The Voice of Extended Professionals: Teachers' Perceptions About Professional Identity

Author(s):

Majda Joshevska(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

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

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 01 B, Professional Identity

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-23

13:15-14:45

Room:

OB-E2.18

Chair:

Clive Beck

Contribution

In 2009, Macedonia became a part of the International Teacher Leadership Programme (Frost, 2011) which was implemented in several South Eastern European countries. The teacher leadership methodology (Frost 2011, 2012; Frost & Durrant, 2003), which is underpinned by non-positional leadership, extended professionalism (Hoyle, 2008) and professionality (Evans, 2008) and promoting teachers’ personal agency served as a pilot for a different kind of continuous professional development model: one that provided less prescribed structure, relies more on teachers’ personal agency to collaborate and network. The programme was part of other initiatives intended to raise education quality and uphold democratic values as key requirements for these countries’ accession into the European Union.

Currently the ‘Step by Step’ Foundation – Macedonia is implementing a USAID Project Readers are Leaders which includes a component intended to support school-based learning communities of teachers. These learning communities, established in 60 primary schools and involving over 500 teachers and school staff, incorporate the teacher leadership methodology, where teachers develop projects targeting lower-primary school students literacy and numeracy skills, while incorporating the original idea of shared knowledge, vision and ownership over one’s classroom practice and professional identity.

The nature of the support is twofold: on a school level, the learning communities meet once a month with a mentor (a person with vast experiences in different segments of the education system) who helps them in conducting a constructive dialogue about their pedagogical practice. With the aid of a set of tools and instruments designed within the International Teacher Leadership Project, the teachers select, define and conduct individual development project, gathering evidence and reflecting on their own learning process. The goal of the projects is essentially to help students’ learning, but also to create a practical knowledge base helping colleagues cope with context-specific issues through joint activities and projects. During this process teachers collaborate with each other to devise action plans for the intervention they want to undertake in their classroom. Additionally networking events are organized joining several learning communities from different schools in order to expand the pool of useful practices and exert greater impact over the in-service teachers’ learning.

On a more large-scale level, the goal of these activities is to foster a culture of sharing knowledge in the school and life-long learning skills in order to make schools more effective, to increase school improvement, to raise teacher morale and retention and to embody democratic values (Frost & Durrant, 2003). The learning communities are an attempt to create a strong self-sustained professional body of extended professionals, ultimately creating the necessary conditions for a greater influence of teachers’ voice over education policy and reclaiming professional autonomy.

This research’s objective is exploring teachers’ perceptions on the actual versus desired conditions that expand or limit teachers’ professional identity in Macedonia. For this purpose, the research employs a questionnaire comprised of 12 relevant themes, defined by Education International (Bangs & Frost, 2012) focusing on the following themes:

Teachers’ influence in policy and practice
Choice and judgement in matters of pedagogy
Leadership of continuing professional development
Teachers’ roles in curriculum development
Responsibility for relationships and communication with parents
School evaluation / inspection
Teachers’ roles in assessment of pupils’ learning
Teacher performance assessment / appraisal
The creation of professional knowledge
Teachers’ voice and influence
Strategies and policies that would enhance self-confidence and self-efficacy.

Method

The main objective of the research to explore teachers’ perceptions on the actual versus desired conditions that expand or limit teachers’ professional identity and their voice in matters important to their profession. For this purpose the research will include both quantitative and qualitative data in order to provide a more rounded view of the problem at hand. The planned techniques are questionnaire administered to all participants in the programme and semi-structured interviews conducted with a selection of teachers. The questionnaire contains 22 items that correspond to the twelve themes considered important to describe teachers’ professionalism and professional identity. The questionnaire also incorporates two 4-point rating scales for each item. On the first scale the subject is asked to respond to the statement based on the actual situation in their school. The other scale the response is supposed to reflect the perceived importance of the content expressed in that statement. In general terms, a relative overlap on both scores would indicate one of two situations: either the raised issue in the statement is unobserved but also irrelevant, or the issue both observed and relevant. Arguably, the most meaningful data will be provided by those items which present discrepancies between the scores. The instrument also includes open-ended questions in which participants are asked to give their input about what they think could improve their professional self-efficacy beliefs and convince them that they can have a positive impact on the education system; and what they think policymakers, management and administrators can do to raise teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and professional confidence. Due to the nature of the objective of this research, looking into perceptions of identity and professionalism, as well as the contextual specificities of the participants working environments, it is the researcher’s belief that interviews are the most suitable follow-up technique for this research. The semi-structured interviews will incorporate the more convoluted themes as derived from the analysis of the questionnaire, as well as brief accounts of participants’ professional narratives in order to outline the raised issues in a more comprehensive way. The online questionnaires will be sent to all of the members in the 60 learning communities. The process of the quantitative data gathering will be conducted during June-July, 2016. The analysis and the follow-up interviews are going to be conducted by the end of July, 2016.

