'End of term': teacher identities in a post-work context

TY - JOUR

T1 - 'End of term': teacher identities in a post-work context

AU - Maguire, Meg

PY - 2008/3

Y1 - 2008/3

N2 - There is a well‐established literature that is concerned with the ways in which teachers construct their professional identities. There is also a great deal of research that has traced shifts in teacher identities across a career trajectory, the life‐history approach. In the majority of this work the starting point and the finishing place has focused on the time spent actively engaged in teaching. This article explores teacher identity from another under‐researched perspective. That is, what happens to teachers’ identities when they no longer work as teachers, when they have perhaps laid down this aspect of their identity, when they have reached their ‘end of term’? The purpose of this enquiry is two‐fold. First, the intention is to critically explore theoretical constructions of teacher identities; second, the intention is to start to problematise both retirement as disengagement and life‐stage approaches to teacher career and identity.The article is organised as follows. First, I briefly review some of the different ways in which identity is understood and deployed. Then I consider some of the major research into teacher identity, the life‐cycle of the teacher and some of the work on ‘end‐of career’ teachers. The second half of the article draws on a small data set to explore the different ways that teachers have invested in their occupational identity, or not. It also charts what happens (to their teacher identities) when this occupation stops. Finally the article considers what those who used to teach can tell us about teacher identity and a job they no longer do.

AB - There is a well‐established literature that is concerned with the ways in which teachers construct their professional identities. There is also a great deal of research that has traced shifts in teacher identities across a career trajectory, the life‐history approach. In the majority of this work the starting point and the finishing place has focused on the time spent actively engaged in teaching. This article explores teacher identity from another under‐researched perspective. That is, what happens to teachers’ identities when they no longer work as teachers, when they have perhaps laid down this aspect of their identity, when they have reached their ‘end of term’? The purpose of this enquiry is two‐fold. First, the intention is to critically explore theoretical constructions of teacher identities; second, the intention is to start to problematise both retirement as disengagement and life‐stage approaches to teacher career and identity.The article is organised as follows. First, I briefly review some of the different ways in which identity is understood and deployed. Then I consider some of the major research into teacher identity, the life‐cycle of the teacher and some of the work on ‘end‐of career’ teachers. The second half of the article draws on a small data set to explore the different ways that teachers have invested in their occupational identity, or not. It also charts what happens (to their teacher identities) when this occupation stops. Finally the article considers what those who used to teach can tell us about teacher identity and a job they no longer do.

U2 - 10.1080/14681360701877776

DO - 10.1080/14681360701877776

M3 - Article

VL - 16

SP - 43

EP - 55

JO - Journal of Pedagogy, Culture and Society

JF - Journal of Pedagogy, Culture and Society

IS - 1

ER -