their work are connected to the views that they have of them-selves and others. Therefore, emotions play an important role in an individual’sexperience of tensions (e.g. Volkmann and Anderson 1998). Due to the fact that


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tensions can be considered as very stressful for beginning teachers, it seems naturalthat they are accompanied by negative feelings (Flores 2004; Kelchtermans andBallet 2002). Since there is no (easy) solution for many tensions either, beginningteachers need to learn to cope with them. Coping is making an effort to manage atroubled person-environment relationship and implies that teachers appraise theirtensions (Admiraal, Korthagen, and Wubbels 2000). In the relevant literature, awide variety of ways in which teachers may respond to work-related stress can befound (Davis, Petish, and Smithey 2006; Yonemura 1986). Admiraal, Korthagen,and Wubbels (2000), for example, followed on from the work of Lazarus and Folk-man (1984) by distinguishing between emotion-focused coping behaviour and prob-lem-focused coping behaviour. Emotion-focused coping behaviour is influenced bypersonality factors and is likely to occur when beginning teachers assume that envi-ronmental conditions cannot be modified. They may respond, for example, withavoidance tactics, minimisation, distancing or selective attention. Problem-focusedcoping behaviour is more dependent on the context and is related to problem-solv-ing strategies. Beginning teachers may define their problem, speak to significantothers or search for alternative solutions, then take action (Admiraal, Korthagen,and Wubbels 2000). In this study, we assume that both types of coping behaviourare used by beginning teachers in order to deal with their tensions.

Several factors may affect teachers’ perceptions of and ways of coping with ten-sions. Therefore, it can be expected that variables relating to teachers’ backgroundsmay be of influence on experienced tensions, accompanying feelings and copingstrategies. However, the effect of such variables on (coping with) tensions hasbarely been investigated and has often been discussed implicitly (e.g. Kälvemarket al. 2004; Volkmann and Anderson 1998).

Based on the focus and theoretical framework of the present study, the followingresearch questions will be answered:

(1) What kinds of tensions do beginning teachers experience in their professionalidentity development?

(2) What feelings accompany beginning teachers’ experiences of tensions intheir professional identity development?

(3) What strategies do beginning teachers use in order to cope with the tensionsthat occur in their professional identity development?

(4) How are the tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity develop-ment related to the background variables of gender, age, teacher educationand teaching experience?

3. Methods

3.1. Instruments

In order to map beginning teachers’ professional identity tensions, their feelings andcoping strategies, a questionnaire was developed in several consecutive steps. Thefirst step consisted of a literature study regarding beginning teachers’ tensions. Thisresulted in a list of 13 professional identity tensions (see section 2.3), which servedas input for interviews with beginning teachers, which was the second step. A totalof 24 beginning teachers (12 final-year student teachers and 12 first-year in-practiceteachers, teaching in primary education, general secondary education or secondary


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vocational education) were interviewed about the tensions they experienced. Inter-views all lasted between one and one-and-a-half hours and started with questionsabout the participants’ backgrounds, such as their gender, type of teacher educationand teaching subject. After an explanation of what constituted a ‘tension’, the inter-view continued with an open question about a tension that the interviewee hadexperienced. If interviewees had difficulties recalling a tension, an example was pre-sented. The interview continued with semi-structured questions about the cause andnature of the tensions. The third step comprised a comparison between the tensionsthat were derived from the literature and those that were mentioned by the intervie-wees. Of the 13 tensions that were found in the literature, 9 were also regularlymentioned by the interviewees. Four tensions from the literature (tension 4, 9, 12and 13, see section 2.3) were not at all, or only rarely, recognised by the intervie-wees. They were, therefore, not included in the final list of tensions that was usedfor the questionnaire. Interviewees also mentioned tensions that were not found inthe literature as such. When these newly formulated tensions were mentioned by atleast two of the interviewees, they were added to the final list. Table 1 shows thefour newly formulated tensions, including the corresponding statements that wereused in the questionnaire to propose the tensions to the participants. See Table 2 foran overview of the complete and final list of, again 13, tensions that was used forthe questionnaire.

