KSI 2006

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• KSI 2006
• Strand 2 Teacher Curriculum
• Session 1
• Teacher Identity Use of
• Curriculum Materials
• Jen Cartier (ECRA, University of Pittsburgh)
• Cory Forbes (Grad. Student, University of
  Michigan)

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Session Overview

• Introduction Focusing on Core Relationships
• Defining the Identity Construct
• Two Views of Teacher Identity
• Looking at Data through the Identity Lens
• Extending the Discussion

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Core Relationships . . . To be explored using
Teacher Identity as a lens.
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Task 1 Defining the Identity Construct

• What are the components or dimensions of
  Identity? (begin with Enyedys framework, p. 85)
• What work does Identity do for us as teacher
  educators, policy makers, and/or researchers that
  the individual components or dimensions do not?
  (That is, why is the whole construct more than
  the sum of its parts?)

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Perspectives on Teacher Identity

• Common Assumptions
• All teachers develop a view of what a good
  teacher does (their role/s and practices)
• The good teacher identity is a desirable one (a
  positive possible self Holland, et al., 1998)
  that influences the choices teachers make

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Perspectives on Teacher Identity

• Unique Analytical Lenses
• Individual teachers identity development
• Broad (culturally derived) identity categories
• Unique Purposes
• To further develop theoretical model/s of teacher
  learning and practice to inform pre-service
  teacher education
• To inform policy related to teacher professional
  development and curriculum adoption/implementation

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Locating Identity Key Constructs

• Teachers talk about their identity in terms of
  their professional practices (what they do) and
  in terms of professional roles (who they are)
  (Enyedy et al., 2006)
• Dynamic interplay between the two
• Being a teacher implies certain norms of
  activity identity as performance (Bullough et
  al., 1992 Goffman, 1959).
• Certain types of activities position individuals
  within roles, such as that of teacher.
• Also a temporal dimension - to understand
  identity in at any given point in time
  (objectified and in practice), historical
  dimension of identity must be accounted for.

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Role Identity

• Role identity - developed through social
  interaction with role partners and resources,
  mediated by role-relevant norms and expectations
  (Stets Burke, 2000)
• 3 influences on PTs role identity formation
  (Mahlios, 2002)
• Past histories as learners
• Teacher education program
• Classroom-based experiences
• Even within a particular role, identity is
  differentiated (Collier, 2001)
• Curricular role identity dimensions of
  teachers role associated with use of CM.

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Critical Theory and the School Curriculum

• Assumptions
• Schools exist within a nexus of other
  institutions (political, economic, and cultural)
  that result in structural inequalities of power
  and access to resources Apple, 2004, p. 61
• Schools exert social and economic control over
  students, teachers, and communities

• Goal
• To understand and make explicit the structures
  through which schools perpetuate social
  inequities in order to abolish these inequities

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Critical Theory Teacher Identity

• Elementary teachers roles are impacted by our
  social/cultural/economic history Apple, in
  Shapiro Purpel, 1993
• Gender
• e.g. resistance strategies
• Class
• Professional
• Laborer

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• Professional
• high degree of agency
• focus on student learning in classroom
• tool orientation toward curriculum and
  resources

• Laborer
• low degree of agency
• focus on job tasks and external measures of
  success
• rule orientation toward curriculum

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Types of Data/Evidence
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Task 2 Data Critique

• What evidence of Teacher Identity (or elements of
  it) is present in these examples?
• How might Identity be useful for characterizing
  the core relationships (between teachers and
  aspects of curriculum) in these contexts?
• What questions remain? (Do we need more or
  different data? Etc.)

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Task 3 Extending/Connecting to Your Work

• Describe one question your group has related to
  teacher identity and practices.
• How does your question connect to or extend our
  understanding of the core relationships presented
  at the beginning of this session?
• How would you design a study to answer this
  question?
• What sources of data/evidence might you collect?
• What framework(s) might you use for analysis?