Co-Constructing Teacher Researcher Identities: Identity Development as a Pedagogical Tool

• In Event: Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: Division K Section 3 Poster Session 2

Abstract

While scholarship on teacher research, or teachers’ use of inquiry to explore problems of practice, suggests the value of this work, teachers sometimes resist engaging in teacher research, finding it difficult to envision themselves as researchers. Drawing on sociocultural theories of identity, this paper explores how teacher educators might support teachers in co-constructing identities as teacher researchers. Through a case study of six teachers and a teacher educator within a teacher research course, it explores how the teacher educator used personal narratives to construct the identity of teacher researcher as accessible and to position teachers as teacher researchers. These findings suggest ways teacher educators might use identity as a pedagogical tool to support teachers in developing new identities as teachers.

Author

• Laura Taylor, The University of Texas - Austin