The last step was the development of the questionnaire.1 The first part of thequestionnaire comprised questions about the background variables of gender, age,teaching experience and teacher education. By making use of statements (see Table 1for examples), all 13 tensions were presented in the second part of the question-naire. For each of the 13 tensions, the respondents were asked about the extent towhich they recognised their own experiences in the tension, making use of a four-point Likert scale (1 = not at all and 4 = very much). If they did not recognisethemselves in a tension, they were asked to continue on to the next one. If they didrecognise themselves in the tension, they were asked to report the feelings that theyassociated with it. Beginning teachers were offered a choice between the followingfeelings: helplessness, an awareness of shortcomings, anger, insecurity/doubt, notbeing taken seriously, lacking motivation, frustration, discomfort, resignation, beingfed up or being pushed. The wording of these feelings was based on the interviews.The opportunity was given for the teachers to indicate more than one feeling. Foreach tension, the respondents were also asked to report the strategy that they hadused in order to cope with this tension. A choice was given between: (1) searchingfor a solution yourself, (2) asking for help by speaking about the tension with a sig-nificant other (e.g. teacher educator, mentor or another student), (3) receiving helpwithout taking initiative or (4) putting up with the situation. These strategies werederived from the literature (see section 2.3), but their wording was inspired by theresults of the interviews.

3.2. Sample

Letters were sent to the directors of eight teacher education institutes in the Nether-lands: five for primary education, two for secondary education and one for voca-tional education. All were willing to cooperate in the distribution of thequestionnaires among their final-year student teachers and graduates (first-yearin-practice teachers, who had graduated during the previous year). For each of the


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institutes, a contact person was assigned to distribute the questionnaire at the end ofthe school year (May–June 2009).

Table 3 gives an overview of the respondents and the distribution of the type ofteacher education and teaching experience they had, as well as their gender. Theirage ranged from 20 to 59, with an average of 27.5 years old.

3.3. Data analysis

In order to answer the first three research questions regarding the types of tensions,accompanying feelings and coping strategies, a frequency analysis was conducted. Inorder to answer the final research question regarding the relationship between tensionsand background variables, an analysis of variance was used. For the background variableage, the beginning teachers were divided into three age groups: 20–24 years old, 25–29years old and 30 years or older. Post-hoc Scheffé tests were conducted in order to investi-gate which particular variable categories had significantly different results.

Table 1. Professional identity tensions, newly formulated by the interviewees, andcorresponding statements that were used in the questionnaire.

Professional identity tensions mentionedby the interviewees Corresponding statements

Wanting to invest in a private life versusfeeling pressured to spend time andenergy on work

‘Mara wants to perform well in her teaching job,but she also wants to be there for her family/room mates. She does not know how to divideher time properly.’(Private life versus Work)

Feeling treated like a student versuswanting to take responsibility as ateacher

‘Alex is a student teacher in his last year ofteacher education. He feels that he is treated toomuch like a student teacher, while he should bepreparing for being an independent teacher nextyear. Alex is unsure of what to do. He wants tostand up for himself and be treated seriously. Atthe same time he does not want to be tooobtrusive, because he is still a student.

(Wanting responsibility)

Feeling dependent on a mentor (colleague/supervisor) versus wanting to go yourown way in teaching

‘Carry feels that she is very dependent on hermentor. He forces her to teach in a way thatdoes not match her own way of teaching. Shelikes to experiment and wishes there was anotherway of dealing with her students other than asher mentor does. On the other hand, she wantsto listen to her mentor, because she is dependenton him regarding her assessments.’

(Mentor versus Own way)

Feeling like a peer versus wanting to takeresponsibility as a teacher

‘Tess takes responsibility for her students, but atthe same time she is close to the students,because of her age. She likes to have some funwith them in the classroom and also meetsstudents when she goes out. She experiencesdifficulties regarding the role she needs to takeinside and outside the school with regard to herstudents. She wants to have some fun with them,but is aware of her responsibilities as a teacher.’

(Peer versus Teacher)


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Table2.

