Professional Learning and Identities in Teaching

"The publication of this book is a relief. Scholarly as well as ethically. An international group of authors stands up against the worldwide dominance of standardized, de-contextualised comparative approaches in educational policies and research agendas in which their meaning is reduced to a narrow idea of effectiveness. The authors in this book don't deny the importance of effectiveness in education. Yet, they rightfully stress that this concern needs be addressed -conceptually as well as empirically- in ways that acknowledge the inevitable contextualised nature of teaching, as well as the crucial issue of purpose in education (and the ethical, normative choices it implies). Replacing effective teaching by the broader and more appropriate concept of successful teaching, the different contributions in the book seek to build a stronger research-based understanding of teacher professionalism and identity, as well as their development in the particularities of a time-space context. Narrative approaches once more demonstrate their theoretical and methodological power for this scholarly endeavor." - Geert Kelchtermans, Professor of Education, University of Leuven, Belgium (KULeuven); Chair of the Centre for Innovation and the Development of Teacher and School.

"This book, Professional Learning and Identities in Teaching: International Narratives of Successful Teachers, is a volume to savor due to the vast international insights it offers. Editors Cendel Karaman and Silvia Edling are to be commended for inviting a broad range of international scholars to share narratives of teacher success in their home countries. Stories of experience are arguably the only way to show what teachers know and do. Such narratives unavoidably include contextual factors that bound teachers’ knowing, doing and being. They offer windows into teachers’ professional learning trajectories and identities-in-the-making. Such matters are never conclusive; rather, they repeatedly play out as time passes and new interactions unfurl. The teacher narratives in this volume are vivid and particularistic. Equally revealing is the extent to which neo-liberal agendas are grippingly present in international systems of education. Personal experience methods (i.e., narrative inquiry, autoethnography) are the only way to unleash teachers’ voices in socially engineered educational milieus rife with propositional knowledge claims and instrumentalist thinking. Reading this book is a profound experience. Like Cendel Karaman and Silvia Edling, I recommend that readers think with the many stories that follow. I also invite readers to imagine contextual shifts that could more fully support successful teachers’ practices. The editors and authors provide plentiful clues concerning how things could be otherwise. Because teachers are the only ones who meet students in flesh-and-blood moments, the future is in their hands regardless of the views of those external to classrooms and schools." - Cheryl J. Craig, PhD, Professor, Houston Endowment Endowed Chair of Urban Education and American Educational Research Fellow, Texas A&M University, USA

"This book provides the reader with a clear and rich account of how professional learning and identities are central to teaching and teacher education. Drawing upon case studies from various contexts, the book demonstrates vividly the importance of looking at the complexity of teaching from the inside. It should be read by teachers, teacher educators, policy makers, researchers and all those interested in learning more about the process of becoming a teacher." - Maria Assunção Flores, Professor, Institute of Education, University of Minho, Portugal; Portugal Editor, European Journal of Teacher Education

"Karaman and Edling have compiled various narratives that connect to the ways in which teachers discuss their identity formation through professional stories and how they situated themselves within the context of teaching. [...] There is a diverse array of teacher narratives from different countries such as Brazil, Japan, Australia, Portugal, Ireland, Sweden, Turkey, and the United States. The authors connect the teachers in their study to the meaning of successful teaching within their context." - Hanadi Shatara, PhD, is an assistant professor at California State University, Sacramento.