The Teacher Self
Gender Issues in Arab Female Teachers’ Stories: A Narrative Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Orly Sela
The teaching profession is considered, both in Israel and elsewhere, to be a “feminine” profession. Studies which have examined the work and life stories of women teachers sometimes deal with this aspect, when it seems to be a meaningful element in the study. The present study is a narrative study examining 23 educational autobiographies written by female Arab graduate students as a course requirement at an academic college of education. The texts were analyzed using the Narrative Based Theory approach, with Gender being the central analysis and discussion category. The analysis discovered four sub-categories: choosing the teaching profession for gender-related reasons, dealing with male authority, gender-based discrimination, and family vs. career. The findings show that in Israel Arab women in general and Arab female teachers specifically suffer from different kinds of gender-based discrimination, at home, within their families, at work, and in society in general. The stories included indications of change, but the situation in general is not encouraging. It seems that Arab women in Israel have a long way to go in order to overcome the double discrimination they suffer from, as women in a conservative-patriarchal society and as belonging to an ethnic minority in the state of Israel.
An Exploratory Phenomenology Study of Educators' Bullying Experiences in the Workplace
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ronda Gregg, Cheryl Burleigh
Bullying behaviors in the workplace are marked by repeated events of intimidation that creates a pattern of humiliation and fear in the victim. School staff are not immune to this behavior. Although studies have been conducted on student to student bullying behavior, little research has been done concerning adult to adult bullying in the educational workplace. A qualitative exploratory phenomenological study was completed to determine the relevance of the issue of bullying among adults in schools and to explore the effects that adult bullying has on staff members and the school organization. Organizational cultural theory, emotional intelligence and humiliation theory were used to understand the phenomenon of adult bullying in the educational workplace setting. Two research questions guided the study: What are the personal and professional experiences of educators in the K-12 school systems as targets of bullying behavior in the workplace? What were the personal and professional repercussions of educators in the K-12 school systems who experienced workplace bullying? Implications for the study include potential policy additions, training for administrators and staff members, and how to mitigate the effects that can hinder educational progress because of adult bullying.
EFL Teachers' Professional Identity: Conceptualisation and Influencing Factors
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Elisa Pérez Gracia, Rocio Serrano
Teachers’ Professional Identity (TPI) continues being a relevant research area in which a wide range of scholars and teacher educators have focused their attention. English as a foreign language teachers mean a sensitive group in this regard due to the fact that sometimes they feel threatened by native speakers and it affects the development of their TPI, and consequently, their careers. This study aims to know how pre-service English Secondary Education teachers build and develop their TPI along their initial teacher training as well as the diverse factors that may affect it. An ‘S-TPI’ questionnaire, measured using a Likert scale, was used to obtain the opinions of 133 future teachers (83,5% women and 16,5% men) in the 2014-2019 academic years. Results show an important relationship between the global view of professional identity and the development of educational skills linked to socio-educative and methodological aspects. Some of the implications derived from this research point to the need to take into account the results obtained when designing the initial training programs for pre-service Secondary Education teachers with the objective of considering the construction of TPI as a central and necessary element to get more competent and committed teachers and, therefore, improve the teaching-learning process quality and Secondary Education students’ performance.
The Teacher Self: An Investigation of the Professional Beliefs of Elementary Classroom Teachers
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeff Mc Laughlin
What do teachers believe? A quantitative survey instrument called the Teacher Self Inventory (McLaughlin, 1989/2018) was used to assess elementary classroom teachers’ beliefs about their instructional roles and teaching personalities. Volunteer subjects were asked to complete the online survey using a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, or smart phone. Follow-up interviews were also conducted to further explore these factors. The same procedure was repeated with pre-service teachers at the researcher’s institution. Pre-service teachers responded to the same survey items as practicing teachers but with slightly different directions. While classroom teachers were asked to reflect on their current practice, the pre-service teachers were asked to respond based upon predictions of their roles in the classroom and their teaching personalities. Survey responses and interview data were then analyzed and synthesized to create a profile of both classroom teachers’ beliefs and the beliefs of pre-service elementary education majors. The conference presentation will include the following three elements: An introduction (including online access) to the Teacher Self Inventory, as well as a brief overview of the instrument development process; a summary of the quantitative results of the study comparing elementary classroom teachers’ survey responses to those of pre-service teachers; a description of the related qualitative data analysis process; a group discussion of the implications of the study and directions for future research; an invitation for participants to consider using the Teacher Self Inventory for additional research investigations.