Professionalidentitytensions

inorderof

frequencyof

occurrence

inpercentagesandtheextent

towhich

beginningteachers

recognised

them

selves

inthetensions.

Professionalidentitytensions

Percentageof

beginning

teachers

who

experienced

thistension

Extentto

which

beginningteachers

recognised

them

selves

inthetensions

Meanscore(SD)⁄

Wantin

gto

care

forstudentsversus

beingexpected

tobe

tough(Careversus

Tough)

60.4

3.11

(.67)

Wantin

gto

investin

aprivatelifeversus

feelingpressuredto

spendtim

eand

energy

onwork(Private

lifeversus

Work)

36.3

3.18

(.66)

Experiencingconfl

ictsbetweenone’sow

nandothers’orientations

regarding

learning

toteach(Conflictin

gorientations)

33.5

3.20

(.58)

Feelin

gincompetent

interm

sof

know

ledgeversus

beingexpected

tobe

anexpert(Incom

petent

versus

Expert)

26.9

2.70

(.70)

Experiencingdifficulties

inmaintaining

anem

otionaldistance

(Emotional

distance)

26.9

3.38

(.61)

Wantin

gto

investtim

ein

practicingteaching

versus

feelingpressuredto

invest

timein

othertasksthat

arepartof

theteaching

profession

(Teachingversus

Other

tasks)

25.8

3.64

(.57)

Wantin

gto

treatpupilsas

personsas

awhole

versus

feelingtheneed

totreat

them

aslearners

(orvice

versa)

(Studentsas

awhole

versus

Learners)

23.6

3.00

(.62)

Feelin

gdependenton

amentor(colleague/supervisor)versus

wantin

gto

goyour

ownway

inteaching

(Mentorversus

Ownway)

20.9

3.03

(.76)

Wantin

gto

respectstudents’integrity

versus

feelingtheneed

toworkagainst

thisintegrity

(Respect

integrity)

17.6

2.90

(.70)

Feelin

glik

eastudentversus

beingexpected

toactlik

ean

adultteacher

(Student

versus

Teacher)

16.5

2.76

(.64)

Feelin

glik

eapeer

versus

wantin

gto

take

responsibilityas

ateacher(Peer

versus

Teacher)

15.4

3.00

(.68)

Being

exposedto

contradictoryinstitu

tionalattitudes

(Contradictory

attitudes)

13.2

2.91

(.60)

Feelin

gtreatedlik

eastudentversus

wantin

gto

take

responsibilityas

ateacher

(Wantin

gresponsibility)

8.8

2.94

(.68)

Totalmean

25.0

3.06

Note:

⁄Meanscores

rang

ebetween2and4.


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Table

3.Distributionof

respondentsin

term

sof

teachereducation,

teaching

experience

andgender.

Primary

(teacher)

education

Secondary

(teacher)

education

Vocational

(teacher)

education

Total

Beginning

teachers

Gender

n%

n%

n%

n%

Final-yearstudentteachers

Male

42.2

137.1

73.8

2413.1

Fem

ale

5128.0

2915.9

42.2

8446.1

First-yearin-practiceteachers

Male

42.2

73.8

105.5

2111.5

Fem

ale

3117.0

189.9

42.2

5329.1

Total

9049.4

6736.7

2513.7

182

99.8

⁄

Note:

⁄Due

toroun

ding

,thetotalisno

t10

0%.


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Table

4.Feelin

gsthat

accompanied

professional

identitytensions

inorderof

occurrence

in(the

rangeof)percentagesandin

term

sof

thetensions

forwhich

afeelingwas

associated

with

mostoften.

