Teacher Educator Identity Research Articles

Identities of Teacher Educators in Higher Education: A Literature Review

Within the research field on teacher educators there is an overwhelming array ofperspectives, which requires meticulous organization and deeper analysis. The generalgoal of this article is to characterize research studies on teacher educators.More specifically, the article intends to identify the role played by the studies on teacher educators’ identities in that broader context. A literature review covering almost two decades of publications was conducted. First, the authors identified the selected themes, their geographies and their evolution throughout time, revealing the importance of Professional Development, a topic which includes the subtopic of teacher educators’ identities. The content analysis of the articles related to this subtopic made it possible to identify four dynamic fields: two related with teacher educators’ biographies and roles; and the others, connected with both the broader and specific contexts of teacher educators’ work.

The labour market perspective on the role identities of vocational teacher educators: a case study in Malta

The overall purpose of this qualitative study is to gain a deeper understanding of how employers, who represent the Maltese labour market, view the role identities of Vocational Teacher Educators (VTEs). Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, adopting thematic analysis. Findings from this research, where it gives a voice to a group that has too often been neglected in policy and research, may help policymakers in small states to be wary of taking on board concepts related to the roles of VTEs originating from much larger countries and from the mainstream education contexts. Implications on how the relationship between the labour market and VTEs are discussed.

Narrative repair in teacher education:Restorying painful histories and “damaged” queer teacher identity

Theorizing narrative repair, this article provides an actionable process for addressing “damaged” teacher identity in teacher education. Narrative repair involves three steps: 1) storying your pain, 2) composing alternative feelings using speculative storytelling, and 3) processing repair. Drawn from a United States-based narrative inquiry study with queer educators, findings in this article illustrate this process and demonstrate how queer teachers can address pain attached to so-called “damaged” queer teacher identity. This article concludes by complicating the call for moving beyond damage-based research frames in teacher education globally and instead invites an orientation towards repair.

English Language Teacher Educators’ critical professional identity constructions and negotiations

ABSTRACT This study sought to examine how professional identities of English Language Teacher Educators (ELTEs) evolved considering current socio-political factors surrounding Teaching English as an International Language (TEIL) in Colombia. This in-depth research examined how a group of 5 non-native ELTEs constructed and transformed their identity in an English Teacher Education programme. It is framed by an interpretive paradigm and a critical action research approach. Interviews, a series of small group study events, and ELTEs' reflective reports were the three approaches employed to collect the data. The main finding of this investigation showed a certain degree of change in participants' professional identities.

From a student to a teacher educator: Becoming better acquainted with my new professional identity through self-study

Acquiring a teacher educator identity can be challenging, especially when one comes straight from being a student of teaching. The purpose of this self-study was to investigate how I got acquainted with my teacher educator identity. The study is underpinned by the socio-cultural theory. The main data source was a reflective journal where I recorded my experience from multiple sources. I analysed the data in a narrative and reflective manner with my mentor. The key finding is that I acquainted myself with a teacher educator through engaging in Discourses with my mentor while interrogating past experiences that resembled student identity and interacting with experienced teacher educators. I narrate these findings and draw conclusions and recommendations.

Becoming a Teacher Educator in the Korean Primary School English Teacher Training Context: An Autoethnography on Identity Development

This article aims to explore formation of identity of an English teacher educator in the Korean primary school English teacher training context. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, the author represents the ways by which his English teacher educator identity becomes a site of an ongoing struggle for various identities with language learning and teaching experiences situated at the meaning negotiation. By investigating multiple resources made relevant in the past 6 years by the author’s participation in the primary school English teacher training program, the current study recognizes that his English teacher educator identities are academic-self, teaching-self, and emotional being. Each identity is influenced by the other, being realized in the teacher training program as a classroom discussant (not a knowledge deliverer) on local and global ELT issues, as a researcher (not a monetary compensation seeker) who wants to bring local teachers’ stories to the broader academic world, and as an emotionally sensitive teacher whose professional development is closely tied to overcoming emotional vulnerability and being encouraged by positive feedback. This study ends with a call for further research and practical implications for teacher educators and teacher education programs.

