Multiple Perspectives on Elementary Teachers’ Science Identities: A case study

Abstract

This narrative case study examined the relationship between teacher identity and elementary science teaching. Teacher identity was described using a modification of Gee's framework incorporating three perspectives: the teachers’ self-described identity, the researchers’ view of teacher identity, and the students’ views of teacher identity. Over the course of one school year, we studied one class of second-grade students receiving science instruction from three different teachers. We found that each teacher had unique identity characteristics. Further, the three perspectives of teacher identity were sometimes in conflict with one another within individual teachers, emphasizing the importance of incorporating multiple perspectives in order to give a complete description of teacher identity. This study has meaningful implications for understanding the ways in which students’ perspectives can enrich our understanding of teacher identity.

Keywords:

• Elementary science
• In-service teacher education
• Teacher identity

Notes

1 We acknowledge that teachers can be both male and female. However, the three teachers in this study, like most elementary teachers, are female, thus she and her will be used throughout the paper.

2 Melissa was involved with a professional development project led by this paper's second author. She agreed to allow us to conduct this study in her classroom and invited the other teachers at her grade level to join.

3 It should be noted that there were no major classroom management concerns in either Melissa or Janice's lessons with the same class of students.