A Close Read of My Classroom: Teacher Research and Identity Work

It is not uncommon for classroom teacher researchers to face multiple obstacles, but for the fifth grade teacher in this study, Donna, her administrators did not support her research efforts because they thought it would take away from preparing students for end of grade tests. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways conducting teacher research shaped Donna’s teacher identities and to examine how the context of her school impacted any identity shifts. Data sources included: interviews, observations, and teacher-created artifacts such as annotations of journal articles; her research proposal, paper, and presentation; reflections; and classroom observations. Findings indicate that instead of being discouraged, Donna persisted because she believed that the research she was doing in her classroom helped her see her students and teaching in new ways. In particular, she was able to participate in meaningful, self-selected professional development while at the same time improving her classroom instruction. When students enter the Teacher as Researcher/Leader (TRL) graduate class, their expectations of what they will learn and do are quite different from mine. They see teacher research as a final hoop they have to jump through before finishing their master’s degree. I view the class as an opportunity to promote identity work with the ultimate goal of educators seeing themselves as teacher researchers. During my many years of work with educators who wear the hats of teacher and researcher, I have seen them face multiple obstacles including lack of time and unfamiliarity with the research process. However, when my student Donna (a pseudonym) shared, “I have tried not to get caught doing research on a day when I know a coach will appear or an observation will occur, and I have tried to not bring a lot of attention to what I’m doing in my classroom,” I realized that Donna faced a level of resistance from her school that may not be unique. Instead of being discouraged, Donna, a fifth grade teacher, persisted because she believed that the research she was doing in her classroom helped her see her students and teaching in a new way. Donna also expressed that she felt like she was “changing” as a result of An On-line Journal for Teacher Research Networks: Vol. 18, Issue 2 ISSN 2470-6353 Fall 2016 Kammerer Myers 2 doing research. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways conducting teacher research shaped Donna’s, identities and to examine how the context of her school impacted her identities shifts. In this article I argue that teacher research can engage teachers in meaningful, selfselected professional development while at the same time improving classroom instruction and fostering positive teacher identities. Teacher education scholars commonly study teachers as a way to understand their identities (Hall, Johnson, Juzwik, Wortham, & Mosley, 2009). Few studies, however, investigate the effect of teacher research on teachers’ identities (Goodnough, 2010; Margolin, 2007; Marsh & Vagliardo, 2002; Vetter & Russell, 2011). There is a need to better understand the potential of teacher research to support and impact teachers’ identities amid the struggle for standardization within schools. Donna’s story highlights the potential of teacher research to assist teachers in closely examining their teaching practices as well as engaging in identity work. Theoretical Framework In the past, identity was viewed as something inside of us, fixed and unchanging, a stable entity possessed by an individual (Fairbanks et al., 2010). By extension, a teacher’s identity was also seen as something one has, rather than something that develops during one’s teaching career. More recently, scholars in the fields of psychology, anthropology, and sociology have challenged these previous notions and defined identity using words like fluid, multiple, and dynamic (Fairbanks et al., 2010; Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte, & Cain, 1998). The term “identities” is now often preferred among certain circles because it signals the idea that one person enacts many different identities both across and within a variety of contexts (Moje & Luke, 2009). This more recent work informs our understanding that teachers have multiple identities which are socially constructed and reconstructed through the negotiation of everyday interactions (Erickson, 2004; Freedman & Appleman, 2008; Moje & Luke, 2009). Thus, scholars view teachers’ identities as a construction of values, beliefs, and attitudes from teachers’ personal lives as well as understandings from their professional practice. Thus, teachers’ identities influence action in classrooms (Merseth, Sommer, & Dickstein, 2008). In a review of the research on teacher identity, Beijaard, Meijer and Verloop (2004) found that different researchers conceptualized identity differently and that studies on teachers’ professional identities could be divided into three categories: 1) focus on identity formation; 2) focus on associated characteristic identification; and 3) focus on representations within teachers’ stories. They also determined that authors often do not provide a definition of identity and there is a little attention paid to the context in which teacher identity formation occurs. As teachers’ professional identities develop so may their sense of agency (Alsup, 2006). Identities are not defined by a single event; rather they are shaped over time (Holland & Lave, 2001). This understanding of identities warrants further investigation of educational practices that encourage teachers to engage in identity work. In this particular study, teacher research is the practice in focus.