Feelin

gs(from

mostfrequently

reported

toleastfrequently

reported)

Total

frequencies

across

alltensions

%Range%

Tension

that

afeelingwas

associated

with

mostoften⁄

Feelin

ghelpless

17.5

1.9–22.3

Studentversus

Teacher;

Careversus

Tough;

Incompetent

versus

Expert;Respect

integrity;Studentsas

awhole

versus

Learners

Emotionaldistance,Wantin

gresponsibility,

Mentorversus

Own

way

Feelin

gaw

areof

shortcom

ings

14.3

0.0–22.2

Con

flictin

gorientations;Contradictory

attitudes;Teachingversus

Other

tasks;Private

lifeversus

Work

Feelin

gangry

9.3

0.0–15.0

Contradictory

attitudes

Feelin

ginsecure/doubtful

9.1

1.5–21.2

Feelin

gthat

oneisnotbeingtaken

seriously

8.2

0.0–23.4

Lacking

inmotivation

8.1

0.8–16.4

Peerversus

Teacher

Feelin

gfrustrated

7.7

0.0–18.8

Feelin

guncomfortable

7.5

2.7–14.2

Feelin

gresigned

6.8

1.0–16.5

Feelin

gfedup

5.8

1.1–19.3

Feelin

glik

eoneisbeingpushed

2.9

0.0–22.7

Total

97.2⁄⁄

Notes:⁄The

abbreviatio

nsof

thetensions

canbe

foun

din

Table

2;⁄⁄

dueto

roun

ding

,thetotalisno

t10

0%.


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4. Results

4.1. Professional identity tensions experienced by beginning teachers

The number of tensions beginning teachers experienced in their professional identitydevelopment ranged between 0 and 11, with an average of 3.3. For each of the ten-sions, Table 2 shows the percentage of participants who experienced this tensionand the extent to which they recognised themselves in it. The tensions are displayedin order of how frequently they occurred.

Some tensions were recognised very often and others were not, but the extent towhich participants recognised themselves in the tensions also differed (see Table 2,second column). For example, ‘Feeling incompetent in terms of knowledge versusbeing expected to be an expert’ was recognised by 27% of the participants, while theextent to which beginning teachers recognised themselves in this tension was not sohigh (mean score = 2.70). ‘Wanting to invest time in practicing teaching versus feelingpressured to invest time in other tasks that are part of the teaching profession’ wasrecognised by fewer participants (26%), but received a relatively high score for theextent to which teachers recognised themselves in this tension (mean score = 3.64).

4.2. Feelings

Table 4 shows the feelings that beginning teachers reported in order of frequencyfor all of the tensions, in (the range of) percentages and in terms of the tensions thatthe feeling was associated with most often.

It is remarkable that for ‘Feeling like a peer versus wanting to take responsibil-ity as a teacher’ (Peer versus Student), most of the beginning teachers mentionedthat they had experienced a lack of motivation, while this feeling was not frequentlymentioned in relation to other tensions.

Table 5. Coping strategies used in order of occurrence in percentages and the tensions inrelation to which each coping strategy was reported most often.

Strategiesemployed

Total frequenciesacross alltensions%

Rangebetweentensions

%Tensions in relation to which eachstrategy was mentioned most often⁄

Speaking to asignificantother

48.4 25.0–69.1 Student versus Teacher; Care versusTough; Conflicting orientations;Contradictory attitudes; Teachingversus Other tasks; Respect integrity;Students as a whole versus Learners;Emotional distance; Private lifeversus Work; Mentor versus Own way

Searching for asolutionyourself

30.7 14.3–61.2 Incompetent versus Expert; Peerversus Teacher

Putting up withthe situation

18.9 3.1–26.7 Wanting responsibility

Receiving helpwithoutasking for it

0.9 0.0–4.5

Total 99.9⁄⁄

Notes: ⁄The abbreviations of the tensions can be found in Table 2; ⁄⁄ due to rounding, the total is not 100%.


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4.3. Coping strategies

Table 5 shows the coping strategies that were reported in percentages, ordered fromthat which occurred most frequently to that which occurred least frequently. Therange between the tensions in percentages and the tensions for which each strategywas mentioned most often are also shown.

