Understanding Professional Community And Professional Identity Through The Experiences Of Bahraini Teachers Working With British Teachers In A Partnership Project.

Author(s):

James Underwood(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 07 B, Understanding Professional Identity

Paper Session

Time:

2015-09-09

17:15-18:45

Room:

204.Oktatóterem [C]

Chair:

James Underwood

Contribution

This paper is about the community of practice that develops when teachers work together across national boundaries and also discusses how international collaboration by teachers shapes professional identity.

The data presented here comes from a case study that was conducted, as one aspect of the research, that informs a doctoral thesis that I am currently writing, at Cambridge University. The data referred to in this paper was collected via four semi-structured interviews with teachers from Bahrain who were involved in international networking programmes that linked them with teachers from Britain. In this paper I explore whether these participants perceived themselves as having a shared professional identity and also whether they saw themselves as belonging to a community of practice that crosses national boundaries (Wenger, 1999) .

in this paper I outline a conceptual framework in terms of how identity is constructed within a professional community. This specifically relates to a professional community that crosses national boundaries. In this concept framework I suggest that teachers who are working with colleagues from other nations build their professional identity together, through mutual discourse. I also suggest that they actively construct their professional identity with these colleagues and that they find this rewarding and significant (Frost, 2014).

The research questions for this study were as follows:

1) what motivates teachers to engage in networking or partnership projects or programmes with teachers from other nations?

2) do teachers who are engaging in networking or partnership projects or programmes that cross national boundaries perceive themselves as belonging to a community of fellow professionals? If so how do they define this community?

3) in what ways, if any, does participation in such projects or programmes shape their professional identity?

This paper responds to several of the themes identified as being at the core of 'network one' and of these most explicitly to: ‘ways in which teachers learn and develop throughout their professional career’. In relation to this, this paper also addresses issues around the broader concept of 'transition'. The emphasis on partnership and networking mean that it could fit equally comfortably within 'network fifteen'.

Method

The data was collected via four semi-structured interviews with Bahraini teachers involved in the Connecting Classrooms Programme. I was put in contact with the four teachers by the British Council, Bahrain. My only criteria for selection was that they must currently coordinate the Connecting Classrooms Programme in the school they work in and they must speak good enough English for me to be able to conduct the interview without a translator. They were one to one interviews and were held in private in a classroom in the British Council building in Manama, Bahrain. The interviews lasted on average for thirty minutes and were recorded. The interviews consisted of a schedule of six open questions and a task. The task was designed because I was concerned that using a conventional schedule of open questions could mean that it would ‘not just be the questions asked’ but ‘the way they were posed’ that would in part ‘determine the responses elicited’. The task I designed consisted of the interviewees ordering sixteen possible motives for involvement and was designed specifically to answer the first research question (Ruben and Ruben, 2011). The interviews were transcribed verbatim by me. They were then coded using NVIVO. I used the categories identified through this process to shape my findings and conclusions.

Expected Outcomes

In the second half of this paper I present and discuss the findings and conclusions drawn from the data that the interviews provided. I explore the extent to which these teachers found that they shared a common professional identity with teachers from Britain. I also explore whether this constituted a perception of belonging to a professional community or community of practice. The data from the interviews suggests that building relationships with colleagues from other nations is significant but that the teachers who choose to involve themselves in such programmes do not see themselves as typical of the teaching profession as a whole. Therefore it seems to be the case that there is a perception of there being an international community of teachers. However, there is not a perception of the existence of an international community of 'all' teachers. It also seems to be the case that partaking in such programmes builds self-efficacy and that the discourse that occurs between teachers is deeply rewarding. Although grounded in the specific context of Bahraini teachers working with British teachers, this study has broader implications for our understanding of the experiences of teachers working with colleagues across national borders in other contexts too.

References

Frost, D. (2014) Non-positional teacher leadership: the miracle of the perpetual motion machine, a paper presented in the symposium: 'Changing teacher professionality: research and practical interventions in Europe and beyond' at ECER 2014, Porto 2nd-5th September. Rubin, H. & Rubin, I. (2011). Qualitative Interviewing, the Art of Hearing Data (3rd ed). London: Sage Publications Ltd. Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. UK: CUP

Author Information

James Underwood (presenting / submitting)

University of Northampton

Cambs

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