Identity-agency in progress: Teachers authoring their identities

Abstract

Teachers’ professional identities have been widely recognized as the key resource through which teachers make sense of their work. Despite this recognition, few studies have offered a longitudinal perspective on the processes involved in teachers’ identity development. In this chapter I will offer an advanced conceptualization of the ways in which teachers author their identity development processes. I use examples from two longitudinal research projects on pre-service and in-service teachers’ identity development to illustrate the teachers’ efforts to maintain and develop their professional identities, and identifies two agentic dynamics in professional identity development: renegotiation and defense.