A large percentage (61%) of the respondents indicated that they would searchfor a solution themselves as a way of dealing with ‘Feeling incompetent in terms ofknowledge versus being expected to be an expert’ (Incompetent versus Expert,range 14–61%) (see Table 5). To a smaller degree, this was also the case for ‘Feel-ing like a peer versus wanting to take responsibility as a teacher’ (Peer versus Tea-cher, 43%). It is possible that these two tensions were regarded as ‘sensitive’ andthat speaking with a significant other about it was not seen as an option. It isremarkable that for ‘Feeling treated like a student versus wanting to take responsi-bility as a teacher’ (Wanting responsibility), half of the respondents said that theywould put up with the situation, while for all the other tensions this strategy wasnever reported as the strategy used most often. This may possibly be explained bythe fact that final-year student teachers want to graduate, without any trouble withtheir mentor or one of their teacher educators.

4.4. Role of background variables

Looking at the background variables of gender, age, teaching experience and tea-cher education, only gender appeared to be of any importance regarding the numberof tensions experienced. Female teachers indicated that they recognised themselvesin more tensions (M = 3.4) than their male colleagues (M = 2.7). This differencewas statistically significant (F = 5.89, p < .05).

When looking at the tensions separately, none of the background variablesappeared to be statistically significantly associated with the degree to which respon-dents recognised themselves in the tensions. There was one exception: for ‘Feelinglike a peer versus wanting to take responsibility as a teacher’ (Peer versus Teacher),a statistically significant effect was found for age (F = 3.87, p = .023). A post-hocScheffé test suggested that this effect was caused by the difference between youngerteachers (20–24 years old) and older teachers (30 years or older), but that non-sig-nificant differences existed between the middle group (25–29 years old) and theother age categories.

5. Conclusion and discussion

5.1. Conclusions and interpretation

The top three of professional identity tensions experienced by beginning teachers inthis study were ‘Wanting to care for students, versus being expected to be tough’,‘Wanting to invest in a private life versus feeling pressured to spend time andenergy on work’ and ‘Experiencing conflicts between one’s own and others’ orien-tations regarding learning to teach’. Beginning teachers often indicated negativeemotions, like feeling helpless, being aware of their shortcomings, feeling angry orfeeling insecure. In order to cope with their tensions, they preferred problem-focused coping strategies over emotion-focused strategies. Except for the fact thatfemale teachers recognised themselves in more tensions than their male colleagues,


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background variables did not seem to be strongly related to the number of experi-enced tensions.

It was not surprising that ‘Wanting to care for students versus being expected tobe tough’ was reported most often, since other studies have shown that studentteachers want to be in control and to be caring at the same time (e.g. Veenman1984; Volkmann and Anderson 1998). Volkmann and Anderson (1998) treated this‘care-strictness tension’ as an identity dilemma in their article about creating profes-sional identity. They discussed one beginning teacher’s dilemma in terms of theconcept of caring face/tough face: ‘The question that worried this beginning teacherwas: How do I take charge and still show my students that I care about them?’(301). This tension also corresponds to classroom management and building a goodrelationship with students, which is one of the most serious issues encountered bybeginning teachers (Veenman 1984). Research on teacher–student relationships hasshown that in about 80% of cases beginning teachers become emotionally involvedwith their students (Wubbels et al. 2006). Moreover, a study by Brekelmans, Wub-bels, and van Tartwijk (2005) showed that teachers’ perceptions of the ideal levelsof control (strictness) and caring (emotional involvement with the students) remainat a high and relatively stable level during their career, but that student teachers andbeginning teachers are perceived as less controlling (strict) than their more experi-enced colleagues. As a result, beginning teachers often experience differencesbetween desirable and ideal levels of control, and yet are unable to bridge thisdivide.

The tension ‘Wanting to invest in a private life versus feeling pressured to spendtime and energy on work’, recognised by 36% of the beginning teachers, corre-sponds well to the conflicts and ethical dilemmas experienced by nurses. Kälvemarket al. (2004) found that nurses express a form of reactive distress to the tension ofthe amount of time and effort spent on patients versus the time required for admin-istrative tasks. Fuller and Bown (1975) reported on teachers’ concerns regardingtime constraints.