Expected Outcomes

The goal of this research is to explore to what extent are aspects of the teaching profession in Macedonia important for the teachers who have been involved in professional learning communities and weather those areas are sufficiently observed or enacted in their respective contexts. The purpose of the findings will serve at least two purposes: firstly, they will provide an overview of teachers’ realities around themes which have been documented as crucial in defining the teaching profession; responding to what extend is a certain practice present within a school or the education system provides invaluable insight into the perceived control a teacher has and thus, provides a basis for further exploration of ways in which teachers can exert greater influence over matters that concern their profession. Furthermore, the discrepancies between what teachers perceive as present practices in their schools and desired practices provides insight into possible problems, source of dissatisfaction and lowered status of the teaching profession which would be a valuable resource for policy makers. Secondly, the sample included in the research targets a specific group of teachers, teachers that have voluntarily involved themselves in learning communities rendering them what Hoyle (2008) describes as ‘extended professionals’: individuals who are not only good teachers, but also interested in their own continuous professional development, collaboration and networking with colleagues due to their interest in improving not only quality teaching in their schools, but also in the education system more generally. The teacher leadership methodology responds to many aspects of the teaching professional and because it relies on teachers’ personal agency it supports a value system within a teacher and a community which is conducive to positive change in the education system. Arguably those are the voices of teachers that need to be heard and incorporated when designing educational reforms and policies.

References

Bangs, J. and Frost, D. (2012). Teacher self-efficacy, voice and leadership: towards a policy framework for Education International. A report on an international survey of the views of teachers and teacher union officials. Cambridge University Faculty of Education. Evans, L. (2008). Professionalism, professionality and the development of education professionals, British Journal of Educational Studies, 56(1), 20-38. Frost, D. (2011). Supporting teacher leadership in 15 countries. International Teacher Leadership Project Phase 1. A Report. Cambridge: Leadership for Learning (LfL) at the University of Cambridge. Frost, D. (2012). From professional development to system change: teacher leadership and innovation. Professional Development in Education. 38(2), 205-227. 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 intervention in Europe and beyond’ at ECER 2014, Porto 2nd-5th September. Frost, D. & Durrant, J. (2003). Teacher Leadership: rationale, strategy and impact. School Leadership and Management. 23(2), 173-186. Hoyle, E. (2001). Teaching: prestige, status and esteem. Educational Management and Administration, 29(2), 139-152. Hoyle, E. (2008). Changing Conceptions of Teaching as a Profession: Personal Reflections. In D. Johnson & R. Maclean (Eds.), Teaching: Professionalization, Development and Leadership (pp. 285-304). Netherlands: Springer. Joshevska, M. (2012) An exploration of teachers’ professional identity. Mphil thesis. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Joshevska, M. and Kirandziska, S. (2015) Developing Learning Communities in Macedonia: Can Teacher Leadership Save the Teaching Profession? a paper presented in the symposium: The role of teacher leadership in the transition to democratic society at ECER 2015, Budapest, 8th-11th September 2015. MacBeath, J. (2012). Future of Teaching Profession. Cambridge: Leadership for Learning. University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2005). Teachers Matter: attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers. Paris: OECD.

Author Information

Majda Joshevska (presenting / submitting)

Foundation for Education and Cultural Initiatives - Step by Step - Macedonia

Skopje

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