Second career teachers and (mis)recognitions of professional identities

ABSTRACT

Since the late 1980s there has been an increase of ‘second career teachers’ (SCTs), professionals that switch careers to become teachers. Little is known about SCTs and their sense of professional identity. Building from Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of power and cultural capital, the professional identities of teachers were examined through the following questions: What are the professional identities of SCTs? How can SCTs inform the field of teaching about professional identities? This mixed methods study gathered perspectives on professional identities through an online survey of 236 educators within 1 school district which were analysed and compared to interviews of 16 SCTs and their supervisors from the same district. The study findings invite us to consider alternative definitions of professionalism in teaching, especially for teacher leadership.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher identity
• second career teacher
• teacher professionalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Ann Nielsen received her Ed.D. from Arizona State Universtiy in Educational Leadership and Supervision. Her interests in education and research have focused upon teacher professionalism, teacher identity, and teacher leadership. She currently works in the Center for Advance Studies in Global Education in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.

Notes

1. For a more elaborate discussion on neoliberalism in education see also the works of Gustavo Fischman and Eric Haas (Fischman 2009; Fischman and Haas 2009).

2. One business view of teaching and one professional view of teaching were omitted in the survey.