Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Working with Identity Work: Supporting Professional Identity Development in Teacher Education

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Engaging with Work in English Studies

Abstract

The development of a coherent sense of self as a teacher often emerges from tensions between multiple and competing identities. While grappling with these tensions can be stressful, and sometimes demoralizing, it is through disruption that spaces for development are provided. For preservice teachers, identity development can be supported through engagement with these processes. With a focus on conceptualizations of the self that foreground its narrative structure and conflicted nature—and taking the work of learning to teach English as an example—this chapter presents a series of tools that can be used for ‘working with identity work’ at different stages of a preservice teacher’s education.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adler, A. (1929). The science of living. Greenberg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Akkerman, S. F., & Bakker, A. (2011). Learning at the boundary: An introduction. International Journal of Educational Research, 50, 1–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Akkerman, S. F., & Meijer, P. C. (2011). A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 308–319.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alsup, J. (2006). Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating personal and professional spaces. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Alsup, J. (2018). Millennial teacher identity discourses: Balancing self and other. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Badia, A., Liesa, E., Becerril, L., & Mayoral, P. (2020). A dialogical self approach to the conceptualization of teacher-inquirer identity. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 35, 865–879.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. (1981). The dialogic imagination: Four essays by M. M. Bakhtin (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, C. (2019). An exploration of evolving approaches to teacher identity revealed in literature on teaching from 2010 to 2018. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: An overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2011). New teachers’ identity shifts at the boundary of teacher education and initial practice. International Journal of Educational Research, 50, 6–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beijaard, D., & Meijer, P. (2017). Developing the personal and professional in making a teacher identity. In D. J. Caldinin & J. Husu (Eds.), The Sage handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 177–192). Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20, 107–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloomfield, D. (2010). Emotions and “getting by”: A preservice teacher navigating professional experience. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 38, 221–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Britzman, D. P. (2003). Practice makes practice: A critical study of learning to teach (Rev. ed.). State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Britzman, D. P. (2006). Novel education: Psychoanalytic studies of learning and not learning. Peter Lang.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • D’Argembeau, A. (2016). The role of personal goals in future-oriented mental time travel. In K. Michaelian, S. B. Klein, & K. K. Szpunar (Eds.), Seeing the future. Theoretical perspectives on future-oriented mental time travel (pp. 199–214). Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • D’Argembeau, A. (2020). Imagination and self-referential thinking. In A. Abraham (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of the imagination (pp. 354–372). Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Engeström, Y. (2001). Expansive learning at work: Toward an activity theoretical reconceptualization. Journal of Education and Work, 14, 133–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erikson, M. G. (2007). The meaning of the future: Toward a more specific definition of possible selves. Review of General Psychology, 11, 348–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrier-Kerr, J. (2009). Establishing professional relationships in practicum settings. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25, 790–797.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feryok, A., & Pryde, M. (2012). Images as orienting activity: Using theory to inform classroom practices. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 18, 441–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geijsel, F., & Meijers, F. (2005). Identity learning: The core process of educational change. Educational Studies, 31(4), 419–430.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gergen, K. J., & Gergen, M. M. (1988). Narrative and the self as relationship. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 21, 17–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gregersen, T., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2015). ‘I can see a little bit of you on myself’: A dynamic systems approach to the inner dialogue between teacher and learner selves. In Z. Dörnyei, P. D. MacIntyre, & A. Henry (Eds.), Motivational dynamics in language learning (pp. 260–284). Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A. (2015). The dynamics of possible selves. In Z. Dörnyei, P. D. MacIntyre, & A. Henry (Eds.), Motivational dynamics in language learning (pp. 83–94). Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A. (2016). Conceptualizing teacher identity as a complex dynamic system: Tensions during school placements. Journal of Teacher Education, 67(4), 291–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A. (2019). A drama of selves: Investigating teacher identity development from dialogical and complexity perspectives. