“I am tilting at windmills”: Tensions in teacher professional identity from the perspective of the model of the agonistic self

Abstract

In this paper, we present an exploratory study on tensions in teacher professional identity based on the Model of Agonistic Self. The sample comprised nine class and subject teachers employed at two primary schools in Belgrade. The research was conceived as a multiple-case study in which thematic analysis was used as an auxiliary method for analyzing the data obtained via a semi-structured interview. The criterion for the selection of tense situations was the presence of one of the four types of tense relations in the agonistic self: acceptance with critique, productive tension, acute conflict, and permanent conflict. These relations were interpreted as different forms of psychosocial dynamics and ways of resolving psychological tension among participants. Subsequently, we thematically categorized the selected situations. We identified nine themes in relation to which our participants had professional dilemmas. Our findings indicate that the same professional dilemma within a teacher’s self can manifest itself in different kinds of tense relations. This suggests that it is not sufficient to direct research attention towards the content of the narratives about professional dilemmas, but that it is also necessary to explore different mechanisms of psychosocial dynamics through which these tensions develop and get resolved. This perspective on teachers’ professional dilemmas represents a contribution to the creation of new models and the refinement of existing models of teacher professional development.

Keywords

• teachers’ professional dilemmas
• teacher professional identity
• dialogical self
• model of the agonistic self
• qualitative methodology