Performers and postulates: the role of evolving socio-historical contexts in shaping new teacher professional identities

Abstract

In this article we investigate the generative causes of variation in the professional identity of new teachers. Building on previous work that has shown a link between professional identity and socio-political context, we argue that the context experienced in late adolescence and early adulthood is particularly significant in shaping how beginning teachers think of themselves as teachers. This finding suggests that the linear response to neoliberal education reform described in much of the critical literature may be too simple to account for the range of ways teachers interact with the system. There is, therefore, a need for greater diversity in research approaches to work with the complexity of social systems in and around schools. To support this call for methodological diversity, we borrow the life story model of identity as a theoretical framework and use a computer-assisted phenomenographic analysis technique to find new ways into the research data.

Keywords:

• teacher professional identity
• life story model of identity
• neoliberal reform
• computer-assisted qualitative research

Acknowledgement

Our thanks to Annalise Pippard for her assistance in the preparation of this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Simon N. Leonard

Simon N. Leonard has led teacher education programmes at the University of Canberra where he has an ongoing role in curriculum development in teacher professional learning at that university’s INSPIRE Centre. His research is focussed on the role of policy in complex social systems.

Philip Roberts

Philip Roberts is an assistant professor in Curriculum Studies at the University of Canberra and an affiliate of the Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education at Charles Sturt University. He specialises in rural education, equity in education and teaching for historical consciousness.