Five Secondary Teachers: Creating and Presenting a Teaching Persona

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates the ways that five secondary teachers developed and presented personae. The researcher collected and analyzed data using a theoretical frame based in social psychology, including Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959), and Miles and Huberman’s (1994) three-step approach to qualitative data analysis. Findings indicate that teachers drew on three major realms—the physical, psychological, and social—when constructing classroom personae. Implications include increased opportunities for teacher reflection on persona and its effects.

Keywords

• Persona
• Preservice Teachers