Browsing by Subject "opettajaidentiteetti"

In the change of society also the education and teacher's profession are in change. During the last years teacher's profession and teacher's professional identity have become a focus of interest. The aim of this study was to examine the teacher identity of home economics teachers and the development of it during the education. The theme for research was approached through teacher practices of home economics teacher education. Research questions are: how does the teacher identity of home economics teacher student develop during the teacher practices and what kind of paths of teacher identity development do the home economics teacher students follow. In the theoretical frame the change of teacher's profession and the models of identity, professional identity and teacher identity are discussed. Also the role of teacher education as a developer of the teacher identity of home economics teacher students is deliberated. This study was conducted as qualitative research and the data were portfolios of four different teaching practices of home economics teacher students. The data were analysed with the qualitative content analysis. The analysing frame was based on social learning theory of Wenger (1999). In the classification of the data data-based approach was also utilized. The results were illustrated in two models. The first model describes how the teacher identity of home economics teacher student develops during teacher practices as an on-going learning-styled process through the reflection of four fields – professionalism, effect of personality, learning communities and experiencing the meaning of the profession. The other model describes how the paths of development of teacher identity of home economics teacher students follow different ways. The results of this study can be utilized in home economics teacher education for supporting the students in construction of teacher identity.

The purpose of this study was to describe and understand why a person would make a voluntary career change into teaching, and what kind of a role does the career change process have in the construction of teacher identity. This study began first by describing the motives behind the voluntary career change, the profiles of the changers and the steps of the actual career change process. Secondly, this study aimed to cover the concept of teacher identity and its construction process. The first two topics were then combined by looking at the role of the previous career to the new one based on the boundaryless career concept by Defillippi and Arthur (1999). According to my research review, the change process of a person's identity – personal, professional and narrative – is closely related to the voluntary career change. An interesting aspect of the career change was especially how the career change process itself, as it takes lots of reflection, risk taking and courage, could act as a contributing factor in the construction of the teacher identity. This study was based on the narrative research methodology. The narratives were received through an advertisement published in the Opettaja magazine. The research data consisted of the narratives written by four elementary school teachers and four elementary school teacher students. The narratives were used as a data source, a method of analysis and a reporting tool. The analysis began first by the thematisation and classification of the content in the narratives. The focus was then switched to the timeframe and subject position analysis. A strong message of survival was present in the research literature and the narratives analysed in this study. The empowerment resulting from the decision to pursue a voluntary career change was a common factor in all the narratives in this study. A second career teacher brings along her skills and abilities from the previous career as the writers identified in their narratives and were able to recognise the benefits in their daily teacher's life. The increased self-knowledge gained through a voluntary career change process helps the construction of a teacher identity as one works through her own person in teaching.