Changing experiences of being, becoming, and belonging: teachers’ professional identity revisited

Abstract

Teacher identity has become important in mathematics education research, but mainly in relation to programmes for teacher education (TE) and professional development (PD). Less attention has been paid to understanding the role and development of identities in the majority of cases in which teachers are not involved in long-term TE or PD. This paper presents a study that seeks to develop such understandings. The study defines teacher identities as their shifting experiences of being, becoming and belonging related to the profession. It is a longitudinal case study of a novice teacher, Anna, and it asks how Anna’s identities change over the first 4 years of her career at her school, Northgate. To address the question I use a framework called Patterns of Participation (PoP) in combination with a range of methods, including interviews with Anna, her closest colleagues and the leadership at her school, and observations of Anna’s classrooms and of team meetings. I argue that this combination invites new understandings of identity development, because it does not prioritise teacher engagement in one particular practice (e.g., as promoted by PD), but allows interpretations of how Anna’s engagement with a multitude of different practices play a role for her professional experiences. The results suggest that in general terms, Anna’s identity changes from being ‘a mathematics teacher at Northgate’ to becoming ‘a mathematics teacher at Northgate’.