Academics’ teacher identities, authenticity and pedagogy

Abstract

Nine academics participated in semi‐structured interviews to explore possible linkages between their teacher identities and the pedagogies they employ. A content analysis of the interviews was performed to gain insight into the factors playing a role in how academics define themselves as teachers, the larger educational goals they espouse and the pedagogies they use. The data were subsequently re‐interpreted through the lens of authenticity, an evocative yet elusive construct whose meaning was clarified in earlier work. The study surfaces several conceptual linkages between teacher identity, pedagogy and authenticity, and suggests that authenticity might constitute a crucial link between teaching and the achievement of complex learning outcomes at undergraduate level. Academics’ personal theories of teaching, in particular the conceptions they hold of learners, are revealed as critical to the extent to which their pedagogies are ‘authentic’; the latter, ideally, offering contexts within which students are supported in developing their authenticity.

Keywords:

• authenticity
• teacher identities
• authentic pedagogy
• larger purposes of higher education
• self‐authorship

Acknowledgements

The author acknowledges the financial support received from the Higher Education Academy, York, UK. The work reported in this article draws on interviews which were carried out with the help of a colleague, Monika Klampfleitner, during the year 2006. It is part of a larger research project involving Sian Bayne, Velda McCune and Miesbeth Knottenbelt. Their invaluable contribution to this work is therefore warmly acknowledged.