Who are teachers? A study of identity hierarchy

Abstract

This study aims to create a hierarchy of identities for teachers’ perceptions of the self. The research carried out as a survey study was conducted in Diyarbakır, a province in Turkey, with a study group of 261 teachers. This study employs a tool of data collection making it possible to present the six types of identities—namely, professional identity, moral identity, gender identity, political identity, ethnic identity and religious identity—to participants in the form of pairwise comparisons. Fifth case equation of scaling through pairwise comparisons was used in the analysis of the data collected. According to results obtained, teachers adopt moral identity mostly—which is followed by professional identity, political identity, ethnic identity, religious identity and gender identity respectively.

Keywords

• identity
• identity hierarchy
• professional identity
• moral identity
• teachers’ identity