Strengthening Teacher Identity And Professionalism As A Way To Increase The Appeal And Status Of Teaching Profession
Strengthening Teacher Identity And Professionalism As A Way To Increase The Appeal And Status Of Teaching Profession

Summary/Abstract: Improving the status of the teaching profession is seen as an important prerequisite for increasing its appeal for both practicing teachers and university graduates who have obtained a teaching qualification. This state-of-the-art review looks into recent research in the field of creating and maintaining teacher identity and a sense of belonging to the profession of teaching in general, and foreign language teaching in particular. It provides a commentary on a number of issues related to the role of identity in conceptualising professionalism in the field of language teaching. Current research views teacher identity as a multifaceted, dynamic, and context-bound phenomenon, which is closely related to defining and negotiating one's self, and managing the affective domain. Different interpretations of professionalism are discussed, starting from the externally imposed form, sponsored and delineated by policy-makers, to its independent variety, stemming from individual teachers’ views and reflections on their own beliefs and actions. Sponsored professionalism is linked to the recent call for measurable accountability in education worldwide and in Bulgarian higher education.

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