Exploring the Perceptions Regarding Language Teacher Educator Identity: A Multiple Case Study on Three ELT Teacher Educators

This study aims to explore the participants’ perceptions of their language teacher educator identity, and to identify the factors that contribute to their teacher educator identity development. Participants included three English language teacher educators in a Turkish higher education context. The findings revealed that a desire to make an impact is a motivating factor in shaping the participants’ language teacher educator identity with self-reflection playing a crucial role in its development.

Shifting frames: Two doctoral students’ identity construction as music teacher educators

The purpose of this study was to examine our music teacher educator (MTE) identity construction. Our research questions were: (a) How did we describe our MTE identity construction during our doctoral education? and (b) What experiences were most salient in our MTE identity construction during our doctoral education? We used basic qualitative methods to conduct a self-study of our transition from music educators to teacher educators. Hermans and Hermans-Konopka’s dialogical self theory was our theoretical framework. Through analysis, our findings coalesced around three themes: (a) experiences of uncertainty and tension related to who we were as people; (b) wrestling with uncertainty through internal conflict, open-ended mentorship, gradually adopting nuance, fearing rejection, and seeking acceptance; and (c) an expanded sense of self as we incorporated parts of being an MTE into our whole selves, embraced agency in meaning-making, accepted tension, and began offering transformative experiences to our students. Implications for music teacher education are discussed.

Teacher Education Reimagined: A Letter to Teacher Educators on Preparing Teachers to Educate Refugee Students

Turkey is currently home to the world's largest refugee population, with more than 3.7 million Syrians and around 322,000 refugees and asylum-seekers of other nationalities under international protection. Situated in a theory of teacher education for social justice, the current study aims to illustrate the lessons and insights that teacher educators, who are critically engaged in preparing teachers to teach immigrant and refugee students, offer in reimagining preservice teacher education to prepare prospective teachers to teach all students, including refugee children. The study employed phenomenological research to investigate the perspectives and the lived experiences of 18 teacher educators who were purposefully selected through criterion, maximum variation, and snowball sampling strategies. The data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews with the participants. The findings revealed three key issues for a socially just teacher education system: “who should teach: teacher educator identities”, “teacher education curriculum and pedagogy”, and “contexts, structures, and collaborators in teacher education”. As a letter to educational stakeholders in general and to teacher educators specifically, the present study issues a call to action to revisit our roles and rethink the education of massive numbers of refugee students in Turkey and around the globe to advocate for and enact social justice in and through teacher education

Emotional responses to challenges to emerging teacher identities in teacher education: student teachers’ perspectives on suitability

ABSTRACT The following paper aims to investigate how student teachers relate to the suitability of their student teacher peers after experiencing challenges to their emerging teacher identity, resulting in emotional responses. A constructivist grounded theory study was conducted in which 18 student teachers participated. Data from 14 individual interviews and one focus group were analysed. Findings revealed that encounters between student teachers sometimes resulted in emotional responses. When the student teachers were emotionally challenged by their peers, their emerging teacher identity was challenged. In addition, the student teachers compared themselves with those peers whom they judged as unsuitable and constructed a self-image of being suitable. This comparative process was connected to three suitability norms: (1) being perceived as having the right values (2) being perceived as having social skills and (3) being perceived as committed to in-depth learning as a teacher.

Challenging epistemologies of objectivity through collaborative pedagogy: Centering identity, power, emotions, and place in teacher education

In this essay, we discuss how we have attempted to counter the ongoing dominance and (re)inscription of White supremacist, ableist, and settler colonial ways of knowing and being within an elementary teacher education program (TEP) through a consideration of identity and power, emotions and place-based pedagogy. Our approaches indicate means for regenerating and expanding upon marginalized epistemologies in TEPs, challenging curricular epistemicide, while our stories also indicate that these approaches and related ways of knowing are intertwined with our own identities, histories and felt experiences as well as challenges to our enactment of this work.

