Teachers’ sense of self amid adaptation to educational reform

Abstract

Education has been subject to a process of continuous educational reforms. The aim of this study was to explore teachers’ abilities to adapt to these reforms and to find out how this process of continual reform related to their identities as teachers. The study used a narrative research approach. The data for this research were based on the narratives of practising teachers registered for a postgraduate teacher education programme, and on interviews. Since change was a key concept, the theory of adaptive expertise was used to interpret the data. The study proposed a conceptual model that explained the relationship between teaching and the learning context, adaptive expertise and teacher identity in an ever-changing educational environment. The research pointed to some of the implications of a lack of consultation with teachers in the formulation of new policies, and recommended interventions with a view to developing adaptive expertise.

Keywords:

• educational reform
• adaptive expertise
• teacher identity
• narrative research