In recent decades, educational systems of many countries have undergone constant changes as a result of globalization and the transition to the information age. Globalization and growing international competition have increased pressures for high quality education from the early childhood education to universities. International achievement tests, such as the PISA by OECD, have had an impact on national policies in managing the educational system in many countries (e.g. Breakspear, 2012).

Other phenomena have had similar impacts on education. For instance, mass migration of people has increased the need for multiculturalism and understanding diversity in the education system. Transition to the Information Age has created a substantial challenge to education systems.  This has resulted in policy and curricular changes, developing standards and pedagogical approaches, and investing on school environment and teachers professional development in many countries.

Teachers are at the heart of these transitions and are challenged by the need of learning and unlearning, developing new skills, and changes in their roles as teachers. These new demands for change focus not only on specific skills or competencies (cf. Jarvis, 2009) but also they will challenge teachers’ identities, both personal and professional.  Professional identity (PI) is defined as “how teachers define themselves to themselves and others. It is a construct of professional self that evolves over career stages, and can be shaped by school, reform, and political contexts” (Lasky, 2005). According to Illeris (2014) identity seems to be the most appropriate construct to describe the whole person in the his/her personal and social context.

The PI of a teacher can be discussed and analysed in the light of various theories – personality and work environment type theory (person – environment fit), professional self-concept theory or career anchor theory, career development theories, profession psychology theories, acmeology theories, etc.(Mikelsone, Odina, Grigule, 2014).

Kaplan (2014) distinguishes four components in teacher’s PI: personal ontological and epistemological beliefs (how students learn best, what is the best way to teach them); perceptions of purpose and goals of education and teaching; self-perceptions (teacher’s self‐definitions, values, and self-beliefs); and perceived action possibilities (teachers’ behavior).

The PI of teachers constantly evolves under the influence of various factors: personal, social, educational policy and international trends (Davey, p. 32). Personal aspects shaping teachers professional identity relate to personality, life experience and path to profession, education, pedagogical and content knowledge. Teachers engage in professional and social life at their schools that have their own history, climate, rules, norms and leadership culture. On the national level factors such as needs of the labor market, teacher shortage, status of teachers, national standards, budget sources and reforms may have impact on the development of teachers’ PI. The factors of the international level relate to competition between countries and emerging international standards, globalization and internationalization.  

The symposium will focus on the following questions:

1.   What kind of challenges do teachers experience concerning their professional identities? How do transitions in educational systems challenge the construction of Professional Identities of teachers?

2.   What are the most influential factors in the formation of teachers’ PI?

 The symposium is proposed by a research team composed of teacher educators from three countries who collaborate internationally and an additional partner from a fourth country who will take the role of the discussant.

The symposium will include the following contributions:

1.     Three papers describing main results of qualitative case studies that examine PI of teachers in four countries: Finland, Israel and Latvia. All studies have used the Phenomenographic research method (Marton, 1986).

2.     Comparison of teachers’ PI shaped by different educational systems.

3.     Discussion on the results in the context of theoretical frameworks.

Davey, R. (2013). The Professional Identity of Teacher Educators: Career on the Cusp? London: Routledge Illeris, K. (2014). Transformative Learning and Identity. Journal of Transformative Education, 12(2) 148-163. Jarvis, P . (2009). Learning to be a person in society: Learning to be me. In K. Illeris (Ed.) Contemporary Theories of Learning. London, England: Routledge. Kaplan, A. (2014, Aug.). A complex dynamic systems model of teachers’ professional identity and motivation. Paper presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington DC, USA. Marton, F. (1986). Phenomenography - A Research Approach to Investigating Different Understandings of Reality. Journal of Thought, v.21, p.28-49. Mikelsone, I., Odina, I., & Grigule, L. (2014). Conceptualizing the Understanding of Professional Identity in Teacher’s Career. European Scientific Journal, 10(10).