Profiling Academic Research on Language Teacher Identities

Within the field of TESOL, language teacher identity (LTI) has been the focus of a myriad of studies in the previous two decades. Researchers need to trace back in order to move forward, it is an essential step towards a comprehensive understanding of what has been done in LTI research. This review article provides an overall literature review on conceptual approaches of how identity is defined and perceived in the context of recent history. It is then followed by an analysis of dominant trends on recent studies of Language Teacher Identity to profile what, why, when, and who constitute seminal works in LTI research by tracing scholarly literature from 1975 to the present. A dataset retrieved and analyzed from Scopus was further correlated using Vantage Point software. The findings not only revealed the conceptual approaches, dominant trends, and methodological development in LTI research, but also identified the underexplored areas in transnational teacher identities, teacher educator identities, and online teacher identities, which provided implications for future LTI research directions.

From classroom teacher to teacher educator: Critical insights and experiences of beginning teacher educators from Jamaica, England and United Arab Emirates

This exploratory study sought to investigate how beginning teacher educators (BTEs hereafter) constantly examine and reframe their identities when transitioning from being a classroom teacher to being a teacher educator of pre-service teachers. Through interviews of nine participants selected from Jamaica, England and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the paper presents a cross-cultural discourse. Beginning teacher educator identities were examined using Goffman’s Impression Management Framework (1968). Findings presented highlight the experiences and expectations that underpinned the beginning teacher educators’ period of transition from K-12 teaching to teaching pre-service teachers. Although educational research acknowledges that social perception processes are relevant in understanding and evaluating situations, impression management has not been used as a lens to understand beginning teacher educator experiences so far. This study attempts to open new perspectives in understanding how BTE identities are shaped and redefined in the higher education context and discusses implications for teacher education.

Shadows and Light: Professional Women Educators Transitioning to Academe

Many professional women educators make the transition from school settings to academe after significant graduate work in their field(s). This transition, which often occurs on a mid- to late-career trajectory, places such individuals within liminal spaces on many levels as they inevitably must navigate unfamiliar, often alien, territory that frequently does not recognize or respect the experiences with which they enter their new university contexts. The collaborative autoethnographic study we embarked upon involved examining our own experiences of making this transition. By revisiting an academic year’s worth of recorded conversations and analyzing them through an ecofeminist lens, we considered the lessons we had learned through engaging in a program renewal process and designing and co-teaching new courses in our first few years as faculty, as well as how these lessons impacted our emerging identities as new teacher educators. Our findings included three broad lessons learned: Beware of Institutionally Invisible Work; This is not High School, Dorothy; and Two Heads and Hearts are One. These lessons taught us to navigate the shadow places (Plumwood, 2008) of academe, including the delegitimization of teaching, nurturing and service work and the dematerialisation (Plumwood, 2008) associated with such delegitimization, and to embrace the light we found rooted in interconnectedness, an ethic of care, and our mutual recognition of the other. Moreover, these lessons offer others in the field ways of understanding the difficult transition to academe undertaken by professional women educators and the complexity of academic/teacher educator identity formation. Keywords: professional women educators, ecofeminist, institutionally invisible work, teacher educator identity, transition to academe, program renewal, collaborative autoethnography, borderland discourse, mutual recognition, shadow places, ethic of care

Learning in the Practicum: Shaping Professional Identity in Initial Teacher Education

This study considers the role of the practicum in supporting professional identity development in the initial stage of teacher education. Employing an interpretative paradigm and a qualitative methodological approach (Lincoln & Guba, 2000), data were collected from a purposive sample of student teachers (n = 6) in the first year of study, using individual semi-structured interviews and episodic documents. The findings show that emerging teacher identity was informed but also challenged by the participants’ engagement with pupils, other teachers and visiting tutors. Collectively, these influences effected shifts in the participants’ constructs on teaching and prompted change in their perception of themselves and others as teachers. The study provides for an improved understanding of teacher growth in the first stage of career development. By so doing, it makes a valid contribution to the discourse on initial teacher education to better inform teacher educators and policy makers in relation to teacher professional learning.

