Jenlink Patrick M. - Teacher Identity and the Struggle for Recognition: Meeting the Challenges of a Diverse Society

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD EDUCATION

A division of

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jenlink, Patrick M.

Teacher identity and the struggle for recognition : meeting the challenges of a diverse society / Patrick M. Jenlink.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-60709-574-3 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60709-575-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-60709-576-7 (electronic)

1. Teachers--Psychology. 2. Identity (Psychology) 3. Group identity--United States. 4. Teaching--Psychological aspects--United States. 5. Teaching--Social aspects--United States. 6. Multicultural education--United States--Psychological aspects. I. Title.

LB2840.J46 2014

371.1--dc23

2014003788

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

This work is dedicated to Donnya Elle Stephens, Professor Emeritus, Stephen F. Austin State University. The first Black faculty member and tenured professor in the Department of Secondary Education and Educational Leadership at Stephen F. Austin State University, Donnya understood, perhaps more than any of us could, the struggle for recognition and the challenges in forging ones identity. She was a constant in the shaping of my own professional identity during her tenure in the department, and continues to guide me each day as I reflect on her influence in my life. Above all else, Donnya has been and shall always be my friend and colleague.

This volume has been several years in the making. The initial idea for this project began as a conversation focused on the nature of identity and how social, cultural, and political tensions and ideologies all too often work to control and/or otherwise oppress and marginalize individuals, taking their voice out of the equation of how they are seentheir visibilityand what their identity becomesby their choice. The struggle for personal and professional recognition has become deeply woven into the structure in society, and by extension into our universities and schools where individuals gather to learn to teach or engage in their practice, respectively.

It was Jane Danielewiczs book, Teaching Selves: Identity, Pedagogy, and Teacher Education, published in 2001, and Janet Alsups book, Teacher Identity Discourses: Negotiating Personal and Professional Spaces, published in 2006, that first stimulated the kernel of an idea for a book project. Over time, and through the course of a series of conversations with colleagues on issues of difference, politics of identity, and culture, always focusing inward on how identity is formed and on the role of recognition or misrecognition within sociocultural and political contexts, the project took shape, not unlike how ones identity is shaped.

Like others who have written on teacher identity, I believe that identity is framed by difference, understood not as fact but as perspective. I believe that interwoven with individual identity formation is the development of cultural identity, and how we are recognized or not recognized with the cultural spaces of teacher preparation program, school and community defines and redefines our identity, as teacher or student or cultural worker.

Equally important, I believe that the structure of schooling and what takes place within the public space of schools today, as well as the structure of the university, largely influences the shaping of identity. Understanding how recognition and identity come to play on shaping the self of a student or teacher, I believe, must be considered within the problematic nature of how our society and its educational system is structured, and what takes place inside and outside the spaces of classrooms. Like so many scholarly works of this nature, there are many to thank.

First, I wish to thank the contributing authors whose experience in the day-to-day work of preparing teachers offered insight and thoughtful considerations for understanding teacher identity juxtaposed with the difficult struggles for recognition faced in society today. While theorists have written extensively on teachers across the years, it is often the voices of the teacher educators in the classrooms and schools, working with the students of teaching, that bring clarity to understanding the deeply personal and professional nature of identity.

The authors of the chapters examining teacher identity in parts IV of the book brought their considerable experience to bear on interpreting the complexity of teacher identity and sorting out the nature of the struggles for recognition we all face as educators. It is also important to note that the authors represent the voices of difference that give presence of mind to the importance of understanding teacher identity as a formative and intersubjective part of who we are as teacher educators and teacher practitioners.

Second, I would like to express my gratitude to the external reviewers, university faculty and doctoral students alike, who took time out their busy schedules to review and provide comments and suggestions. In particular, I would like to thank Mary Catherine Breen and Chance Mays, who assisted in preparing the final manuscript. Acknowledging the importance of the chapters and offering constructive feedback were invaluable, as was the affirmation by both of the need and importance of the book.

Third, I would like to thank Tom Koerner and the editorial staff at Rowman & Littlefield Education for their vision in seeing the value of a book on teacher identity that draws into specific relief the relationship between the struggle for recognition and the need for an examination of the multidimensional nature of teacher identity. As well, I would like to thank the production staff at Rowman & Littlefield for their ever-vigilant efforts to move the book through to completion. Working with a quality publisher and the folks that do the work to translate a manuscript into a completed book is a rewarding experience.