Of the participating beginning teachers, 34% recognised their own experience in‘Experiencing conflicts between one’s own and others’ orientations regarding learn-ing to teach’. Rajuan, Beijaard and Verloop (2007) mentioned that beginning teach-ers often hold other orientations regarding learning to teach than those that theirmentors, supervisors and colleagues expect from them. This may result in seriousinternal conflicts.

In general, beginning teachers reported rather negative feelings as part of experi-encing a tension. This result confirms the conclusions of the literature about emo-tions in teaching and learning to teach (e.g. Hargreaves 2005; Olsen 2010). Thefact that tensions are usually associated with negative feelings or emotions mightsuggest that they have negative consequences for beginning teachers. According toMeijer (2011), beginning teachers will develop a commitment to teaching becauseof the intense emotions that student teachers need to cope with. It is, however,important that those who educate and mentor (beginning) teachers are able to recog-nise this and be able to guide that process towards commitment.

Apparently, the background variables (gender, age, teaching experience and tea-cher education) that were used in this study were not of importance in relation toprofessional identity tensions. Only gender was of influence on the number of ten-sions, but the fact that in our study female teachers reported statistically more ten-sions than male teachers does not necessarily imply that they experience more


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tensions than male teachers. Possibly female teachers may be more comfortablesharing or taking note of their tensions than male teachers. Considering the impor-tance of the context for becoming and being a teacher, other background variableslike the kind of students that beginning teachers work with and the type of schoolsthey work at might be of more importance in relation to experiencing tensions. Thismay also apply to variables like beginning teachers’ biographies, prior learningexperiences or beliefs about learning and teaching.

5.2. Limitations and future research

In order to map beginning teachers’ professional identity tensions, accompanyingfeelings and coping strategies, a questionnaire was developed. Making use of aquestionnaire implies that no in-depth information was gained about the nature andimpact of the experienced tensions.

Although the professional identity tensions used were derived from the literatureand from interviews with 24 beginning teachers, we cannot claim that they areexhaustive. Furthermore, the translation of the tensions into statements might haveaffected beginning teachers’ interpretations of them. The fact that was asked for thetensions in which beginning teachers recognised themselves might explain that nostatistical difference was found between final-year student teachers and first-year in-practice teachers in the number of experienced tensions. Possibly these graduatedteachers did not only mention tensions experienced in their first year as teachers,but they reverted to tensions experienced during their teacher education as well.Another reason might be the considerable amount of time that student teachersspend in practice schools nowadays in the Netherlands: the practical experience offinal-year student teachers does not differ that much from that of first-year in-prac-tice teachers.

Moreover, only final-year student teachers and first-year in-practice teachers ofdifferent teacher education institutes participated in this study. The question thatarises from this is whether the professional identity tensions that were investigatedin this study are typical for beginning teachers. Unless we include more experiencedteachers in further research, we cannot reliably reach this conclusion.

Based on this study, we suggest the following for future research. First, adminis-tering the questionnaire more often would enable us to do profound analysesthrough a greater number of respondents. A longitudinal design would be used toinvestigate the development that beginning teachers are going through concerningtheir professional identity tensions. Second, in-depth interviews with beginningteachers who completed the questionnaire would be helpful in gaining deeperinsights in the reasons that led to the tensions they experienced and in the impactof these tensions on their functioning as a teacher. In-depth interviews would alsobe helpful to obtain a better understanding of their feelings and coping strategies.Third, it might be relevant to investigate the way in which emotions are connectedto teachers’ professional identity. Olsen (2010) mentions that a focus on teacheridentity opens up the possibility to reflect on the emotions that teaching elicits andcan help teachers to guide these emotions. Fourth, the question arises regardingwhy beginning teachers use certain coping behaviours. Do they deliberately choosea problem-focused or emotion-focused way of dealing with their tensions? What dotheir choices of strategy depend on? Further research might be done on how theintensity of an experience of a tension, as well as the type and intensity of the


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accompanying (negative) emotion, determines the kind of coping strategy thatbeginning teachers use. Finally, since tensions are caused by beginning teachers’unbalanced professional identity, in further research it will be interesting to investi-gate if (and how) their professional identity influences the experience of tensions.Taking Meijer’s (2011) study into account, it seems that experiencing a professionalidentity tension, even though it is accompanied by negative feelings or emotions,may have positive consequences as well. It seems very likely, therefore, that experi-encing tensions may, in turn, also contribute to the development of a teacher’s pro-fessional identity.

