In the book Early Career English Teachers in Action the section dedicated to teacher identity starts with an introduction from Lindsay Ellis, who brings up this idea of identity first talks about her changing identity as a teacher especially from the transition from student to teacher that first year. Ellis brings up some great points about identity. She puts a lot of emphasis on the expectations put on teachers stating "Thinking about what your and other's expectations are for teachers is important". Teachers held to high expectations because everyone has a set idea of what an teacher and more specifically what an English teachers should be.
This idea of a cookie cutter teacher does not allow identity to play a role despite the fact that for a teacher establishing an identity can mean keeping a job or sticking with the career path.
Expectations surround teachers and it's more about how to handle and grasp those expectations then necessarily live up to the expectations. "Individual students will have unique expectations based upon what they themselves have experienced and been taught about teachers from their family, community, and various cultural media." Teachers need to be aware of expectation but enter teaching open minded and with new ideas ready because students can either have bad experiences in the past or great ones.
This article really captures the job or a teacher and what makes a teacher an individual and just all around a good teacher. How to be a Great Teacher
Sarah- the owl is so cute... I definitely agree with your points about the expectations surrounding teachers. We have to be ready to have an identity as a teacher inside and outside of where we work. We will realize that we can't "leave work at work." I think you picked out some awesome things from the book about the transition in identity from student to teacher. Also this article is a great summary and I wish we had read it before we made our cute teacher guy on the board (I posted it on my blog!)
ReplyDeleteI like your comment about thinking about how to handle expectations, not necessarily how to live up to expectations. Ellis makes a point that times are changing, and old ideas about how teachers should look and act are outdated. In fact, we need to change the stereotypes about teachers so that our culture can accept racially diverse teachers, teachers of diverse genders and sexualities, teachers of diverse backgrounds, etc. It's important to consider expectations, and also consider how expectations might also hold us back.
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