Abstract:
Early career teacher educators' (ECTEs) integration into the academic world requires navigating a multitude of variables. Successfully doing so in the context of academic positions with both teaching and research responsibilities involves embracing the journey of learning who they are, where they are, and where they want to go. Even though this is pointed out as complex and relevant, efforts to analyse this process and support ECTEs through it are still in their infancy, a situation that might be contributing to the difficulties in developing comprehensive education programs for teacher educators.
Providing opportunities for ECTEs to explore and develop their identities through professional learning in their practice is one strategy highlighted within the literature as a priority. Identity has a profound relationship with practice—a fundamental tenet of the social theory of learning.
This self-study aims to explore the identity construction processes of one non-traditional ECTE facing the challenges of starting her career as a teacher educator, teaching for the first time, and doing so in a different country, a different language, and a different institutional setting.
Given this study’s overall interest in self-improvement and in sharing the first author’s experiences with other ECTEs, Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices seemed an apt methodological choice since it provides a personal, systematic process for generating and sharing knowledge with the educational field that is built upon critical and collaborative reflection. Data was generated through the use of a Critical Friends Portfolio and a personal experiences method during the first year of the first author’s work as a Teacher Educator. We analysed the data generated via these methods using a constructivist grounded theory approach.
The findings of this study will present an overview of the ‘equilibrium, disequilibrium, and re-equilibrium’ inside the first author’s journey of becoming a teacher educator, particularly looking into developing identity through negotiation of meaning, developing identity in the grey zone of competence, shaping professional identity by effort, exploring identity through reconciliation and identity and exploring “who am I and where is my identity situated”.
The insights provided through such sharing have the potential to help teacher educators and teacher education institutions to better identify enduring and emerging areas of concern related to teacher education practice and identity and better develop strategies for supporting members of the teacher education community through the various stages of their careers.
Providing opportunities for ECTEs to explore and develop their identities through professional learning in their practice is one strategy highlighted within the literature as a priority. Identity has a profound relationship with practice—a fundamental tenet of the social theory of learning.
This self-study aims to explore the identity construction processes of one non-traditional ECTE facing the challenges of starting her career as a teacher educator, teaching for the first time, and doing so in a different country, a different language, and a different institutional setting.
Given this study’s overall interest in self-improvement and in sharing the first author’s experiences with other ECTEs, Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices seemed an apt methodological choice since it provides a personal, systematic process for generating and sharing knowledge with the educational field that is built upon critical and collaborative reflection. Data was generated through the use of a Critical Friends Portfolio and a personal experiences method during the first year of the first author’s work as a Teacher Educator. We analysed the data generated via these methods using a constructivist grounded theory approach.
The findings of this study will present an overview of the ‘equilibrium, disequilibrium, and re-equilibrium’ inside the first author’s journey of becoming a teacher educator, particularly looking into developing identity through negotiation of meaning, developing identity in the grey zone of competence, shaping professional identity by effort, exploring identity through reconciliation and identity and exploring “who am I and where is my identity situated”.
The insights provided through such sharing have the potential to help teacher educators and teacher education institutions to better identify enduring and emerging areas of concern related to teacher education practice and identity and better develop strategies for supporting members of the teacher education community through the various stages of their careers.