Teachers’ professional identity in super-diverse school settings: teachers as agents of intercultural education

ABSTRACT

This research study focuses on the ways in which teachers’ professional identity is being shaped and influenced in ‘super-diverse’ school settings. For the purposes of this research, we used the Cyprus educational system as our case study to investigate how teachers experience the enactment of intercultural education at the school level. To this end, 20 interviews were carried out along with 11 female and 9 male teachers of 10 primary schools, which presented diverse profiles of their student populations. Research data revealed that teachers’ professional identity and its underpinning constructs such as emotions, job satisfaction, professional commitment, autonomy and confidence were constantly challenged and negotiated within the changing educational setting. Contextual and professional factors such as work intensification, lack of training and resources, lack of respect and negligence of teachers’ previous experiences, ideologies, values and beliefs were found to affect teachers’ identity and consequently intercultural policy enactment. Therefore, the case is made that the complexity of professional identity needs to be taken into account by policymakers because teachers are the ones who embrace, reinterpret and develop the curriculum. The way and degree to which teachers understand, adjust, perceive and enact on educational policies are affected by the extent to which these policies interact with and challenge existing identities.

KEYWORDS:

• Professional identity
• intercultural education
• Cyprus education
• teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christiana Karousiou

Christiana Karousiou has been awarded a PhD in Education from the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED) at the University of Manchester in 2013 and is currently working as a Lecturer at the University of Nicosia in the department of School of Education. Her research interests include educational policy with a particular emphasis upon teachers’ continuing professional development, teachers’ professional identities, school improvement and qualitative research methods.

Christina Hajisoteriou

Christina Hajisoteriou is currently a lecturer in Intercultural Education at the University of Nicosia. Her interest in the EU educational agenda falls in the field of intercultural education,inclusion, collaborative inquiry, school leadership, and European citizenship. She has therefore gained the expertise not only to conduct theoretically informed empirical research but also to work in interdisciplinary environments. Her publications fall in the field of the inclusion, school leadership, and teacher practices with regards to intercultural education.

Panayiotis Angelides

Panayiotis Angelides is Professor and Dean of the School of Education at the University of Nicosia,Cyprus. Previously, he served as an elementary school teacher. His research interests are focused on finding links between inclusive education, teacher development, and school improvement. A particular feature of this research is to develop collaborative approaches that have a direct and immediate impact on teachers’ practice. His latest book is entitled Pedagogies of Inclusion.