A Configuration Approach for Examining Beginning Teachers' Professional Identity

• In Event: Teacher Identity and the Contemporary Development of Teachers in Educational Systems Globally

Abstract

Developing a professional identity is a key element of a person’s transition into the teaching profession. This paper focuses on “constructing configurations” as a specific way to examine and present the professional identity of a sample of beginning teachers. Our paper is based on analysis of data these beginners provided during four identity workshops as part of their induction program.

Professional identity results from the complex interaction among teachers’ personal backgrounds, characteristics, knowledge, views, attitudes, norms and values, and various requirements set by teacher education programmes and schools—including widely accepted standards for the teaching profession in general (AuthorA, 2004). This makes teachers’ professional identity both a product and process (AuthorB, 2010). Identity as a product is reflected in teachers’ professional self-concept at a single point in time in different work situations. Identity as a process is reflected in (small) changes in identity under the influence of new experiences. This view on teachers’ professional identity implies that a teacher identity is complex and personally coloured.

Four professional identity workshops in the Netherlands were organized for teachers, drawing from existing theoretical perspectives that focus on (a) new teachers learning from the tensions between the personal and professional of becoming a teacher and (b) new teachers engaging in reflective dialogues with peers about challenging situations in teaching. The workshops consisted of several exercises aimed at supporting beginning teachers (n=45) to reflect upon relevant personal and contextual aspects of their professional identity development. During each workshop, participants composed short reflective notes after an explicit identity exercise. These reflective notes were then combined and processed into a portrait which were then analyzed by us. Five overarching identity themes emerged from the portraits: Classroom management, Students learning, Workload, Collaboration and Standing up for oneself. We reconstructed these themes into “configurations” for each of the study participants, consisting of personal and contextual aspects arranged according to three foci: focus on oneself, on students, and on team/organisation. Our paper and presentation will discuss these configurations and their usefulness for supporting the professional growth of new teachers.

Configurations make it possible to do justice to the complexity and uniqueness of professional identity. Both within each configuration and across all five configurations, a diversity of personal and contextual aspects can be identified that seem relevant for who beginning teachers are, who they can become, or who they wish to become. Together, the configurations not only have the potential to cover the complexity and uniqueness of professional identity development, but also the adaptive versatility of becoming a teacher. Constructing configurations is a promising way to understand what really matters in beginning teachers’ professional identity and to support them to both sharpen and deepen their reflection this identity. In this way, our paper hopes to highlight how improved teacher education can contribute to the transformation of education systems for the 21st century.

Authors

• Gonny Schellings, University of Technology Eindhoven

• Maaike Koopman, Eindhoven University of Technology

• Douwe Beijaard, Eindhoven University of Technology