Between “Struggle and harmony”: Critical Approaches to New Educator Identity

The scholarly conversation around new educators and how to support them during their teacher preparation programs and early career experiences has undergone multiple evolutions, most recently with a turn toward acknowledging the dynamic ways in which new educators enact intersectional identities within and without formal classroom contexts and boundaries. The collection of articles curated for this special issue of The New Educator illustrates this dynamism, by showcasing how the diverse community of teacher educators and teacher education programs can integrate identity-oriented approaches in the preparation, recruitment, retention, and support of new educators.

Much of identity research relative to education notes that, from an identity-oriented approach, teacher learning is not about adding practices or strategies to a proverbial “toolkit”; it is instead a context-bound, socially mediated process of identity work (Lindahl & Yazan, 2019). Identity-oriented approaches to understanding the ways in which new educators learn and enact pedagogy account for the notion that teachers’ identities are not a set of behaviors with specific and predictable outcomes but complex, social, embodied processes that center the educator, their students, the learning environment and the larger context (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011; Olsen, 2016; Varghese et al., 2016). That is to say, who teachers are and what they bring with them, as individuals and in wider communities, matter in what and how they teach. Therefore, teacher identities also matter to students, families, communities and institutions (Varghese et al., 2016).

These identities are not static or fixed categories, but instead are complex, dynamic, idiosyncratic and unique (Beijaard, 2019). Teacher identity is not constrained to individuals’ internal conceptualizations of self; in fact, much research positions the professional and personal identities of teachers as “instantiations of discourses, systems of power/knowledge that regulate and ascribe social values to all forms of human activity – oral and written texts, gestures, images, and spaces – within particular institutions, academic disciplines, and larger social formations” (Morgan, 2004, p. 173). From a sociocultural perspective, identity can be considered as a “collection of influences and effects from immediate contexts, prior constructs of self, social positioning and meaning systems” (Olsen, 2008, p. 139). However, perspectives on the constructs of self, social positioning and meaning systems that Olsen (2008) mentions have been underexamined with regard to criticality and social justice orientation. As such, the studies selected for this special issue of The New Educator explore the ways in which new educators and the teacher educators who collaborate with them engage in intersectional identity work, adopting perspectives that promote critical reflexivity and preparedness for culturally and linguistically diverse contexts.

In describing teacher identity, Barkhuizen (2016) notes the interplay of identity as both internal and external, saying, “[Teacher identities] are cognitive, social, emotional, ideological, and historical – they are both inside the teacher and outside in the social, material and technological world … They are struggle and harmony: they are contested and resisted, by self and others, and they are also accepted, acknowledged and valued, by self and others” (p. 4; emphasis added). Used as both a research frame and a pedagogical tool (Olsen, 2008), a teacher identity lens has been used to explore constructs related to teacher development and learning, such as emotions (Benesch, 2017, 2018; Golombek & Doran, 2014; Veen & Lasky, 2005; Wolff & Costa, 2017); agency (Clarke, 2009; Kayi-Aydar, 2015; Ruohotie-Lyhty, 2018), resilience (Cook, 2009) and investment (Barkhuizen, 2016; Darvin & Norton, 2015; Reeves, 2009).

Regardless of their many applications to facets of teacher education, identity approaches in teacher education remain in constant competition with initiatives to standardize teacher development and escalate accountability measures for Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs). This competition intensifies focus on pedagogy and practice, and lessens attention to or even constrains those who enact it (Buchanan & Olsen, 2018; Lanas & Kelchtermans, 2015; Lasky, 2005). Despite this tension – or perhaps because of it – identity-oriented approaches to understanding new teacher learning remain salient, as they may better support new educators in navigating the transition from being a university student to identifying as a professional educator. Consequently, teachers’ identities should be incorporated in teacher education practices explicitly and intentionally to support their ongoing negotiation and construction (Barkhuizen, 2016; Lindahl & Yazan, 2019). This intentionality can be seen in studies that explore identity-focused activities, courses, and programs (Clark & Flores, 2014; Leijen et al., 2014; Varghese et al., 2019; Yazan, 2019).

