Professional identity assignments to support beginning teachers’ growth into the profession

Developing a professional identity is a key element of the transition into the teaching profession. Limited research exists on professional development activities and ideas that support beginning teachers’ development of their professional identity in practice. For this study teachers participated in an induction programme that focused on beginning teachers’ professional identity. This study reports on the development and testing of three online professional identity assignments with 46 beginning teachers from 11 secondary schools. These assignments were based on research findings regarding the influence of ‘significant others’ and ‘stories to live by’ on teachers’ professional identity development. Analysis of the results reveals that the assignments each provide valuable input for doing identity work with beginning teachers in view of their further professional development. It can be concluded that the assignments we developed are useful for beginning teachers to reflect on and make sense of who they are and want to become

Teachers' sense of their professional identity

Abstract The overall aim of this dissertation was to contribute to the conceptualization of teachers’ professional identity. Based on the literature and previous research, teachers’ job satisfaction, self-efficacy, occupational commitment, and change in level of motivation were perceived as indicators of teachers’ sense of their professional identity. The relationships between these indicators were explored using data of 1214 teachers working in secondary education in the Netherlands. Teachers’ relationship satisfaction (referring, for instance, to teachers’ satisfaction with the support they receive or their satisfaction with their co-workers) and teachers’ classroom self-efficacy play a pivotal role in the relationships between the indicators. By further analysing the same dataset, three distinct professional identity profiles were identified: an unsatisfied and demotivated identity profile consisting of teachers who scored relatively low on the indicators, a motivated and affectively committed identity profile consisting of teachers who scored relatively high on the indicators, and a competence doubting identity profile consisting of teachers with a more diverse score pattern. Differences between the profiles were observed regarding teachers’ beliefs about the objectives of education: ‘stimulating personal and moral development’ and ‘importance of qualification and schooling’. No differences between the profiles were observed regarding the teachers’ amount of experience. An additional exploratory study among eighteen teachers showed that the students of teachers with an unsatisfied and demotivated identity profile observed their teachers’ behaviours ‘providing clear instruction’ and ‘efficient classroom management’ more often than students’ ratings of teachers with a motivated and affectively committed or a competence doubting identity profile. Samenvatting De professionele identiteit van docenten moet gezien worden als het resultaat van de voortdurende interactie tussen de persoonlijke kenmerken van een docent en de kenmerken van diens werkomgeving. Deze voortdurende interactie wordt weerspiegeld in de motivatie, het vertrouwen in het eigen kunnen, de arbeidssatisfactie en de professionele betrokkenheid van de docent. De relaties tussen deze indicatoren zijn onderzocht met behulp van gegevens van 1214 leerkrachten in het voortgezet onderwijs in Nederland. De tevredenheid met de contacten op het werk (verwijzend naar, bijvoorbeeld, de tevredenheid met de ontvangen ondersteuning) en het vertrouwen in het eigen kunnen in de klas spelen een centrale rol in de relaties tussen de indicatoren. Op basis van dezelfde dataset werden drie verschillende professionele identiteitsprofielen onderscheidden: een unsatisfied and demotivated profiel, (docenten met dit profiel scoren relatief laag op de indicatoren), een motivated and affectively committed profiel (docenten met dit profiel scoren relatief hoog op de indicatoren) en een competence doubting profiel (bestaande uit docenten met een divers score patroon). Verschillen tussen de profielen werden waargenomen ten aanzien van opvattingen over de doelstellingen van het onderwijs: ‘bevordering van de persoonlijke en morele ontwikkeling’ en ‘belang van kwalificatie en scholing’. De docenten behorende tot de drie profielen verschilden niet in hun hoeveelheid ervaring in het onderwijs. Uit een extra verkennende studie onder achttien leraren bleek dat de leerlingen van de leerkrachten met een unsatisfied and demotivated profiel vaker het gedrag ‘duidelijke instructie’ en ‘efficiënt klasmanagement’ waarnamen bij hun docent dan leerlingen van leerkrachten met een ander identiteitsprofiel.

Teachers’ positioning towards an educational innovation in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency

The positioning of eleven teachers towards an innovation was studied in the light of ownership, sense-making and agency. Semi-structured and video-stimulated interviews were used for data collection. The findings show that these three concepts are useful for describing similarities and differences between teachers in terms of their positioning towards the innovation. Considerable differences were found between teachers regarding their ownership, sense-making, and agency. Exploring the relations between these concepts revealed that a high degree of agency often went together with a high degree of ownership, but seemed to be moderated by the sense-making proces

Whitepaper Lerarentekorten: Over oorzaken, beleid en oplossingen

In dit whitepaper richten we ons op de oplopende lerarentekorten die een steeds groter maatschappelijk probleem vormen. In diverse adviezen is aangedrongen op meer landelijke regie op de maatregelen om deze tekorten terug te dringen, rekening houdend met verschillen in regionale situaties. Recent hebben de ministers van OCW hiertoe beleid ontwikkeld. Daarbij wordt niet alleen ingezet op meer regie, maar ook op meer uitgewerkte kaders voor HRM-beleid in het onderwijs, meer tijd voor leraren door het beter benutten van de kaders voor het organiseren van de onderwijstijd, en meer ruimte voor professionele ontwikkeling van leraren. In onze bijdrage aan de discussie formuleren we een aantal aangrijpingspunten om het beleid gericht op het terugdringen van de lerarentekorten verder te ontwikkelen. Analyses van de oorzaken van het lerarentekort vormen daarbij het startpunt

Self-efficacy, job satisfaction, motivation and commitment:exploring the relationships between indicators of teachers' professional identity

This study investigates how relevant indicators of teachers' sense of their professional identity (job satisfaction, occupational commitment, self-efficacy and change in level of motivation) are related. A model is proposed, tested with structural equation modelling (SEM) and refined using data from 1,214 Dutch teachers working in secondary education. Classroom self-efficacy and relationship satisfaction play a key influencing role in the relationships between the indicators. Using multiple-group SEM, the parameters of the overall model are similar for the novice, experienced and senior teachers in a constrained model. This aspect of similarity across experience groups is in line with findings of previous research on teachers' professional identity. The present study contributes to the further development of a solid theory on teachers' professional identity, which has been lacking

Картографический метод в изучении территориального рекреационного неравенства

This article investigates the link between teachers' appraisal of specific interpersonal situations in classrooms and their more general interpersonal identity standard, which together form their interpersonal role identity. Using semi-structured and video-stimulated interviews, data on teachers' appraisals and interpersonal identity standards were collected and analyzed using appraisal and interpersonal circumplex theory. Results show a variety of interpersonal identity standards, although the majority of the teachers mentions standards focusing on the codes steering and being friendly. The situation “reacting to student positive behavior” evoked most appraisals that confirmed identity standards. For 13 of the 29 teachers, their identity standard matched with their appraisals. In most cases, however, this match was only to some extent (10 teachers) and sometimes not at all (six teachers). The results suggest that teachers can enhance their relationship with students by becoming more aware of the meanings teachers attach to this relationship in specific situations

Kennis en professioneel leren van lerarenopleiders

Het VELON-bestuur ziet het als zijn taak te zorgen voor een (actuele) kennisbasis voor lerarenopleiders. Een goede kennisbasis is onontbeerlijk voor professionele ontwikkeling. De kennisbasis dient dan wel actueel te zijn. Daarnaast is het onderzoek naar professionalisering van lerarenopleiders vaak gefragmenteerd. Dit symposium omvat drie papers met een breed overkoepelend thema (kennis en professioneel leren) met als doel het onderzoek samen te brengen