Teacher Identity

This morning's professional studies lecture was about teacher identity. Dr. Cole covered a number of topics beginning with the question: "What is a teacher?" He contrasted the rather anachronistic view of the teacher as authority and disciplinarian whose primary relationship with students is one of power (he drew parallels to similar relationships between Britain and the rest of the Empire) with a stereotype of the "progressive" teacher who is full of enthusiasm, a drive to change the world and is soon run down by the relentless grind. He then described a more realistic view of the teacher as a (small) part of the educational institution: a system whose structure, goals and values are fixed and within which we must work.

Dr. Cole talked about assessment and its role as part of the learning process rather than a separate and distinct thing (undertaken alone in a sterile environment).

He finished by talking about professional development and how we can become more professional:

• Action research -- reflecting on our own practice and the practice of others, and using this to guide our own development (i.e: acting upon research we do).


• Expert status -- most educational systems offer some form of "expert status" certification.


• Student relationships -- we can teach more effectively when we have closer relationships (e.g: empathy) with the students. This can be difficult when we are limited to two periods a week, etc.


• Team teaching -- we are not alone. Working together with our peers and colleague teachers can help us improve.


• Work within the school -- we must locate our own values, goals, etc. within those of the institution.

When we do our professional experience, we will be assessed by teachers from our placement school according to certain criteria (he showed the New Beginning Teacher Criteria from 1996, but I think that we'll be assessed according to different criteria), but we may not have opportunity to demonstrate all of them in our first placement.