Conference Agenda

As political and social structures continually frame teachers as either monsters or heroes,
teaching professionsals have used social media to share and strengthen their identities as
human beings and competent professionals. By examining the counterspaces teachers have
created on Instagram and TikTok, a team of international researchers investiagte how teachers
use social media to present multiple plotlines of identity in a shared space. By incorporating
global perspectives and the expansive social media environment, an important element of
teacher identity is more fully investigated through a grounded theory approach. This paper
demonstrates how social media community enactment allows teachers to rebel against
narrow, dualisitic images of self to expansive, holistic, and robust idenities that both support
and create practices, methods, and beliefs for a variety of teachers and disciplines.

This paper explores the findings of a Delphi professional symposium, which was embedded in a research project funded by the Society for Educational Studies. The purpose was to examine the extent to which university faculty, associate faculty and school based mentors evaluating/assessing teacher candidates applied consistent patterns and criteria of judgment; drew on the similar observational strategies and voiced similar patterns of justification for such judgment. This element in the research brought together international respected authorities to explore in detail the preliminary findings from earlier phases, which drew upon Social judgment theory (SJT). This approach supported and informed the enquiry (Cooksey, 1998; 1996) and emphasised careful identification and analysis of the context of judgment and the cues and policies used by judges hence making it fit for an investigation into the judgments teacher educators make in coming to a judgement as to early career teacher efficacy. The preliminary findings emerged from an extensive literature review and a tri-nation (England, Wales, Scotland) study of the particular charcateristics of different categories of judges (university faculty/associatetutors/school-based mentors).

Methods: The Delphi method (Green, 2014) brought together nine (9) national and international experts in education to take up these findings in a full day of discussion and consensus building. Drawing upon a four phase, iterative process of questions interspersed with controlled feedback, the goal was to generate a reliable consensus opinion on the priorities afforded to different considerations in the judgement of new teachers’ practices, Each phase was afforded ever greater refinement of the categories of judgment.

Findings:

Some complex themes emerged, including;

the conflation of competence and judgment

the complexity afforded by stakeholder/democratic imperatives

accountability and power

translation problems between different constituencies

the clhallenge of con text and consistency

collaboration and consistency

challenges in maintaining an intergenerational conversation

emerging models and 'clinical' practice

In the 21st century, new social, expressed through the globalization of the economy, technological advancements, human mobility, and environmental concerns , are driving changes in educational systems, teaching practices, and teacher identity. The main research question is: how does the reconfiguration of teacher identity and teacher professionalization of teachers occur in response to these new social demands to achieve more equitable education? The general objective is to examine teacher identity and teacher professionalization, considering changes in basic education pedagogical practice in interactions with quality teaching for a more equitable world. The study methodology is based on narratives. Thirty testimonies from basic education teachers in Brazil were obtained. The study employs the Positioning Theory, the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) (Engeström, 2008); Analysis of Narratives and Narrative Analysis (Creswell, 2016), teacher identity theories (Marcelo, 2009), and the Multidimensional Adapted Process Model (MADP) (Metsäpelto, et al, 2022). Preliminary results indicate that teachers, most of whom are female, decide to pursue their profession due to family influence and continue to be enthusiastic about teaching. Regarding changes in their profession, the following were indicated: skills for the insertion of digital technologies, welcoming of inclusion students, pedagogical practices for collaborative learning and large-scale assessment. It is worth noting that this is a collaborative research project carried out with the participation of researchers from several countries: Brazil, India, Poland, Finland, Germany, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong. The interactions enable the sharing of knowledge and an expanded understanding of teacher training and professional performance.