Still, teacher education curriculum and standards in the US have not entirely adopted educator identity as a pedagogical framework guiding all teacher learning activities due to curriculum constraints, state standards and high-stakes assessment. Some scholars contend that, despite the extensive amount of research on teacher identity, in teacher preparation programs “identity is typically addressed in a unidimensional manner, with little acknowledgment of students’ or teacher candidates’ complex, multiple, and intersecting identities” (Pugach et al., 2019, p. 206). Neglecting identity development among new educators could be risky, though, cautions Beijaard, as “too little attention for the personal dimension in learning a teacher identity risks the danger of novice teachers leaving the profession” (Pugach et al., 2019, p. 4).

Efforts to diversify the teaching profession across race, ethnicity, language, gender, sexual orientation, and other social identities [thus more closely reflecting the culturally and linguistically diverse make-up of the K-12 student population; (Guha et al., 2017)] make identity-oriented approaches to interpreting new educator learning and practice even more relevant. Instead of perpetuating static idealized versions of who teachers are, e.g., often White, middle class, heterosexual, monolingual speakers of “inner circle” English (Sleeter, 2001; Varghese et al., 2016), identity approaches can help new educators become more aware of the complexities inherent in themselves, as well as the ways in which their identities are embedded within larger ideological structures and circulating discourses around education (Blackledge & Pavlenko, 2001).

Exploration of identities-in-discourse provides a route for educators to challenge a priori identity categories and embrace the contradictory, dynamic and embodied (re)fashioning of race/racialization, ethnicity, language, gender, social class, and religion (Varghese et al., 2016; also seen in; Jackson, 2018; Motha, 2006, 2014; Trent, 2018). The profession calls for its newest members to demonstrate criticality – that is, the recognition of socio-historical-political influences on education and the challenge of existing structures in the interest of social justice and transformation (García et al., 2017; Gay, 2002; Hawkins & Norton, 2009; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Thus, identity exploration among novice educators may afford them the opportunity to unpack concepts of privilege and marginalization (Park, 2015; Rodriguez & Cho, 2011; Yazan & Rudolph, 2018), develop ideological clarity (Lindahl et al., 2021), adopt more additive stances toward cultural and linguistic pluralism in the classroom (Lau, 2016; Seltzer, 2022), or identify as advocates for students of racialized and/or minoritized backgrounds (Maddamsetti, 2022).

As The New Educator seeks to further the academic conversation around teacher and teacher educator identity, this special issue includes articles that explore new educator identity from critical perspectives and with regard to the practical preparation and career development for today’s multicultural, multilingual classroom contexts. The articles included herein pose the following questions:

• How does identity exploration vis-à-vis new cultural environments increase new educators’ contextual awareness regarding their and others’ identities, a crucial notion for disrupting essentialist conceptions of culture? (Back, this issue)

• In what ways is the formation of a teacher educator identity relational, tied to emotion and embodied experiences, and career-long? (Bhansari, Park, Varghese & Daniels, this issue)

• How can educators and teacher educators engage in identity construction and development based on the adoption of critical consciousness for antiracism, equity, and justice in schools? (DeMartino, this issue)

• How can the inclusion of embodied discourse and materiality (via illustrative scalar analyses) along with linguistic understandings of discourse help teacher education scholars better understand identity relative to the complexities of teaching and teacher learning? (Handsfield & Crumpler, this issue)

• What are the lived experiences of teachers of color, particularly those with disabilities who have aspirations of becoming and being Special Education teachers? (Lee, this issue)

• How can critical reflection provide insights into teacher candidates’ developing racial identities as they make connections between historical and sociopolitical contexts, identities and experiences, and equity issues in PK-12 classrooms? (Silva, this issue)

• How may teacher educators support the cultural and linguistic identities of new educators and help them reflect on the values, practices, and experiences of the racialized bi-/multilingual families they serve? (Sánchez & Alfonso; this issue)

In seeking to answer these questions, the authors who have contributed to this special issue provoke many more as they consider issues of new educator identity at the nexus of personal and professional, development and negotiation, tension and resolution. With their unique contributions, be they contextual, methodological, and/or pedagogical, the authors urge their colleagues and peers to ground not only the exploration of new educator identity, but also the pedagogizing of identity, in teacher preparation programs. They also connect new educator identity construction bidirectionally to that of teacher educator identity as well as PK-12 student identity, noting the intricacies and overlap of all three. Finally, these articles are exemplary of carving out and existing in the space, as Barkhuizen (2016) suggested, between struggle and harmony, highlighting the nuanced ever-evolving definition of what it means to be, become – and remain – an educator.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.