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Teacher Identity Perspectives

Article · June 2019

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_222-1

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Teacher Identity Perspectives teachers among professionals in the teacher work-

force; how teacher education can enable teacher
Adrian D. Martin candidates to value particular skills, knowledge,
Department of Elementary and Secondary and dispositions; and the influence of nonacademic
Education, New Jersey City University, experiences upon the development of self as an
Jersey City, NJ, USA educator (Beauchamp and Thomas 2009). Despite
the breadth of foci (e.g., beliefs held by teachers,
relationships with students, relationships with col-
Introduction leagues, prior schooling experiences, school cli-
mate, curricula, etc.) as mitigating teacher identity
Identity has been a popular concept within educa- and the purposes for which teacher identity
tional research. Teacher identity connotes the act of research is conducted, there has been little discus-
being recognized as a teacher, the processes of sion of how the concept of teacher identity emerges
recognizing oneself or others as a teacher, and within, is influenced by, and is put to work by
such recognition as a product of psychological particular philosophical traditions.
processes, social interactions, socially identifiable Collectively, conceptualizations of teacher
models of what (and who) teachers are, or conflu- identity have emerged from three dominant
ences of all of these variables (Alsup 2013; perspectives: psychological, postmodern/post-
Danielewicz 2001). Teacher identity encompasses structural, and sociocultural theories. Each of
a plurality of elements that interact in numerous these has functioned as conceptual frames to
ways and how such activity relates to the educative gain insight on teachers, pedagogy, and schooling.
experiences of students. As an analytic concept, it Although these differ in the assumption made
has been taken up by teacher education scholars about teacher identity and how to explore this
and education research to gain insight on the ways construct, each of these perspectives is grounded
teachers understand their professional roles, how in socio-constructivist orientations. In contrast,
the recognition of self as a teacher emerges through the emergent perspective of new materialism
preservice teacher education and pedagogical (a critical posthuman lens) enables a recalibration
engagement as an in-service teacher, and the of teacher identity that breaks from these prior
ways that social discourses, media, and culture conceptions. Drawing upon teacher identity
inform mainstream interpretations of who teachers scholarship and critical posthuman scholarship,
are (Olsen 2008; Strom and Martin 2017). Other the subsequent sections provide a discussion
scholarship on teacher identity has aimed to iden- of teacher identity from psychological, postmod-
tify how to promote particular conceptions of ern, and sociocultural perspectives. This is
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019
M. A. Peters (ed.), Encyclopedia of Teacher Education,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_222-1
2 Teacher Identity Perspectives

followed with an overview of teacher identity framework, teacher identity can illuminate
from a new materialist perspective and the ways teachers’ sense making of the professional
new materialist elements counter the assumptions challenges they encounter and how diverse influ-
of the previously discussed perspectives. ences (e.g., professional contexts, beliefs, values)
filter the understanding of professional self.
From the psychological perspective, an under-
The Psychological Perspective of standing of the ways that diverse variables con-
Teacher Identity tribute to the development of teacher identity
and how these connect as a conceptual map, or
The psychological perspective of teacher identity framework, are of prime importance. Interactions
attends to the individual’s mental attachment (i.e., in and of themselves are of peripheral concern to
a pervasive and unconscious self-affiliation) to the cognitive and motivational processes in the
being a teacher and the significance that this interpretation and understanding of an individual
attachment possesses. Akin to this is how the as a teacher. The onus is on the internal, cognitive
individual makes sense of their role as being meaning-making of variables such as relation-
a member of the teaching profession. The psycho- ships with others and engagement in professional
logical perspective incorporates both cognitive contexts that enable the development of teacher
and motivational processes in the development identity.
of teacher identity. The emphasis on cognition
delineates how the individual processes and inter-
prets being a teacher. The motivational emphasis The Postmodern/Poststructural
attends to the desire toward the enactment of Perspective of Teacher Identity
being a teacher.
Given the emphasis on processes and develop- The postmodern/poststructural perspective posi-
ment, the psychological perspective facilitates tions teacher identity as indicative of social dis-
insight of teacher identity over longitudinal courses or prevalent, dominant models on what it
temporal sequences as discerned through teacher means to be a teacher. Such a perspective suggests
reflection and teachers’ own meaning-making. that teacher identity is produced and reproduced
This perspective is applicable for inquiries on as a performative enactment of a role already
teacher identity formation as an aspect of pre- existent prior to its assumption by the individual.
service education, the transition to novice educa- While this view positions teacher identity as
tor during the early career induction period, and a hegemonic subjectivity, the postmodern/post-
in-service educators’ negotiation of professional structural lens also posits how individuals can
responsibilities and duties as a salient element of counter or resist such a subjectivity. Subjectivity
one’s professional identity. Thus, from a psycho- is contrasted with the psychological conception
logical perspective, teacher identity incorporates of identity in that subjectivities transcend the indi-
a recursive interpretation and reinterpretation of vidual as conceptions of self that are historically
the experiences in learning to teach, professional produced. The role of teacher and its recognizabil-
engagement as a teacher, and former experiences ity is nested within the social.
as a student that exert a shaping effect on the Overall, of central concern to the postmodern/
professional self. poststructural perspective are the implications that
The psychological perspective also adopts the social discourses about teachers, education, and
lens of teacher identity as a framework. As such, schooling have upon teacher identity, how these
it functions as a conceptual structure or map to variables influence teacher identities, and the
identify how multiple cognitive constructs consti- mechanisms to challenge or disrupt hegemonic
tute and inform teacher identity. These constructs processes that hinder teacher identities that could
may include variables such as occupational com- better attend to the needs of students. Teacher
mitment, motivation, relationship satisfaction, identity involves the individual’s enactment of
and self-efficacy. As a conceptual psychological this role as the performative, hegemonic
Teacher Identity Perspectives 3

