The UN convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities states that inclusive education provides the best educational environment for all learners and it has been recognised that such inclusion requires targeted training for teachers that imparts the necessary knowledge, skills and competencies to produce reflective, self-critical teachers (for example see European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education, 2010; Forlin, 2010; Larrivee, 2000; Van Laarhoven et al, 2007).  As well as influencing professional practice, investigations have been made into how teacher training has an impact on self-identity.  Søreide (2006) contends that the construction of identity is a continually evolving, socially negotiated process, while Woods and Jeffrey (2002:98) suggest that self-identity is constantly ‘remade’ and ‘reformed’ through a reflexive process which they term ‘identity work’ (2002:98). Woods and Jeffrey define this work as involving teachers talking about what they do and who they are, in order that old identities can be dismantled and new ones embraced. 

In this paper I interweave ideas about ‘identity work’ with Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concept of ‘participation in communities of practice’ to investigate the ways in which engaging in professional development might impact upon how teachers perceive themselves as having professional identities that affiliate them with, or disassociate them from, the particular educational communities in which they work.  The paper details research undertaken with teachers who are subject to English Educational policy (i.e. DfES, 2004; Rose, 2009) and working with children identified as having ‘Special Educational Needs’ (SEN) and/or ‘Specific Learning Differences’ (SpLD) such as Dyslexia. 

DfES (Department for Education and Skills) (2004) Removing Barriers to Achievement – The Government’s Strategy for SEN, London, DfES. European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education (2010) Teacher Education for Inclusion - international literature review, Odense, Denmark, European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. Forlin, C. (Ed. (2010) Teacher Education for Inclusion, Changing Paradigms and Innovative Approaches, London, Routledge. Graham, A. & R. Phelps (2002) 'Being a Teacher': Developing Teacher Identity and Enhancing Practice Through Metacognitive and Reflective Learning Processes’ in Australian Journal of Teacher Education: 27 (2): 1-. Griffiths, S. (2011) ‘Being dyslexic doesn't make me less of a teacher’. School placement experiences of student teachers with dyslexia: strengths, challenges and a model for support, in Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, in press. Early View (Online Version of Record published before inclusion in an issue) at: http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=iew8tUBLSBEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=teacher+identity+dyslexia&ots=EdmfLs56fV&sig=bus0UAgN_DzdpS2ahc2-cd6yQJM#v=onepage&q&f=false Larrivee, B. (2000) Transforming training practice: Becoming the critically reflective teacher’ in Reflective Practice, 1 (3) 293-307. Lave, J. & E. Wenger (1991) Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Rose, J. (2009) Identifying and teaching children and young people with dyslexia and literacy difficulties, London, UK Government Department for children, schools and families. Søreide, G. (2006) ‘Narrative construction of teacher identity: positioning and negotiation’ in Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12 (5) October 2006: 527-. Van Laarhoven, T., D. Munk, K. Lynch, J. Bosma and J. Rouse (2007) ‘A model for preparing special and general education pre-service teachers for inclusive education’ in Journal of Teacher Education, 58 (5) 440-455. Webster, L. & P. Mertova (2007) Using narrative enquiry: An introduction to using critical event narrative analysis in research on learning and teaching, London, Routledge. Woods, P. and R. Jeffrey (2002) The reconstruction of primary teachers' identities, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23 (1): 89-.