There has been a significant increase in interest around teacher identity within educational research and teacher education due, in part, to recognition of the fundamental role of the teacher in students’ learning and achievement and questions of how teacher identity links to performance and retention (Hong et al., 2016; Hsieh, 2015). Teachers’ professional identity is seen as shaped by their past experiences and as a key motivating and orienting factor in their actions and beliefs about practice (Hong et al., 2016). However, there is a continuing lack of clarity around what we mean by teacher identity (Solari and Ortega, 2022) and a lack of knowledge about the dynamics of identity construction within teacher education (Henry, 2019). Whilst prior research has focused on the connections between personal and professional identities and the context in which these identities are constructed, there has been little research exploring this diverse and dynamic interplay (Hsieh, 2015). This emerging doctoral study proposes a multidisciplinary theoretical framework and diverse conceptual approach to considering the dynamics and interplay of beliefs, identity, discourse, and experiences within teachers’ identity construction. Recognising that the landscapes of teachers’ professional identities are rich sites of negotiation in the complex process of “becoming someone who teaches” (Henry, 2019, p.269), this study seeks to apply a multidisciplinary dialogic lens to considering the challenges and tensions inherent in developing dialogic approaches to teaching practice.

In the context of dialogic education, attitudes and beliefs are seen as highly influential in the development of dialogic approaches yet understanding how personal and professional dialogic experiences relate to teachers’ professional identities, learning, and practice is a significantly under-researched area (Groschner et al., 2020). Prior research has predominantly focused on an interactional and pedagogical consideration of classroom dialogue; however, studies which have moved beyond this suggest that teachers’ dialogic stance, identity, sociocultural and socio-historical expectations of professional identity may offer insight for understanding why monologic patterns overwhelmingly persist within classrooms (Sherry et al., 2019). Recognising that the challenges for teachers of realising the benefits of a dialogic approach may be bound up in questions of identity, this study seeks to understand professional development related to dialogic practice as a sociocultural process (Hofmann, 2020) and how teachers’ own identities may act as enabling or restrictive forces in relation to dialogic classroom interactions (Sherry et al., 2019).

The proposed theoretical and conceptual framework reflects the multidisciplinary discourse that has shaped understandings of dialogue as pedagogy: the psychological principle of the intimate relationship between language and thought and the sociolinguistic focus on the “the kinds of language and language environments which classrooms actually provide” (Alexander, 2008, p.18). It draws on key theoretical influences, such as Bakhtin’s (1981) dialogism and discourse theory, that have been significant in the development of dialogic teaching practices and which centralise a socio-constructivist understanding of knowledge and learning (Alexander, 2008; Grimmett, 2016). This perspective suggests that classroom dialogic interactions are fundamentally linked with pupils’ and teachers’ identities; where dialogue mediates both the construction of self and wider culture of society (Alexander, 2008), and identity is socially co-constructed through classroom discourse which both shapes and is shaped by teachers’ personal and professional conceptions of self (Sherry et al., 2019).

Solari and Ortega’s (2022) proposed conceptual framework for understanding teachers’ professional identity construction has been particularly significant in developing the diverse conceptual model on which this study is based. They highlight the multidisciplinary nature of understanding teacher identity construction through a sociocultural lens and develop an approach which sees teacher identity as personal and professional, declared and enacted, and shaped by micro and macro level discourse. However, whilst they assert that a dialogic conceptualisation of identity is one aspect of this sociocultural approach, this study’s conceptual map considers all aspects of teachers’ professional identity construction to be essentially dialogic in nature and that the dialogic spaces within teachers’ identity landscapes are both internally and externally constructed. Centred on a conceptualisation of teacher identity as dialogic, the emerging visual conceptual map draws on three key theoretical frameworks. Bakhtin’s (1981) theory of dialogism conceptualises identity as polyphonic, shaped by multiple discourses and through dialogue in relation to the internal and external dialogic ‘other’. Here, the struggle between the powerful, privileged language of authoritative discourse and the internalised persuasive discourse of our own stories, speaks to the potential conflicts and tensions in teachers’ professional identity construction. Hermans’ (2003) Dialogical Self Theory builds on Bakhtin’s theory to understand identity as dynamic, multifaceted, and complex, undergoing continual change through internal reconstruction of the self and situated within social interactions and relationships (Henry, 2019). It challenges traditional western perspectives of identity construction as an internal process and dialogue as an external process, bringing these concepts together to create an inclusive understanding of self and society (Grimmett, 2016). Whilst its application to educational research is relatively new, it is an approach that is increasingly utilised to explore a number of educational issues (Grimmett, 2016). Finally, in Holland et al.’s (1998) figured worlds theory, identity intersects past experiences, social relationships and cultural contexts. Through this framework, teachers’ identity construction is positioned as a constantly shifting continuum of ongoing ‘events’ within an intersectional space (Sherry et al., 2019) and highlights the interplay of experiences, social relationships and positions, and cultural contexts at work within the classroom.

The multidisciplinary nature of considering identity through a dialogic lens draws on theoretical frameworks from a range of discourse theory - literary, psychoanalytical, and anthropological. Whilst this presents challenges and potential tensions, it offers a perspective which draws on rich and diverse research traditions to consider the ways in which language and dialogue within the context of teachers’ professional identity development has the power to construct social contexts and situations, but may also be limited by them (Bakhtin, 1981). It also reflects the fundamentally dialogic approach to the study, where exploring the internal and external dialogue within identity discourse is seen as a potentially rich and illuminating approach. The visual conceptual map at the heart of this emerging doctoral study, seeks to establish a creative, diverse and multidisciplinary dialogue through which we might develop a deeper understanding of the complex relationship between teacher identity and dialogic approaches to teaching. Inspired by Swaaij and Klare’s The Atlas of Experience, mapping teachers’ dialogic identities offers a new way to visualise and explore the potential tensions, conflicts and congruences which may arise through the ongoing journey of identity construction situated within this landscape. Research which explores ways in which teacher identity construction connects with dialogic practices and teacher education is of significant importance if we are to move beyond the limits of our “inherited educational culture” (Alexander, 2008, p.18). The theoretical and conceptual frameworks explored in this study further highlight the importance of examining the identity positioning at work in the potentially dialogic and socially situated spaces of teaching. In this way we might begin to understand the challenges of a dialogic approach in a more nuanced way - as either enabled or constrained by the multiplicity of discourses and voices integral to the complex business of becoming a teacher.

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