5.3. Implications

The results of this study show that almost all participating beginning teachers haveexperienced one or more professional identity tensions that were derived from theliterature and the previous interview study. It became also clear that these tensionsin general are associated with negative feelings, like feelings of insecurity or feel-ings of helplessness. These feelings could be rather persistent and beginning teach-ers were regularly at a loss for what to do about it. This was shown by the kind ofcoping strategies that beginning teachers used in order to deal with their tensions:they preferred to look for a solution themselves or to speak with significant othersabout their tensions. So, experiencing tensions can have quite an impact on begin-ning teachers and therefore it is important that teacher educators and mentors in(practice) schools do leave them on their own. They need to be aware of the ten-sions experienced by their student/beginning teachers, which will most likely enablethem to offer better support.

Insights in tensions can be acquired by administering the questionnaire that wasused in this study among beginning teachers. One way to address professional identitytensions during teacher education or within induction programmes is by making it apart of the beginning teachers’ study materials (for example, in the form of stories orcase studies) and to relate them to the student/beginning teachers’ own professionalidentity development process. Although tensions are very personal (the same situationmay be experienced as a tension by one teacher, but does not necessarily have to be atension for another teacher), learning about tensions of other (beginning) teachers willmake student teachers aware of the difficult situations they may encounter or becomeinvolved in. This way they learn to recognise their own tensions. Another way ofaddressing this issue is by encouraging beginning teachers to discuss their own ten-sions in consultation and feedback sessions with their peers. By sharing their experi-ences, they will feel strengthened when they notice that others also experience (thesame) tensions (Olsen 2010) and that experiencing tensions is not an unusual part ofthe process of learning to teach. It also enables them to exchange the different possibleways of coping with tensions with other teachers and to exchange the associated emo-tions. These emotions need special attention in the consultation and feedback sessions,because they can be rather fierce and may be of great influence on the process of learn-ing to teach. Leijen et al. (2009) argue that it would be helpful if beginning teacherswere guided by teacher educators to give meaning to the negative feelings that accom-pany their own dilemmas and those of others. This is why it should also be the teachereducator’s or mentor’s role to check the seriousness of the experienced professionalidentity tensions that are raised by their student/beginning teachers. By making ten-sions visible and explicit via discussion, beginning teachers might more strongly


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develop their professional identity. In turn, a more developed professional identitymight help them to better cope with their tensions. It is recommended to pay attentionto student teachers’ professional identity development during teacher education. Morethan a decade ago, Bullough (1997) emphasised the importance of teacher educationprogrammes in forming teachers’ professional identity. Hong (2010) found that theseprogrammes do indeed play an important role in building teachers’ professional iden-tity, but that these programmes need to be improved to support beginning teachers toreflect on their own professional identity formation (see also Ehrich et al. 2011). Stu-dent teachers themselves should be consciously engaged in shaping their professionalidentity as well. If they do so, preferably in relationship with their teacher educators,mentors in schools and significant others, it will enhance the resilience (Pearce andMorrison 2011) they need to successfully cope with their professional identity ten-sions.

Note1. The complete questionnaire can be requested from the first author.

Notes on contributorsMarieke Pillen works as a PhD candidate at the Eindhoven School of Education, EindhovenUniversity of Technology (the Netherlands). Her research project focuses on tensions thatbeginning teachers experience during their professional identity development.

Douwe Beijaard is a full professor of professional learning in the domain of teaching andteacher education and director of the Eindhoven School of Education, Eindhoven Universityof Technology (The Netherlands). His current research addresses the professional identity,quality and development of (beginning) teachers.

Perry den Brok is a full professor in science education and research director at theEindhoven School of Education, Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands). Hisresearch focuses on teachers’ professional learning and learning environments for teachersand students, especially in the domain of science.

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tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development, accompanying feelings and...

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