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On identity, diversity, and educational change

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Abstract

In this article, I discuss two areas of Andy Hargreaves’ scholarship, teachers’ identity and biography and the three periods of educational change spanning the 1960s to 1990s, that have influenced my work as a teacher educator and researcher. I describe research projects, including self-studies, in which I have examined the influence of teachers’ identities and biographies on their beliefs and practices of responding to student diversity. I also explore how the topic of teachers’ identity and biography are integrated into the courses I teach. Additionally, I describe how I have related the three periods of educational change—a period of optimism and innovation, a period of complexity and contradiction, and a period of marketization and standardization, along with the monocultural restoration—to corresponding policies and practices of responding to student diversity in the US and Ontario, Canada. Finally, I discuss a current project in which Andy and I are exploring core issues related to educational leadership and diversity.

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Correspondence to Allison Skerrett.

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Skerrett, A. On identity, diversity, and educational change. J Educ Change 12, 211–220 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-011-9153-2

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