Understanding Identity Development as a Science Teacher Educator Through Shifts in Pedagogical Equilibrium

This article reports research investigating the identity development of a science teacher educator (STE) (Author 1) through the lens of pedagogical equilibrium. Despite previous experience as a secondary science teacher and STE, Jennifer found herself questioning her feelings of legitimacy and relevance when teaching pre-service primary science teachers. Identifying moments of disturbance in her pedagogical equilibrium, and working with a critical friend to analyze her ideas and experiences, she began to develop her professional self-understanding, contributing to improved feelings of credibility, and professional identity development. Emerging from this study, Jennifer experienced two important shifts in her perspective and understanding of her role. The first shift concerned recognizing the different sources that comprised her “authority of experience” as a STE, while the second shift involved learning to see pre-service teachers in her classes as future teachers, rather than students. These shifts in perspective were facilitated through applying self-study as the research methodology. The study provides insights into the identity formation processes of an early career teacher educator, as well as the value of pedagogical equilibrium and self-study for exploring teacher educator identity.

Daring Not to Lead: A Poetic self-study Examining the Tensions of Teacher Educator Identity

ABSTRACT This article simultaneously explores the dynamic nature of teacher educator identity and highlights the methodological potential of poetic inquiry in self-study. Using tensions as a conceptual framework to explore identity as a process of becoming, I draw from a series of found poems to examine my identity as a mid-career teacher educator working in a leadership position at an Australian university. In this article, I assert that poetic inquiry is a vehicle for representing the embodied, emotive aspects of ongoing identity development. I contend that poetic inquiry is a doorway to sharing experiences and understandings of identity in authentic, lived ways that speak back to metanarratives of academic work. Poetic self-study enables us to map the otherwise hidden tensions mediating our identity development and generate collective knowledge of what it can mean to be a teacher educator in higher education contexts.

Language teacher educator identity

Language teacher educator identity

The journey of a critical-oriented ELT curriculum and the identities of teacher educators: a collaborative and analytic autoethnography

ABSTRACT The field of second language teacher education has recently focused on issues of social justice through different interventions in language teaching preparation programmes and the analysis of the identity formation of pre-service and in-service language teachers. However, little is known about the identities of teacher educators in second language teacher education programmes. This article, adopting a social justice and critical perspective, retrospectively focuses on the 28-year journey of an English language teaching preparation BA Programme and the identity of three teacher educators (the co-authors of this article) who have been part of the programme. Zooming in on the views and identity negotiation of these three teacher educators through autoethnographic vignettes, this study analyzes the original design and the two consecutive renewals/reforms of the aforementioned BA programme at a public university located in Oaxaca, the most culturally and linguistically diverse state in Mexico (Author 1). Pursuant to the article’s autoethnographic methodology, by which the researcher or author explores her/his own personal experience as having relevance to the community at large, the purpose of this article is to explore the impact of ELT curricular reforms on the identity of the three teacher educators and the connection between identity and issues of social justice.

Using Collaborative Self-Study to Examine Writing Teacher Educators’ Career Continuums

ABSTRACT As writing teacher educators in the United States, we used collaborative self-study methodology to investigate our career continuums, examining this research question: What are the critical events along writing teacher educators’ journeys that support the development of scholarly expertise and enactment of writing teacher educator identities? As co-researchers, we also served as critical friends during the year-long study, which allowed us to discover our own professional growth trajectories and explore ways to continue to improve teacher preparation and inservice education. The data revealed three themes related to developing writer identities across the lifespan, exploring problems of practice within writer teacher educator learning communities, and expanding possibilities of writing teacher educator practice to broader spaces. Based on these findings, we suggest further research on writing teacher educators’ career continuums and recommend strategies for professional development and support.