Social Studies Teacher Identity as a Complex Dynamic System: The Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity

• In Event: Teacher Learning and Identity Change in Social Studies Professional Development: A Career-Spanning Perspective

Abstract

Objectives
The increasing scholarly attention to the concept of teacher identity over the past couple of decades reflects the promise the concept holds for explaining teachers’ experiences, motivation, and decisions (Beijaard et al., 2004; Olsen, 2008; Schutz et al., 2018; Wilkins et al., 2012). However, the literature on teacher identity includes numerous theoretical perspectives and definitions that span conceptions of identity along dimensions such as personal to collective, stable to changeable, and personal to cultural (Vignoles et al., 2011). To have utility across the teacher education and professional development community, the concept should be based in a shared understanding that bridges across the diverse conceptions in the literature. In this introductory presentation, we frame the empirical presentations to follow by proposing a conception of social studies teacher identity based on the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Authors, 2017, 2018)—a complex dynamic systems model of identity and its development.

Theoretical framework
The diversity of conceptions on teacher identity is reflected also in the literature on social studies teacher identity. Our synthesis of this literature over the last two decades (N = 114) has pointed to an array of definitions and emphases, including teacher ethnic and cultural identities, sexual orientation, identities vis-à-vis curricular content and purposes, and civic values and beliefs (Authors, in-press). In the current presentation, we propose the DSMRI as an integrative framework that incorporates these various emphases into a model that conceptualizes the contextualized, social-cultural, dynamic, and unique features of social studies teacher identity, while providing a coherent and shared theoretical framework for informing efforts to promote adaptive teacher professional learning and development.
The Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) (Authors, 2017) (see Figure 1), views teacher identity as a complex dynamic system comprising four inter-dependent components: (1) the teacher’s ontological and epistemological beliefs (e.g., beliefs about teaching and learning, beliefs about content, beliefs about the school context); (2) purpose and goals of teaching (e.g., meaningful learning, democratic citizenship, critical awareness); (2) the teacher’s self-perceptions and self-definitions (e.g., teaching efficacy, personal ideology, social identities); and (4) perceived action possibilities in teaching (e.g., pedagogical strategies, classroom management strategies) for pursuing the purpose and goals, in light of ontological and epistemological beliefs and about oneself. These components emerge in the intersection of four framing parameters: (1) cultural tangible and semiotic mediating means, (2) social context and interactions, (3) the teacher’s dispositions, and (4) the subject domain. As a complex dynamic systems model, the DSMRI emphasizes teacher identity as continuously emergent in non-linear and non-deterministic ways within its social-cultural context. It further calls for simultaneous attention to the identity’s content, structure, and formation processes as they emerge within hierarchical and dialogical relations with other systems, both within the person (i.e., other role identities) and outside of the person (i.e., role identities of other people such as students, colleagues, and administrators). We end the presentation with implications of the DSMRI to social studies teacher education and professional development.

Authors

• Avi Kaplan, Temple University
  Presenting Author

• Ishwar Bridgelal, Temple University
  Presenting Author

• Timothy Patterson, Temple University
  Presenting Author