Teacher Identity Discourse as Identity Growth: Stories of Authority and Vulnerability

• In Event: 31.035 - Teacher Identity Development Situated in Dynamic Social and Cultural Contexts

Abstract

I describe the results of a qualitative, interview-based study with an emphasis on narrative and metaphorical discourse within the social and cultural context of secondary school teaching. In my larger study, I explore the teacher identity development of six female English education pre-service teachers at a large Midwestern university in 2016. In this paper, I focus on one of the six students, Teresa, and her narrative discourse of ‘authority and vulnerability’ as she learned to become a teacher.

The central research question was the following: What are the self-identified philosophies of teaching English held by six current pre-service English teachers at a major Midwestern university? The data (interview transcripts, researcher memos, and participant photographs) were inputted into the qualitative software NVivo 6, where open coding (i.e., nodes) followed axial coding and final aggregation of data into ‘identity discourses’ that served as comprehensive constructs. Narratives of authority and vulnerability were one of the resultant categories when the original codes were collapsed and combined based on shared content.

Authority and vulnerability appear to rest on the two seemingly opposite poles of agency and free will: total authority being the ability to make choices without hesitation or repercussion, and extreme vulnerability being anxiety or fear that one’s decisions might be incorrect or self-defeating. Kelchtermans (1996) writes that vulnerability for teachers is often created within a context of top-down administrative or policy decisions that lead to teachers feeling as if their competence and ethics are under attack. He goes on to note that “autobiographical reflection and storytelling are suggested as effective strategies to deal successfully with the sense of vulnerability” (p. 307). Other scholars have identified the importance of recognizing one’s own vulnerability as a critical element to move beyond shame and embrace the self. In other words, they write about how choosing to be vulnerable in a situation can actually be motivational and lead to personal growth (Brown, 2006, p. 201).

Teresa’s stories exemplify one of the key findings of the study: a new generation of student teachers is engaged in much narrative discourse of their identity work, which is often conflicting understandings of professional enactments of authority and vulnerability in the context of the US secondary classroom. I share examples of when Teresa engaged in meaningful identity work by voicing ‘narratives of balance’ between these two poles of subjectivity. Teresa narrates a new-found understanding of the power of vulnerability working in tandem with the enactment of authority--that in order to motivate students to truly learn, teachers must also be able to practice and embrace vulnerability and, ultimately, be comfortable in spaces and places where their role as authoritarian might be contested.

Author

• Janet M. Alsup, Purdue University