enactment of being an educator that is recogniz- Teacher identity is an emergent constructive

able regardless of psychological processes or con- sense of self that is recognized through the inter-
structs. The individual thus enacts the role, or action of the individual. Teachers’ interactions
subjectivity of teacher, that extends beyond their with their professional context and with others
cognition. From the postmodern/poststructural (e.g., students, colleagues, school leaders) influ-
perspective, little to no attention is given to cog- ence teacher identities. Therefore, proxies for
nitive engagement of the individual in relation teacher identity from the sociocultural perspective
to teacher identity. are the actions undertaken that serve to enable
The emphasis is on the hegemonic process recognition of an individual (by self or others) as
produced and reproduced via social discourses being a teacher. As an agentic phenomena, the
on how teachers are recognized and identified. individual (via actions, engagements, and partici-
This suggests that the ways in which the individ- pation in a variety of professional, academic, or
ual interprets their role as educator (and is recog- non-scholastic contexts) is responsible for their
nized as educator) predates the self and is rooted teacher identity.
in social and cultural institutions with language Given the emphasis on context, the sociocul-
functioning as a primary vehicle for transmission. tural perspective suggests that individuals can
It is only with the changing of social norms over possess multiple teacher identities. As emergent
periods of time that teacher identities change. constructions via engagement within a particular
As such, teacher identities are discontinuous and locale, teacher identities shift not only across
changing, a result more from the collectivity space but time as well. Teacher identity possesses
of the larger social discourse context than from an agentic capacity; this meaning-making and
the individual’s conception of self as educator. understanding of self as educator in specific
Teacher identities lack a core essence given that spaces is likened to a professional identity that
they are performative enactments, produced involves proactively taking up or integrating
and reproduced transcendent of the individual. group characteristics, such as those of colleagues
Furthermore, as a socially produced subjectivity and other professionals. Teachers construct their
untethered to the individual, teacher identity is at professional (or teacher) identities not only from
the whim of socio-discursive models of educators the experiences and interactions as students with
and is materially detached and thus lacks any their own educators but also from current others
objective foundation. with whom they enact their professional selves.
This shift from the individual (as in the psy- Teacher identity is a dynamic construct that
chological perspective) toward social production changes not only with context, but also according
frames language and semiotics as prime modes to the purposes for which the individual teacher
through which teacher identities can be analyzed engages in that context.
and investigated. Language and semiotics do not The changing or reconstruction of teacher
reflect upon the individual interlocutors but identity is therefore neither haphazard nor ran-
instead shed light on teacher identity as a reflec- dom. Rather, its fluidity relates to the manner in
tion of the larger social context itself. which the individual is situated in a setting as
teacher and the function assigned or assumed by
that individual in their work as educator with
The Sociocultural Perspective of Teacher members of the school community. Thus, from
Identity a sociocultural perspective, it is the collective of
past engagement in myriad environments (and
The sociocultural perspective of teacher identity in diverse roles, not only that of teacher) in
focuses on the individual’s social engagement conjunction with present interactions that enables
with others within the immediate local context individuals to construct their teacher identities in
as well as the greater spatial/temporal setting. multiple ways.
4 Teacher Identity Perspectives

The New Materialist Perspective of contributes to the identification as teacher. This

