Ethical practice within a longitudinal
exploration of teacher identity:
S U P P O R T I N G R E S E A R C H PA R T I C I PA N T S T H R O U G H O U T T H E C O M P L E X
T R A N S I T I O N F R O M P R E - S E R V I C E TO E A R LY C A R E E R T E A C H E R
Overview of the presentation
 Personal motivation to explore teacher identity
 Introduction to the methodological approach of the research
 Discussion of teacher identity as a conceptual lens
 Introduction to this study and the participants
 A brief explanation of the processes of identity formation for these participants
through their data
 How ethical practice shaped the data collected and the sense that could be made
of it
Experiences of early
career teaching:
My developing beliefs and
perceptions of teaching

Educationally disadvantaged (Category 1) primary school

Significant areas of unpreparedness (curriculum, pedagogy,
student behaviour management, student diversity and need,
high accountability)

Disinterest in the complex experiences of temporary relief,
short-term contract and early career permanent teaching staff

Confronting experiences challenged beliefs about teaching and
about self

High turnover of these inexperienced staff (sometimes within
days)

These realities appeared to be anticipated and accepted by
more-experienced teaching colleagues, principals and school
leaders

Were some of us ‘cut out’ for teaching and some others not?
Research focus:
Aims and central question
Explore how
teacher identity
formation occurs
throughout the
early career phase
Explore how
contemporary
contexts of teaching
influence teacher
identity formation
Explore the
experiences of early
career teachers that
contribute to
identity formation
What are the perceptions and subjective responses of South
Australian early career teachers which lead to the construction of
professional identities that facilitate early career traction or exit?
Qualitative traditions focusing attention:
Critical Ethnography, Narrative Inquiry, Phenomenology, Grounded Research
1.
recognizing the value of qualitative designs and methodologies, studies of human experiences that are not approachable
through quantitative approaches
2.
focusing on the wholeness of experience rather than solely on its objects or parts
3.
searching for meanings and essences of experience rather than measurements or explanations
4.
obtaining descriptions of experience through first-person accounts in informal and formal conversations and interviews
5.
regarding the data of experience as imperative in understanding human behaviour and as evidence for scientific investigations
6.
formulating questions and problems that reflect the interest, involvement, and personal commitment of the researcher
7.
viewing experience and behaviour as an integrated and inseparable relationship of subject and object and of parts and
whole.
(Moustakas, 1994, p. 21)
Teacher identity has been difficult to conceptualise, with a
variety of definitions and perspectives contributing to the
discourse (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard, Meijer &
Verloop, 2004).
Within the fields of anthropology, sociology and education, the
concept of identity has been gaining acceptance and coherence.
(Varghese, Morgan, Johnston & Johnson, 2005)
Conceptualising
teacher identity

Sachs (2001)

Watson (2006)

Maclean & White (2007)

Sfard & Prusak (2005)

Akkerman & Meijer (2011)

Sachs (2005)
Research participants:
Pa t h w ay s t o t ea ch i ng
Participant
Qualifications
Career Entry
Teaching
Experience
Year Levels Taught
Curriculum
Areas Taught
English / Italian
/ Integrated Studies
Adele
B.Ed.
(Secondary)
School leaver
1st Year
Year 8 - 10
Alice
B.A. / Grad.Dip.Ed.
(JP/Primary)
Mature-aged
2nd Year
Reception / Year 1
Primary (generalist)
Amelia
B.A. / Grad.Dip.Ed.
(Early Childhood)
School leaver
2nd Year
Reception
Junior Primary (generalist)
Amy
B.Sc. (Hons) / Grad. Dip.Ed.
(Secondary)
Mature-aged
1st Year
Year 8 - 12
Information Technology /
Science
Bailey
B.Ed.
(JP/Primary)
Mature-aged
1st Year
Year 4 / 5
Primary (generalist)
Brock
B.A. / B.Teach (Secondary)
School leaver
1st Year
Reception - Year 10
Malaysian
Christian
B.A. / Grad.Dip.Ed. (Secondary)
School leaver
1st Year
Year 8 - 11
English / History
Damien
B.A / Grad.Dip.Ed. (Secondary)
School leaver
1st Year
Year 8 - 11
Mathematics /
Science
Emily
B.Ed.
(JP/Primary)
School leaver
1st Year
Year 1 / 2
Junior Primary (generalist)
Kingsley
B.Ed.
(Middle / Sec.)
School leaver
1st Year
Year 8 - 11
Physical Ed. / Science / Cultural
Studies
Lilly
B.Ed.
(Middle / Sec.)
Mature-aged
2nd Year
Reception
Junior Primary (generalist)
Louise
B.Ed.
(Early childhood)
School leaver
2nd Year
Reception / Year 1
Junior Primary (generalist)
Melanie
B.A. / B.Ed. (Secondary)
School leaver
1st Year
Year 8 - 9
Italian / English
Sally
B.Ed. (Hons)
(JP/Primary)
Mature-aged
3rd Year
Year 8 - 12
Hospitality / Cultural Studies
Phase 4
Phase 3
Phase 2
Employment history and status
Phase 1
Research participants:
Teacher identity:
Influential factors
Professional
contexts
Beliefs,
concepts &
perceptions
&
Teacher Common
unique
Identity experiences
Professional &
personal
networks
Teacher identity:
Characteristics




