Who is the professional teacher? Who is behind the task of education? We can use these two questions to contextualize the concept of teacher identity associated with the challenges of today’s world.
In the words of Joseph Rassam (1979, in Fuentes, 2020, p. 29), “we educate based more on what we are rather than what we know; we also teach based more on who we are than what we say”. Therefore, from the ethical perspective of the teaching profession, it seems essential to reflect on the identity of the individuals involved in teaching.
By addressing this concept, we become aware of the educator’s identity, encompassing both personal and professional experiences. However, we are not interested in the identity of the person as an individual, but in their identity as having taken on the task of accompanying the growth and preparation of a child or young person for life (Fuentes, 2020, p. 32). This task is more than simply a profession as specialized work (Cortina & Conill, 2000) as it becomes the art of educating: getting the learner to want to learn. This is the only art that can arouse and mobilize in the learner the desire to learn and the will to know (Meirieu, 2009), the result of the teacher’s savoir- faire. When this occurs, it is because the teacher has been personally involved in their profession. They have put into play the identifying features that distinguish them from a person who simply acts as an educator.
Thus, to understand the multi-faceted concept of teacher identity, it is key to focus attention on the interpersonal encounter between educator and learner (Fuentes, 2020), on the pedagogical relationship between teacher and student (Meirieu, 2009) and on other relationships and interactions that also influence the transformative power of educational action: the relationship with the other agents in the educational scene, the context and social image of the teaching profession or even the professional practice itself.
“Teachers are key figures on whom possibilities for transformation rest. They, in turn, must recognize the agency of their students to participate, collaborate, and learn through their shared pedagogical encounters. To carry out this complex work, teachers need rich collaborative teaching communities, characterized by sufficient measures of freedom and support.”
(UNESCO, 2022)
Therefore, the role and shaping of teacher identity evolves as the social function of teachers has been gradually reformulated. Today, it is a collaborative profession where full-time education and the social context we live in have influenced teaching. This is one of the reasons why professional training has a clear attitudinal ethical dimension, one which is directly linked to the perceptions, beliefs, and expectations that must be kept in mind when shaping this identity.
“It calls for a revision of one’s beliefs and even one’s own personal and professional identity, applying the reflections on diversity and inclusion to ourselves. We need to work by listening and recognizing everyone with whom we share educational spaces, showing empathy and assertiveness, accepting and offering help.”
(Blanes et al., 2022)
Based on these initial approaches, we assume that shaping an individual’s teacher identity is not a simple or linear definition since a wide range of experiences, interactions, and contextual elements influence it’s development.
Right now, you are starting to develop an identity as teachers. In this regard, in the following reflective task, we ask you to think about the reason why you want to be trained as a teacher, reflecting on whether this reason is somehow related to the art of teaching.