Teacher Educator Identity as a Relational Ontology: A New Materialist Inquiry of the Entangled Self

• In Event: Understanding Teacher Education Through an Arts-Based, Post-Human, Nonlinear Perspective

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teacher educator identity as a relational ontology. Insight was sought into the role of materiality (both the non-human and more-than-human and how these contributed to the recognition of a professional self. A new materialism framework was used to conceptually inform this work, and Hodder’s tanglegram analytic was employed as a meaning-making tool. Three key findings surfaced from analysis of the data sources: the internet and digital connectivity as entangled with teacher educator identity, a dependency on things in the entanglement of teacher educator identity, and the consumption of things in the enactment of being a teacher educator. Implications for teacher education practice and research will be discussed.

Author

• Adrian D. Martin, New Jersey City University