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 9(2), 263–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A. (2020). Possible and personal goals: What can we learn from episodic future thinking? Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 6(3), 479–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A. (2021). A collection of contradictory selves: The dialogical self and the dynamics of teacher identity transformation. In R. Sampson & R. Pinner (Eds.), Complexity perspectives on researching language learner and teacher psychology (pp. 234–251). Multilingual Matters.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A., & Cliffordson, C. (2017). The impact of out-of-school factors on motivation to learn English: Self-discrepancies, beliefs, and experiences of self-authenticity. Applied Linguistics, 38(5), 688–712.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A., & Mollstedt, M. (2021). Centrifugal–centripetal dynamics in the dialogical self: A case study of a boundary experience in teacher education. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 1–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A., & Mollstedt, M. (forthcoming). The Other in the Self: Mentoring relationships and adaptive dynamics in preservice teacher identity construction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henry, A., & Tynkkinen, M. (2017). Becoming a process researcher of one’s own development: Using an identity mapping model to make sense of transformation dynamics during school placements. In T. Gregersen & P. D. MacIntyre (Eds.), Exploring innovations in language teacher education: Transformational theory and practice (pp. 205–228). Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M. (1996). Voicing the self: From information processing to dialogical interchange. Psychological Bulletin, 119(1), 31–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M. (2001). The dialogical self: Toward a theory of personal and cultural positioning. Culture & Psychology, 7(3), 243–281.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M. (2008). How to perform research on the basis of dialogical self theory? Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 21(3), 185–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M., & Hermans-Konopka, A. (Eds.). (2010). Dialogical self theory: Positioning and counter-positioning in a globalizing society. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M., & Kempen, H. J. G. (1993). The dialogical self: Meaning as movement. Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M., Kempen, H. J. G., & Van Loon, R. J. P. (1992). The dialogical self: Beyond individualism and rationalism. American Psychologist, 47, 23–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermans, H. J. M., Rijks, T. I., & Kempen, H. J. G. (1993). Imaginal dialogues in the self: Theory and method. Journal of Personality, 61, 207–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94, 319–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hiver, P. V. (2013). The interplay of possible language teacher selves in professional development choices. Language Teaching Research, 17, 210–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horney, K. (1950). Neurosis and human growth. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Izadinia, M. (2015). A closer look at the role of mentor teachers in shaping preservice teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 52, 1–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1890/2007). The principles of psychology (Vol. 1). Cosimo.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, W. (1910). Psychology: The briefer course. Holt.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, A., & Garner, J. K. (2017). A complex dynamic systems perspective on identity and its development: The dynamic systems model of role identity. Developmental Psychology, 53(11), 2036–2051.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, A., & Garner, J. K. (2018). Teacher identity and motivation: The dynamic systems model of role identity. In P. A. Schutz, J. Hong, & D. Cross Francis (Eds.), Research on teacher identity: Mapping challenges and innovations (pp. 71–82). New York: Springer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: Self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers and teaching: Theory and practice, 15(2), 257–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelchtermans, G., & Hamilton, M. L. (2004). The dialectics of passion and theory: Exploring the relationship between self-study and emotion. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. Kubler LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 785–810). Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Kubanyiova, M. (2012). Teacher development in action: Understanding language teachers’ conceptual change. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kubanyiova, M. (2015). The role of teachers’ future self guides in creating L2 development opportunities in teacher-led classroom discourse: Reclaiming the relevance of language teacher cognition. Modern Language Journal, 99, 565–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leijen, Ä., & Kullasepp, K. (2013). Unlocking the potential of conflicts: A pilot study of professional identity development facilitation during initial teacher education. International Journal for Dialogical Science, 7(1), 67–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leijen, Ä., Kullasepp, K., & Anspal, T. (2014). Pedagogies of developing teacher identity. In C. Craig & L. Orland-Barak (Eds.), International teacher education: Promising pedagogies (Part A) (pp. 317–334). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. (Advances in Research on Teaching; 22).

