Teacher Research Group as Powerful Discursive Space for Teacher Identity and Belonging

• In Event: 52.080 - Teacher Research and Identity Work: Making Room for the Voices of Teachers

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper investigates the synthesis (within a teacher research community) of discourse, teacher identity practices, belonging, and teaching practices within middle school classrooms.

Theoretical Framework:
The construct of sense of belonging has come to be accepted in educational research as an essential determinant of individual engagement in various contexts. Based on the notion that human behavior/motivation is enhanced when basic needs (such as belonging) are met (Baumeister and Leary, 1995; Maslow, 1999) this has seen substantial support in research among students (Faircloth & Hamm, 2005; Goodenow, 1993). Research has also demonstrated that a key source of belonging is provided by connections between an individual’s context and their identity (Faircloth, 2009, 2013). Moreover, recent research has suggested that it is within Discourse (“different ways we humans use language and non language “stuff”…to enact and recognize different identities…; Gee, 1999) that something new, original and transformative related to identity is most likely to occur (Alsup, 2006, 38).

This important route to an empowering sense of belonging through identities-in-practice has yet to be explored in the lives of teachers (see Allen, 2009 for one exception). The study reported herein is a step in that potentially important direction. A semester long teacher research community was established to provide a safe space in which to invite teacher discourse relative to action research and their reflexive and productive relationship with that experience.

Methods:
This paper analyzes qualitative data collected from this teacher research group at an urban middle school in the southeast. The group met monthly for three hours at the school for one semester. Data was collected from six participants, three English teacher, two math teachers and one science teacher and included: 1) observations/field-notes from monthly meetings with teachers; 2) activity/research artifacts; 3) surveys; and 4) semi-structured interviews. For analysis, we used grounded theory method (Corbin & Strauss, 2007) and discourse analysis (Gee, 2010) to examine how the discursive nature of the group related to their belonging and their embodiment of an identity as teacher researcher.

Findings:
Two important themes emerged from analysis. First, every teacher reported the significance of the sense of belonging (their connection to, reliance on, and safety) within the teacher research discourse group as they attempted to embody an identity as researcher and as agent of transformative teaching practices in their classroom. They also directly credited their group discourse for: a) their learning more about themselves (their identity as a teacher) than anything else in this project, b) their growing self-efficacy; c) support for changes in their teaching repertoire, and d) positive changes in student engagement.

Significance:
This study explores an important synthesis of concepts (discourse, identity, and belonging) that have, in their own right, come to be accepted as essential to engagement and empowerment. Taken together, they suggest a potential avenue in which teachers’ can struggle, teachers’ identities-in- practice can be negotiated, and teacher empowerment can be effectuated (Britzman, 1994, 56).

Author

• Beverly S. Faircloth, University of North Carolina - Greensboro