School health promotion and teacher professional identity

PURPOSE – Health and education are inextricably linked. Health promotion sits somewhat uncomfortably within schools, often remaining a marginal aspect of teachers’ work. The purpose of this paper is to examine the compatibility of an HP-initiative with teacher professional identity. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH – A qualitative research design was adopted consisting of semi-structured interviews. In total, 49 teachers in two school districts in the Auvergne region in central France were interviewed in depth post having completed three years’ involvement in a health promoting schools initiative called “Learning to Live Better Together” (“Apprendre a Mieux Vivre Ensemble”). FINDINGS – Teachers in the study had a broad conceptualisation of their role in health promotion. In keeping with international trends, there was more success at classroom than at whole school level. While generally teachers can be reluctant to engage with health promotion, the teachers in this study identified having little difficulty in understanding their professional identity as health promoters and identified strong compatibility with the HP-initiative. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS – Teachers generally viewed professional development in health promotion in a positive light when its underlying values were commensurate with their own and when the context was seen as compatible with the school mission. The promotion of health in schools needs to be sensitive to professional identity and be tailored specifically to blend more successfully with current teacher identity and practice. ORIGINALITY/VALUE – The promotion of health in schools needs to be sensitive to professional identity and be tailored specifically to blend more successfully with current teacher identity and practice.

Self, role and character: developing a professional identity as a drama teacher

The paper reports on research into what may have influenced trainees on four post-graduate teacher training courses in England to become specialist drama teachers rather than pursue careers in the world of professional entertainment. In doing so it raises questions regarding the value of considering teaching as a performing art. The paper goes on to explore how drama trainees regard an understanding of performance, and an ability to both use and demonstrate performance techniques, as integral to their role as subject specialists. The subsequent discussion examines how a drama teacher’s professional identity may be seen as being made up of the three inter-connected elements, self, role and character. Thus, while all teaching may be considered to involve some elements of performativity , this paper suggests that, for the drama specialist, an understanding of what constitutes ‘performance’ has a particular importance. One conclusion drawn from the research is that recognising the place of performance in their practice may result in experienced teachers of drama regarding themselves as artists whose art is teaching drama; another is that recognising the different ways in which adopting a role may involve performance could be of value to all teachers and teacher educators.

The construction of a professional identity for special needs teachers in the Italian high school system : a study on the Naples area.

T??tulo, resumen y palabras clave tambi??n en espa??ol

Factors and work conditions shaping the development of professional identity of it teachers in Polaland

Monogr??fico con el t??tulo: "La investigaci??n sobre la identidad profesional del profesorado en Europa???

Where do drama teacher’s come from? Initial investigations into the formation of professional identity

The article reports on research into what may have influenced trainees on four post-graduate teacher training courses in England to become specialist drama teachers rather than pursue careers in the world of professional entertainment. It goes on to explore how the trainees regarded an understanding of performance, and an ability to both use and demonstrate performance techniques, as integral to their professional role. The subsequent discussion examines how a drama teacher’s professional identity may be seen as being made up of the three inter-connected elements, self, role and character. While all teaching may be regarded as a performing art, this paper suggests that, for the drama specialist, an understanding of what constitutes ‘performance’ has a particular importance. A conclusion drawn from the research is that recognising the place of performance in their practice may result in experienced teachers of drama regarding themselves as artists whose art is teaching drama.

Advanced skills teachers: professional identity and status

The teaching profession continues to struggle with defining itself in relation to other professions. Even though public opinion positions teachers second only to doctors and nurses in terms of their professional status and prestige research in the UK suggests that teachers still believe that they have much lower status than other professions. With teacher job satisfaction considerably lower today than the past and on-going issues with teacher recruitment and retention, new government policies have set out to enhance the status of teachers both within and outside of the profession. The Advanced Skill Teacher (AST) grade was introduced in 1998 as a means to recognise and reward teaching expertise and was framed as a way of also raising the status of the teaching profession. As to what a teaching professional should look like, the AST was in many ways positioned as the embodiment. Using survey data from 849 ASTs and in depth interviews with 31, this paper seeks to explores the ways that the AST designation impacts or not on teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity. In particular, the paper considers whether such awards contribute in positive ways to a teacher’s sense of professional identity and status. The results from the research suggest that teaching grades that recognise and reward teaching excellence do contribute in important ways to a teachers’ professional identity via an increased sense of recognition, reward and job satisfaction. The results from this research also suggest that recognising the skills and expertise of teachers is clearly important in supporting teacher retention. This is because as it allows highly accomplished teachers to remain where they want to be and that is the classroom.

Incorporating creativity into teachers practice and self-concept of professional identity

The study explores what happens to teachers practice and ’ professional identity when they adopt a collaborative action research approach to teaching and involve external creative partners and a university mentor. The teachers aim to nurture and develop the creative potential of their learners through empowering them to make decisions for themselves about their own progress and learning directions. The teachers worked creatively and collaboratively designing creative teaching and learning methods in support of pupils with language and communication difficulties. The respondents are from an English special school, primary school and girls secondary school. A mixed methods methodology is adopted. Gains in teacher confidence and capability were identified in addition to shifts in values that impacted directly on their self-concept of what it is to be an effective teacher promoting effective learning. The development of their professional identities within a team ethos included them being able to make decisions about learning that are based on the educational potential of learners that they proved resulted in elevated standards achieved by this group of learners. They were able to justify their actions on established educational principles. Tensions however were revealed between what they perceived as their normal required professionalism imposed by external agencies and the enhanced professionalism experienced working through the project where they were able to integrate theory and practice.

Group mentoring for women starting a PhD: a "duty free zone" to build professional identity

Despite increasing numbers of women attaining higher level academic degrees, gender disparities remain among higher education and among university faculties. Some have posited that this may stem from inadequate academic identity development of women at the doctoral level. While existing gender differences may stem from multiple and variable origins, mentoring has been proposed as a viable means to promote academic identity development and address these gender gaps. This study used a qualitative, narrative case study design to evaluate "StartingDoc" a structured mentoring program launched among Swiss Universities aimed at promoting networking and academic identity development among female doctoral students. Herein we describe the 9 emergent themes which arose from the small-group mentoring program and suggest that such an approach is both feasible and beneficial for young female academics. Further work is needed to elucidate the most effective strategies for developing and retaining women in academia.

Teacher professional growth in an authentic learning environment

The last several decades have been marked by tremendous changes in education - technological, pedagogical, administrative, and social. These changes have led to considerable increments in the budgets devoted to professional development for teachers ~ with the express purpose of helping them accommodate their practices to the new realities oftheir classrooms. However, research has suggested that, in spite of the emphasis placed on encouraging sustained change in teaching practices, little has been accomplished. This begs the question of what ought to be done to not only reverse this outcome, but contribute to transformational change. The literature suggests some possibilities including: a) considering teachers as learners and applying what, is known about cognition and learning; b) modifying the location and nature ofprofessional development so that it is authentic, based in the classroom and focusing on tasks meaningful to the teacher; c) attending to the infrastructure underlying professional development; and d) ensuring opportunities for reflective practice. This dissertation looks at the impact of each ofthese variables through an analysis ofthe learning journeys of a group ofteachers engaged in a program called GrassRoots in one midsized school board in Ontario. Action research was conducted by the researcher in his role as consultant facilitating teacher professional growth around the use of Web sites as culminating performance tasks by students. Research focused on the pedagogical approach to the learning of the teachers involved and the infrastructure underlying their learning. Using grounded theory, a model for professional development was developed that can be used in the future to inform practices and, hopefully, lead to sustained transformational school change.