Teacher Identity materially rooted and integrated lens affords
a nuanced and expansive frame attentive to dispa-
As a critical posthuman lens, new materialism rate elements as the substance of teacher identity
breaks from humanistic principles and socio- itself.
constructivist analyses to define and explain Teacher identity as nonlinear suggests that how
what constitutes the human and the onto- teachers are recognized surfaces through continu-
epistemological assumptions that positions the ous processes of materiality’s engagement with
self as an autonomous actor, self-actualized, itself. Teacher identity assumes a mutable quality.
independent of context, agentic, and rational. This is not to suggest that changes in teacher
In relation to teacher identity, this break in histor- identity are haphazard. Rather, the changes that
ically normative and hegemonic perspectives contribute to how teachers are identified and how
regarding what it means to recognize and be rec- they are recognized are functions that satisfy
ognized as an individual enables a repositioning given needs, interests, and desires for particular
of teacher identity as more than a marker that spatiotemporal-socio locations.
extends beyond the self as teacher. A new materi- Second, whereas the postmodern/post-
alist lens frames teacher identity as inclusive not structural lens centers teacher identity via dis-
only of the individual teacher-self, but the inter-/ courses, language, and social models, the new
intra-actions between and among permutations of materialist lens emphasizes matter. Semiotic sign
matter (e.g., the classroom, the students, the cur- and symbol systems are extensions of materiality
riculum, etc.). Being a teacher (i.e., teacher iden- itself. Thus, teacher identity is not solely a discur-
tity) is an emergent relational ontology sustained sive configuration; rather, teacher identity is the
by the activity of the myriad permutations and confluence of matter’s engagement with itself in
combinations of matter in its multiple, disparate multiple plateaus – social, psychological, discur-
forms. The teacher-self (i.e., the human) affects sive, biological, technological, and so
and is affected by matter in the fashioning of on. The human is decentered in teacher identity;
a teacher identity. From a new materialist perspec- while the human encompasses and functions as
tive, there are three salient features for teacher the primary marker of identification, it is the com-
identity: nonlinearity, an emphasis on matter, position of the material elements (human and
and affect. nonhuman) in relation to contextual location that
First, whereas the psychological perspective enables teacher identity.
assumes a development stance and the postmod- Third, while the sociocultural perspective
ern/poststructural a reproductive outlook, a new emphasizes the actions individuals take and their
materialist positioning of teacher identity frames decision-making regarding how they recognize
it as a nonlinear phenomenon. The role of teacher themselves or others as teachers, a new materialist
therefore is not a manifestation or consequence of perspective emphasizes the affective capacities
a particular trajectory of experiences, nor is it the existent not only within individuals but within
result of social discourses or constructs on what it the materiality of a given context. How the col-
means to be a teacher. Instead, teacher identity lectivity of materiality (i.e., matter) affects and is
surfaces in multiple ways in diverse socio-spatial affected shapes teacher identity in contrast to an
locations as a corollary of the sum of material agentic, conscious decision or action taken on the
engagement between and among the human and part of the human actor. The focus is on econo-
nonhuman. The quality of nonlinearity contrib- mies of affect as material permutations that are
utes to an understanding of the vital role of leveled and held as salient as the conscious
context, space, and time as material elements decision-making on the part of the individual
that come to bear in teacher identity formation. in materiality’s affective interplay shaping teacher
Cognitive developmental patterns and social identity. This further contributes to the
discourses/models of what it means to be a teacher decentering of the human and constructs such as
are leveled with observable phenomena that rationality and agency.
Teacher Identity Perspectives 5

As such, the nonhuman (animate and inani- identity, it is how the construct is employed that
mate) emerge as vital in teacher identity and can lend itself toward promoting more equitable
exert a shaping influence upon it. Diverse ele- and socially just systems of schooling. Of the
ments are all permutations of matter in a complex perspectives reviewed in this entry, new material-
inter/intra-play. It is therefore not only the human, ism’s emphasis on locationality, matter’s affective
nor the human situated within a particular setting, capacities, and nonlinearity may hold the most
that lends to teacher identity recognition (e.g., an promise in working toward this aim. By attending
adult standing before a group of children in to the actual lived circumstance, conditions, and
a classroom). Instead, it is the collectivity of material elements that inform teacher identity as
elements and how these elements affect and are salient and of immediate concern, researchers and
affected (e.g., the affect of books, pencils, paper, other members of the academic community can
students, and teacher upon one another) that con- discern concrete analyses and recommendations
tributes to teacher identity. The new materialist capable of contributing to equity and social jus-
emphasis on the affect of the nonhuman enables tice. Ultimately, regardless of how teacher identity
a nuanced lens of teacher identity that can account is conceived, a central issue is how the construct
for contextual variations as immanent and integral can best be examined or analyzed to better the
to how teacher identity is produced, recognized, conditions of schooling for teachers, students, and
and acted upon. other members of the school community.

Conclusion
References
This entry has focused on four perspectives Alsup, J. (2013). Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating
on teacher identity: the psychological, the post- personal and professional spaces. New York:
modern/post structural, the sociocultural, and the Routledge.
new materialist. Each of these provides insight Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding
teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature
not only on the ways individuals are recognized and implications for teacher education. Cambridge
or understood as teachers but also the social mean- Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189. https://doi.org/
ings, associations, and attributes that inform 10.1080/03057640902902252.
teacher identity as a professional identity. Given Danielewicz, J. (2001). Teaching selves: Identity, peda-
gogy, and teacher education. Albany: State University
that there is no singular definition or dominant of New York Press.
perspective on teacher identity, it is up to the Olsen, B. (2008). How reasons for entry into the profession
researcher to determine how the construct is illuminate teacher identity development. Teacher Edu-
understood, what perspective aligns best with cation Quarterly, 35(3), 23–40.
Strom, K. J., & Martin, A. D. (2017). Becoming-teacher:
their operational definition, and what data sources A rhizomatic look at first-year teaching. Rotterdam:
will serve as proxies for it. Nonetheless, regard- Sense.
less of the researcher’s orientation toward teacher

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