Professional Teaching And Teacher Education: Theories And Practices

Three Perspectives of Teacher’s Professional Identity

Discuss about the Professional Teaching and Teacher Education.

It can be said that early childhood education and teaching are considered as worthy careers. Australia is the country where the teachers are given sufficient compensation, along with sufficient public support and federal funding. The first part of the study will focus on the theories and practices of teaching such as identity theory, teacher professional identity, influences of the factors while shaping the perceptions of the teachers as a professional identity. The second part of the study focuses on the influence of the factors in shaping the professional identity of becoming a teacher.

An identity of a teacher in terms of professionalism can be categorized into three perspectives. The framework of Erikson is considered as a extensive and multidimensional in nature and scope. In order to define the identity of a teacher, the two terms are main points of concerns such as self concept of one’s and the sense of self (Anspal, Leijen & Löfström, 2014). In the definition, it can be said that the word self is used as a singular noun that points to be used as stable core and unified. The identity of the teacher as a career path can be divided into personal identity, ego identity and social identity.

Personal identity- In the personal identity of the teacher, the values, goals and beliefs of a person shows to the world. Personal identity is the distinction factor that helps in maintaining personal identity as a teacher based on the experience and knowledge gathering (Fuller, Goodwyn & Francis-Brophy, 2013).

Ego identity- Ego identity is the most fundamental and basic beliefs of a person. This identity is possibly an internalized and unconscious identity from the parents. This identity of a teacher is resistant and consistent to change.

Social identity- Social identity is considered as a group of identity that will emphasize on the social factors and other factors socialization. The factors of the teacher that influence the perception of them in exploring their personal identity are teacher as a pedagogical expert, identification of the profession of the teacher, as a subject matter expert, teaching concept, teaching experience and the biography of the teacher. These will be explained in the next part in a detailed way (Li, 2016).

It can be said that in Australia, the universities and colleges are providing many professional courses and degree courses for the graduates that influences the graduates for becoming a professional teacher. The professional courses include a one-year course in Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) (Kenny, Finneran & Mitchell, 2015). An inclusive pedagogy are developed by the higher education provider of Australia in order to influence the people associated with these courses in order to develop a professional identity. The professional courses are based on the inclusive pedagogy. They are dependent on three themes such as active professionalism, social justice and understanding learning (Xu, 2013).

Professional Learning Program

The teaching practices that are included in the pedagogy are related to the different aspects such as creation of environment for learning, extension of the things that are available to the learners. The differentiation of the pedagogy can be achieved through a varied level of choice of activity for the learners (Bolívar, Domingo & Pérez-García, 2014). The courses and other learning program help the learner in developing willingness to work in a creative way so that they can help in developing an approach of providing the knowledge among everyone i.e. the development of a hardcore professional identity in the perspective of teaching. It also relates to increase the commitment of the person while teaching to the audiences or students in the schools. The learners believe in their own capability while promoting the activities of learning in the course (Eteläpelto et al., 2014).

The professional courses of Australia are based on few themes. The themes are to be formulated on the basis of the socio-cultural factors of the country. Research has pointed out that the schools, colleges and universities of Australia have various students’ diverse cultural backgrounds. The students can be categorized as indigenous students and aboriginal students. Apart from that, the universities of Australia have foreign students from different countries of the world (Dang, 2013). Teachers must have the sense of inclusion and diversity while gathering knowledge regarding inclusion of theories of teaching and learning.

The understanding learning theme of the post graduate courses of the learning institutes are responsible in offering a critique of the labeling ability and the introduction of new theory that portrays the learning procedures of the children. The social justice theme on the other hand helps in developing awareness in terms of inequalities that are characterized by the different deterministic practices while imbue the students in order to create a sense of responsibility while supporting the learners (Machin, 2016). On the other hand, the theme of active professionalism is considered as a theme of collaborative professionalism. In this theme, the teachers usually work with others in order to deliver a quality education to them by clearing their doubts. The socio-cultural aspect of the theories and inclusive pedagogies are responsible for finding ways in responding to the difficulties of the children in their curriculum (Pillen, Beijaard & den Brok, 2013).

The country of Australia usually worked on the pattern of a shared national education system. The system of education acts with an agreement with the states. The policies of the education focuses not only to the education of the students of the country but also to the teachers who are engaged in providing knowledge to the students of schools, college and universities. The education policies and the system are steered nationally in terms of various agreements with the territories and states of the country. The states and the territories are focused on the funding and education priorities (Izadinia, 2013). The states and schools’ government share the decision-making process in the perspective of lower secondary school. The education policies focus on funding of the schools and colleges. The funding of school in many cases has lacked the coherence and transparency in determining the outcomes of the accomplished goals. The educational institutions have many experienced teachers that are responsible for teaching the students are shaping their career and grow their identity as a teacher (Pillen, Beijaard & Brok, 2013).

