The quick changes the societies have been through in these last years affect the school on a direct or indirect basis. Nóvoa (2009) points out that the 2005 OCDE report refers to issues related to the teaching profession as one of the great priorities of national policies. We realize the school as a complex environment and, as stated by Perrenoud (2001), in order to master the complexity it is necessary to think of the many contradictions existing in this context, namely, people and the society, harmony and conflict, equality and difference.Sacristán (1991) states that the society’s evolution affects the school, then, we question:In this globalized society where everything changes very quickly and demands are increasingly higher, especially on education, what would the teachers professional identity be like as they are more and more requested to perform different functions? For Dubar “[...]the identity of a person is what he/she has as most valuable:the loss of identity is synonym for alienation, suffering, anguish and death.”(2005, XXV).  For that reason, we believe it is important to take into account the teachers professional identity constitution in the processes their continuing education.

In this perspective, another question arises:how teachers have constructed and reconstructed their professional identities?This research probes on how the professional identity of teachers is affected by the demands they perceive to be put on them by family and school. In this study the theoretical reference is centered in two axes:Teachers identity and teachers professionality.

The identity, herein, follows the theoretical approach of the sociologist Claude Dubar, that is a process of construction within the socio-historic context of the individual, in the coordination of acts of attribution (from the other to himself), and of belonging (from himself to the other), in a continuous and permanent movement.  Dubar names the attribution acts as being those that aim to define what kind of man or woman you are and the belonging acts would express the kind of man or woman you would like to be.(DUBAR,2005)  When the individual is not able to deal with the attributions acts given to him/her, the individual may undergo a crisis.We refer to the crisis as “disruption of balance among several components [...]disorders of relatively stabilized relations among elements that structure the activity ”.(DUBAR, 2009,p.20)

The personal, economic or social crises are inherent to the processes of identity constitution. In the author’s words, “[…] the crisis reveals the individual to himself, force him to think, to change, to fight for “releasing himself” and reinventing himself, together with others.The personal identity is not constructed otherwise.” (DUBAR, 2009, p. 255). Crises are present; they are part of everybody’s life and compel changes.

Roldão(1998) postulates that the professionality is what characterizes a professional and differentiate him/her from the other.The main role of a teacher is to teach, and teachers must know what their functions are and  they must know how to mobilize the educational knowledges.

Sacristán (in NÓVOA, 1991,p.61) postulates that teaching is a social practice  fulfilled  in the interaction between teachers and students; that “the role of teachers is set by the social needs which the educational system must accomplish  [...]”and that upon the constant changes in the society, different aspirations and demands are devised to the schools.

The school tries to meet the needs of the society and especially today, in this globalized world, the demands on educational institutions, whether in Brazil or in the European countries, have increased substantially.For this reason, we consider to be relevant to think and discuss the teachers identity in different contexts.

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