Context Since 2002, the award of qualified teacher status in England has required the assessment of new teachers against national standards of professional values, in addition to assessment of practical teaching skills and subject/pedagogical knowledge and understanding. In September 2007, this standardised assessment of professionalism was developed further, with the introduction of Professional Standards setting out expectations for teachers throughout their career and providing an assessment framework for determining, through performance management, their career progression. This framework requires that teacher demonstrate at key career threshholds not only their continued development of professional skills, knowledge and understanding, but evidence of the development of their 'professional attributes' . Key questions This paper discusses the policy context and the way the Professional Standards are constructed, and reports on a small-scale study of early career teachers exploring factors affecting their development of professional identity, with a particular emphasis on the relationship between their perceived sense of professional values and the way in which the Professional Standards are used to as a tool to determine career progression. Theoretical Framework/key literature This paper will primarily focus on two key strands of literature. 1) The ‘social interactionist’ model of identity (the interaction between the internal generation of identity as an aspect of self and the professional context that impacts on this). The paper, whilst acknowledging the early/mid 20th century sociological theories of self/identity (Mead/Goffman), takes as its starting point theories of self-identity in modernity (Beck, Giddens), in particular the notion of contested/fractured identities (Bauman). In relation to the specific context of the professional identity of teachers, this notion has been explored by a number of writers (e.g. Day, Goodson), and has been explored empirically through a number of interpretive/ethnographic studies of school cultures and teacher work/identities (e.g. (in a UK context) Goodson & Hargreaves, Pollard, Troman, Woods & Jeffrey). 2) The impact of marketisation. Literature in this strand has emphasised the reworking of the traditional paradigm of professionalism ( ‘conferred status', control of specialised body of knowledge/expertise, autonomy of practice, self-regulation) to in response to the greater centralised prescription of both curriculum content/organisation and teaching approaches sinces the 1980s, generally portrayed as serving the twin agendas of accountability and raising educational attainment. This has led to teachers being subjected to a ‘new managerialism’ (Apple, Ball), a notion closely aligned with that of 'performativity' (Ball, Troman). This in turn has led to the well-established notion of 'incorporated professionalism’; the teacher as a technician reduced to delivering an externally-imposed agenda (e.g. Menter, Pollard). In recent years, the notion of teaching as a ‘resistant' or 'transformative' profession has been widely debated (e.g. Sachs and Whitty); Sachs' model of the ‘activist identity’, which counters/subverts the forces of managerialism, has been particularly influential. At the core of this paper is a discussion of the implications for 'activist/transformative professionalism' of the introduction of career-long Professional Standards, questioning whether this 'resistance' can be maintained in era when the policing of professionalism has become a career-long reality - and a career determinant - for teachers.

This paper will comprise of three elements, as follows. (a) A literature review primarily focusing on research into the professional identity of teachers in a UK context, but also including both international comparision of teacher identity, and brief comparisions with literature drawn from related professional fields (e.g. medicine, law, social work) (b) An analysis of the key themes of the Professional Standards and the possible implications (for teachers and for the performance management processes that will assess them against these Standards). This analysis will be particularly closely informed by the concepts of managerialism, performativity and 'activist/transformative professionalism'. (c) A small-scale study based on semi-structured interviews with 15-20 recently qualified teachers (approaching the end of their first year of teaching, and therefore about to pass through their formal 'induction threshhold' period), exploring their perceptions of professionalism, and in particular the processes by which their professional identity is shaped by their experiences of the assessment of 'professional attributes' during their training and induction. Specific issues raised in the interviews include: - motivation for entering the profession; - perceptions of teacher professionalism prior to entry; - experiences of teacher education/training (the transition from 'student' to 'professional'); - induction into the professional culture of teaching; - understanding of the impact on their career development of the standardised assessment of professionalism .

Interviews are currently being carried out and so it is not possible to indicate conclusions at this stage. However, this small-scale study (and the review of literature) is intended to support the development of a larger-scale research proposal, which will draw upon both quantitative and qualitative data (including the use of online ‘reflective research diaries’ using wiki/blog technology). This larger scale study will explore the formative processes of the professional identities of teachers at different stages of their career (entry level training, early career, through to senior/'advanced status' teachers). This is intended not only to lead to an increased understanding of theoretical models of professional identity formation, but to lead to specific policy recommendations (for agencies/organisations responsible for the education, training and assessment of teachers and teachers in education/training, at a national, local and individual school level) A significant strand of the project is likely to focus on socio-culturally specific consequences of the increased role of the assessment of professional attributes in teachers' career progression (i.e. how issues such as ethnicity, social class and gender are likely to impact on the judgements made regarding teachers' professional attributes).