Socio-Cultural Context of Theories

It can be said that both experienced and inexperienced teachers are in search of their professional identity. There are a number of professional factors that are responsible for creating professional identity i.e. self image in the profession. The innovative factors of a teacher to be a didactical expert, subject matter expert, pedagogical expert, identification of teacher as a profession, teaching context, teaching experience, biography of teacher, in his particular career. I have identified out these factors that are responsible for developing a self image as a teacher. When I was engaged in the diploma courses of becoming a teacher then I have learned things of becoming more responsible and rational towards sharing knowledge to the students of schools and universities. The experience of a teacher is a vital aspect that is an important cause for the development of professional identity. Experience of a teacher helps him in gathering more confidence and gathering well organized knowledge that can enable the teacher in order to draw their past experiences (Ruohotie-Lyhty, 2013). The teacher as a subject matter expert is more organized in nature while encompassing different units of knowledge such as illustrations, metaphors, images, etc. They also extend the implicit as a knowledge in a novice.

In other words, it can be said that the role of teacher in developing curriculum and pedagogy is an important influential factors of creating a self identity as a teacher. These are the traditional factors that are creating an impact in the career path of a teacher during his training and mock teaching part of the course. Apart from that, the experienced teacher also formulate curriculum and pedagogy that requires, planning, execution and finally evaluation of the formulation of pedagogy for students (Harford & Gray, 2016). If teaching is considered in the situational perspective, then it can take place in the basis of the unarticulated knowledge that is very difficult to codify as it is spontaneous in nature.

Conclusion

The study focuses on the factors that have influenced on the teachers while developing their professional identity in the higher education provider and education provider. The educational policy and the contemporary education system of education provide immense support to the learners as well as the future teachers to choose their career as a teacher or professor. The social context of the factors of educational pedagogies that result into different types of development of themes in the diploma programs for the teachers. It can be said that Australia has an international standards of education that helps in shaping the careers of students. The diploma programs for teachers help themselves in creating professional identity.

References

Anspal, T., Leijen, Ä., & Löfström, E. (2014). Student teachers’ identity development examined through tensions in different types of curricula. Sisukord/Table of Contents, 23.

Bolívar, A., Domingo, J., & Pérez-García, P. (2014). Crisis and Reconstruction of Teachers’ Professional Identity: The Case of Secondary School Teachers in Spain. The Open Sports Sciences Journal, 7, 106-112.

Dang, T. K. A. (2013). Identity in activity: Examining teacher professional identity formation in the paired-placement of student teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 30, 47-59.

Eteläpelto, A., Vähäsantanen, K., Hökkä, P., & Paloniemi, S. (2014). Identity and agency in professional learning. In International handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning (pp. 645-672). Springer Netherlands.

Fuller, C., Goodwyn, A., & Francis-Brophy, E. (2013). Advanced skills teachers: Professional identity and status. Teachers and Teaching, 19(4), 463-474.

Harford, J., & Gray, P. (2016). Emerging as a teacher: Student teachers reflect on their professional identity. In (eds.). Overcoming Fragmentation in Teacher Education. Cambridge University Press.

Izadinia, M. (2013). A review of research on student teachers’ professional identity. British Educational Research Journal, 39(4), 694-713.

Kenny, A., Finneran, M., & Mitchell, E. (2015). Becoming an educator in and through the arts: Forming and informing emerging teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 49, 159-167.

Li, W. (2016). Professional Identity of Teachers in China. US-China Education Review, 6(8), 496-502.

Machin, D. (2016). Managerialism in international schools: a critical enquiry into the professional identity work of head teachers (Doctoral dissertation, Keele University).

Pillen, M., Beijaard, D., & Brok, P. D. (2013). Tensions in beginning teachers’ professional identity development, accompanying feelings and coping strategies. European Journal of Teacher Education, 36(3), 240-260.

Pillen, M., Beijaard, D., & den Brok, P. (2013). Professional identity tensions of beginning teachers. Teachers and Teaching, 19(6), 660-678.

Ruohotie-Lyhty, M. (2013). Struggling for a professional identity: Two newly qualified language teachers’ identity narratives during the first years at work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 30, 120-129.

Xu, H. (2013). From the imagined to the practiced: A case study on novice EFL teachers’ professional identity change in China. Teaching and Teacher Education, 31, 79-86.