Role-Identity in Teacher Professional Development Faculty Programs: An Understudied Impactful Factor in Program Effectiveness

• In Event: Dynamic Integration of Identity, Learning, and Motivation Across Various Social-Cultural Contexts

Abstract

This study investigated teacher role identity, motivation, and action among faculty members participating in a professional development (PD) program for instructors whose courses had high student failure and attrition rates. Role Identity is analyzed using Dynamic Systems Model Role Identity (DSMRI), a framework which conceptualizes instructors’ decisions about practice based on their teacher role identity, which constitutes a system comprising their ontological and epistemological beliefs about students, content, and the teaching context; their purpose and goals in teaching; their self-perceptions and self-definitions as a teacher; and their perceived possible actions to pursue their goals in light of their beliefs and self-perceptions. Findings from in-depth interviews with 5 participants highlighted role identity content, structure, and processes that may hinder meaningful instructional change. These findings suggest centering role identity processes in PD programs that seek to change teaching to improve student course retention and success.

Author

• Moira Stoddart Trapper, Temple University