Exploring teacher identity tensions and coping strategies in a comparative case study of primary school teachers’ narratives

Abstract

ABSTRACT Teacher professional identities are considered crucial to link teachers’ personal experiences with the social and professional changes needed for improved learning in schools. In this research study, we aim to investigate teachers’ identity tensions and coping strategies in four different school contexts in Nanqi (a pseudonym) County in China. A constructivist perspective guided the choice of a qualitative approach to inquiry in this study. Ambiguities, tensions, and culturally specific references coexisted in teacher professional identities and individual teachers’ ethical and emotional pursuit of integrity and purpose at work. Employing the research strategy of narrative inquiry, this study suggested forms of tensions when teachers attempt to align their multiple and often conflicting sub identities in changing and diversifying school contexts, namely, emotional tensions, social tensions, developmental tensions and ethical tensions. Our research findings detail the circumstances that trigger different types of identity tension and how teachers experience and respond to them in different ways, which link with different working contexts and teachers’ focus of professional development. The results also reveal the need for greater recognition of ‘negative’ aspects of teachers’ professional identity development and the value of longitudinal research designs to further facilitate the exploration.