Importance Of Teacher Identity

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9.3. Teacher identity
In alignment with the conceptualisation of identity discussed in section 9.2, this section provides an overview and focuses on the notion of teacher identity. The section will begin with a brief overview of previous studies that plays as the foundation for the emergence of teacher identity. From there, the concept of teacher identity is discussed in relation to teacher professional identity. Followed by a discussion of language teachers’ identities (TESOL/ EFL teachers) with key trends and findings.
9.3.1. Teacher identity in education
There are several reasons for the emergence of the study of identity as one of the prominent issues in education. One of the first reasons is the rapid chance in nature of education and …show more content…

Rooted from educational research, many studies have been conducted to examine various topics and areas that preceded teacher identity research. These studies include topics around teacher knowledge and beliefs, professional development, reflective practice and so on. This much effort and attention of educational research paid to the exploration of several research topics under different labels can be regarded as the precursors of teacher identity research. Hence the following sections will briefly review some of the key trends and movements preceding the establishment of teacher identity …show more content…

Under this regard, the role of school and previous educational experience are significant as they influence how student teachers learn and extract from previous courses (Calderhead and Robson, 1991). This body of literature stresses on the function of the ‘apprenticeship’ period “which leads to the development of a body of values, commitments, orientations and practices” (Calderhead and Robson, 1991: 01). Later research has developed this toward the notion of ‘personal practice knowledge’ (Connelly and Clandinin, 1999), which refers to the integration of several aspects of knowledge and the teachers’ cognitive system. Under this perspective, teachers’ knowledge is created from their pervious experience, their everyday lives and expressed in their practice. Given the concept of ‘personal practice knowledge’, new teacher education programs are designed taking teachers’ beliefs and knowledge as central in reconstructing curriculum. Teachers are seen as ‘curriculum makers’ (Connelly and Clandinin, 1999) and this trend in education research marks the development of examining teachers’ belief and cognition in later

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