Blogs' Affordances for Identity Work: Insights Gained From an Urban Teacher's Blog

Abstract

Reform-minded teachers encounter formidable challenges, especially in the difficult conditions of typical urban settings. Maintaining an online web log (or “blog”) has been suggested as a powerful tool to support their practice and continuing professional development. To further articulate how and why blogs can provide teachers with unique opportunities for identity work, I examine the blog of “Ms. Frizzle,” one reform-minded urban middle school science teacher and exceptional blogger. Four recurring features of her blogging, which are all critical elements of identity work, are identified and analyzed: (a) constructing stories of multifaceted aspects of science teaching that are often in tension with one another; (b) simultaneously supporting and being supported by a professional community that spanned traditional boundaries; (c) trying on and developing a variety of interrelated professional sub-identities; and (d) positioning herself centrally within a larger professional discourse. Various forms of investment that were instrumental to Ms. Frizzle's identity work through blogging are also identified and discussed.