    Google Scholar 

  • Markus, H., & Ruvolo, A. (1989). Possible selves: Personalized representations of goals. In L. A. Pervin (Ed.), Goal concepts in personality and social psychology (pp. 211–241). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markus, H. R., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist, 41, 954–969.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martínez-de-la-Hidalga, Z., & Villardón-Gallego, L. (2019). Teacher identity research and development. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (1984). Love, power, and images of the self. In C. Z. Malatesta & C. E. Izard (Eds.), Emotion in adult development (pp. 159–174). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (1985a). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. Chicago: Dorsey Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (1985b). The ‘imago’: A key narrative component of identity. In P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology (Vol. 6, pp. 115–141). Beverly Hills: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (1988). Power, intimacy, and the life story: Personological inquiries into identity. The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (1993). The stories we live by: Personal myths and the making of the self. The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (1996). Personality, modernity and the storied self: A contemporary framework for studying persons. Psychological Inquiry, 7, 295–321.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McAdams, D. P. (2003). Identity and the life story. In R. Fivush & C. Haden (Eds.), Autobiographical memory and the construction of a narrative self: Developmental and cultural perspectives (pp. 187–207). Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meijer, P. C., Oolbekkink, H. W., Pillen, M., & Aardema, A. (2014). Pedagogies of developing teacher identity. In C. Craig & L. Orland-Barak (Eds.), International teacher education: Promising pedagogies (Part A) (pp. 293–230). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. (Advances in Research on Teaching; 22).

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Mercer, S. (2011). Understanding learner agency as a complex dynamic system. System, 39(4), 427–436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mezirow, J. (2009). Transformative learning theory. In J. Mezirow, W. W. Taylor, et al. (Eds.), Transformative learning in practice (pp. 18–31). Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Monereo, C. (2019). The role of critical incidents in the dialogical construction of teacher identity. Analysis of a professional transition case. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction, 20, 4–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pillen, M. (2013). Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers. Doctoral dissertation, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pillen, M. T., Beijaard, D., & den Brok, P. J. (2013). Tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development, accompanying feelings and coping strategies. European Journal of Teacher Education, 36(3), 240–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pillen, M. T., den Brok, P. J., & Beijaard, D. (2013). Profiles and change in beginning teachers’ professional identity tensions. Teaching and Teacher Education, 34, 86–97.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarbin, T. R. (1986). The narrative as a root metaphor for psychology. In T. R. Sarbin (Ed.), Narrative psychology: The storied nature of human conduct (pp. 3–21). Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smagorinsky, P., Cook, L. S., Moore, C., Jackson, A. Y., & Fry, P. G. (2004). Tensions in learning to teach: Accommodation and the development of a teaching identity. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(1), 8–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sockett, G. (2014). The online informal learning of English. Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sutherland, L., Howard, S., & Markauskaite, L. (2010). Professional identity creation: Examining the development of beginning preservice teachers’ understanding of their work as teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 455–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trent, J. (2013). From learner to teacher: Practice, language, and identity in a teaching practicum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 41(4), 426–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ushioda, E. (2013). Motivation and ELT: Looking ahead to the future. In E. Ushioda (Ed.), International perspectives on motivation: Language learning and professional challenges (pp. 233–239). Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Van Rijswijk, M. M., Akkerman, S., & Koster, B. (2013). Student teachers’ internally persuasive borderland discourse and teacher identity. International Journal for Dialogical Science, 7(1), 43–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vedder-Weiss, D., Biran, L., Kaplan, A., & Garner, J. (2018). Reflexive inquiry as a scaffold for teacher identity exploration during the first year of teaching. In E. Lyle (Ed.), The negotiated self: Employing reflexive inquiry to explore teacher identity (pp. 225–235) Brill.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Walkington, J. (2005). Becoming a teacher: Encouraging development of teacher identity through reflective practice. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 33(1), 53–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioural Studies, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden

    Alastair Henry

Authors
  1. Alastair Henry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alastair Henry .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioural Studies, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden

    Alastair Henry

  2. Department of Social and Behavioural Studies, University West, Trollhättan, Sweden

    Åke Persson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Henry, A. (2021). Working with Identity Work: Supporting Professional Identity Development in Teacher Education. In: Henry, A., Persson, Å. (eds) Engaging with Work in English Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69720-4_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69720-4_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-69719-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-69720-4

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation