From Becoming to Being: how STEM teachers develop leadership identities

Abstract

The development of STEM teacher leadership identity empowers K–12 teachers to make changes to improve teaching and learning. Identity development might not be productively supported in all school settings, however. Hence, external professional development programs should offer opportunities to supplement this identity development. We construct and propose a Can’t-to-Becoming-to-Being model to describe STEM teacher leadership identity development as a progression of stages from weak to strong identity. Using interview data over two points in time with 127 STEM teacher leaders, we illustrate four stages of development: Can’t, Can, Should, and Being. We also elucidate the conditions that teachers identify as catalyzing or inhibiting identity development, with attention to the impacts of teacher leaders’ participation in professional development programs. Our findings indicate that the Can’t-to-Becoming-to-Being model is useful for describing how teachers may develop STEM teacher leadership identity and may provide researchers a tool for exploring this process. Professional developers might consider the catalysts (and inhibitors) we identify as a means of strengthening teacher leadership identities in the design and implementation of professional learning. External spaces separate from school communities may offer teacher leaders opportunities to try out provisional selves and provide additional motivation to propel participants to Being teacher leaders.