THE TEACHING IDENTITY OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS: ITS IMPORTANCE IN PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE

Abstract

"The importance of studying the identity of university teachers lies in their role as mediators of learning and as key players in the professional training of new generations. In this sense, we report the advances of a research whose purpose is to investigate how the teaching identity of university professors is constructed and the way they perceive and mean their pedagogical practice. In the investigation of the construction of the identity of university professors, their school and professional trajectories, as well as their teaching experiences and practices, become important. On this occasion, only the findings related to the teaching trajectory and pedagogical practice of the professors are reported. The qualitative biographical-narrative approach was used to obtain six life stories of teachers from different disciplines working in public and private universities. The narratives on the adequacy of the curriculum and the pedagogical practices of the teachers, as axes of the teaching trajectory, made it possible to investigate how the teachers perceive and mean their pedagogical practice, and an approach to the understanding of the current teaching practice and their identity formation. Among the most important results in these areas are planning and academic freedom in the curriculum; implicit theories of teaching and learning; transmission of values; and the challenges of teaching: the transformation of practices and the relationship with students."