Dynamic
Multi-faceted
Discontinuous
Malleable
Ethical research practice:
How and why it supported this exploration

Teacher identity formation was found to be dynamic, multifaceted and discontinuous: Bailey’s data revealed
contradictions, vulnerabilities, success, progress and failure

Participants often concealed significant areas of struggle as
they wanted to position themselves for future success:
Melanie reached breaking point before she sought help

Isolated incidents unsettled the participants: Christian and
his throw-away line in the staff room

Relationships took time to establish and so reliable data
took time to generate: Amy took until term 3 to contribute
personally significant data

Vulnerabilities had to be approached delicately: Adele loved
her role and her school but wanted to distance herself from
problematic staff

Some of the participants’ experiences were confronting:
Alice’s choice to leave teaching mid-year and mid-contract

Principals and school leaders needed to be negotiated with
tact: Emily’s feelings of abandonment and isolation were
attributed to school staff however these staff sometimes
sought information about her

Observations sometimes contradicted interview data:
Damien’s perceptions of his relationships with students

Data collection needed to be responsive to the needs of the
participants: Amelia always scheduled interviews outside of
school hours to eliminate the possibility of having to be
observed.

The participants needed someone to confide in: All of the
participants expressed how important it had been for them
to share their experiences, perceptions, vulnerabilities and
responses to teaching with someone who was not
connected to their on-going employment opportunities
References
Akkerman, S. F., & Meijer, P. C. (2011). A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity.
Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 308-319.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman.
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.
Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers' professional
identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107-128.
Department of Education Science and Training. (2002). An ethic of care: Effective programmes for
beginning teachers. Canberra, ACT: Commonwealth of Australia.
Gee, J. P. (2000). Identity as an Analytic Lens for Research in Education. Review of Research in
Education, 25(1), 99-125.
Maclean, R., & White, S. (2007). Video reflection and the formation of teacher identity in a team of
pre-service and experienced teachers. Reflective Practice, 8(1), 47-60.
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Richards, L. (2009). Handling qualitative data: A practical guide (2nd ed.). London, UK: SAGE.
Sachs, J. (2001). Teacher professional identity: Competing discourses, competing outcomes. Journal of
Education Policy, 16(2), 149 - 161.
Sachs, J. (2005). Teacher education and the development of professional identity: Learning to be a
teacher. In P. Denicolo & M. Kompf (Eds.), Connecting policy and practice: Challenges for teaching and
learning in schools and universities. Oxford, OXF: Routledge.
Sfard, A., & Prusak, A. (2005). Telling identities: In search of an analytic tool for investigating learning
as a culturally shaped activity. Educational Researcher, 34(4), 14-22.
Varghese, M., Morgan, B., Johnston, B., & Johnson, K. A. (2005). Theorizing language teacher identity:
Three perspectives and beyond. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 4 (1), 21-44.
Watson, C. (2006). Narratives of practice and the construction of identity in teaching. Teachers and
Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12(5), 509-526.
Professional Identity:
A sorting device
Professional identity thus is a set of attributes that are
imposed upon the teaching profession either by outsiders or
members of the teaching fraternity itself. It provides a shared
set of attributes, values and so on that enable the
differentiation of one group from another.
(Sachs, 2001, p. 153)
Teacher
Identity
Professional Identity:
A guiding set of beliefs
The importance of the concept of professional identity lies in
the assumption that who we think we are influences what we
do, i.e. there is a link between professional identity and
professional action (in a sense, professional action is doing
professional identity.
(Watson, 2006, p. 510)
Teacher
Identity
Professional Identity:
A reflection of roles, actions & behaviour
people’s legitimate participation in a profession; their
occupation of a professional ‘role’ and ability to control the
practices, language, tools and resources associated with that
role; the ideals, values and beliefs that lead them to commit
to a profession; the unique way in which they personify their
professional role as a result of the experiences that have
influenced them through their career; and the representation
of themselves as a professional that they project both to
themselves and to others
(Maclean & White, 2007, pp. 47-48)
Teacher
Identity
Professional Identity:
An attempt to understand ourselves
Metaphorically speaking, identifying is an attempt to
overcome the fluidity of change by collapsing a video clip into
a snapshot.
Based of this assumption, identity talk makes us able to cope
with new situations in terms of our past experience and gives
us tools to plan for the future.
(Sfard & Prusak, 2005, p. 16)
Teacher
Identity
Professional Identity:
A process
‘being someone who teaches’, or ‘teacher identity’, cannot be
seen as an end point, but instead should be defined as an
ongoing process of negotiating and interrelating multiple Ipositions in such a way that a more or less coherent and
consistent sense of self is maintained throughout various
participations and self-investments in one’s [working] life.
(Akkerman & Meijer, 2011, pp. 317-318)
Teacher
Identity
Professional Identity:
A framework
[Teacher identity] provides a framework for teachers to
construct their own ideas of ‘how to be’, ‘how to act’ and
‘how to understand’ their work and their place in society.
Importantly, teacher identity is not something that is fixed
nor is it imposed; rather it is negotiated through experience
and the sense that is made of that experience.
(Sachs, 2005, p. 15)
Teacher
Identity