Katrin Kullasepp

All Roads Lead to Rome: Developmental Trajectories of Student Teachers' Professional and Personal Identity Development

This article introduces new perspectives to the domain of teacher identity research that help to conceptualize integration of the “personal” and “professional” subsystems of self during processes of learning to teach by students or beginning teachers. Using pedagogical dilemmas, we focus on the dynamics of the professional identity of 26 final-year student teachers in the course of a major pedagogical placement of the studies. We specify how students handle ambivalent situations, and whether they use the professional position, the personal position, or form a coalition between positions to solve the dilemmas. Following, we present seven developmental trajectories of student teachers’ professional identity; differences are noted between pedagogically experienced and inexperienced students.

Professional Role Expectations and Related Feelings When Solving Pedagogical Dilemmas: A Comparison of Pre- and In-Service Teachers.

This study investigated teachers’ professional identity development. Using Dialogical Self Theory and a socio-cultural semiotic mediational perspective, we focused on pre- and in-service teachers’ communication of professional role expectations and related feelings when solving pedagogical dilemmas to reveal aspects of their professional identity construction. Data were collected from 102 pre- and 90 in-service teachers by asking them to solve seven pedagogical dilemmas. We report: (1) how pre- and in-service teachers solved pedagogical dilemmas in terms of communicating professional role expectations and related feelings; (2) how pre- and in-service teachers differed in the feelings they reported and the solutions they gave when solving pedagogical dilemmas; and (3) how the communication of professional role expectations and feelings was related to pre- and in-service teachers’ work experience. Finally, we discuss the implications of our study for initial and continuing teacher education programmes.

Pedagogies of Developing Teacher Identity

Interest in supporting the development of teachers’ professional identity in preservice and in-service teacher education programs has increased in recent decades considerably, given that teachers’ sense of their professional identity manifests itself in job satisfaction, occupational commitment, self-efficacy, and changes in their levels of motivation (i.e., Day, 2002). In this chapter, we present different pedagogies that have been enacted in the Estonian context to support the development of preservice and novice teachers’ professional identity. The pedagogies have been divided into three groups: pedagogies that facilitate the professional aspect of teacher identity, pedagogies that address the personal aspect of teacher identity, and pedagogies that support the interaction of the professional and personal aspects of teacher identity.

Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe: First results of the map of European societies’ cultural milieu

This paper reports the framework, method and main findings of an analysis of cultural milieus in 4 European countries (Estonia, Greece, Italy, and UK). The analysis is based on a questionnaire applied to a sample built through a two-step procedure of post-hoc random selection from a broader dataset based on an online survey. Responses to the questionnaire were subjected to multidimensional analysis–a combination of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. We identified 5 symbolic universes, that correspond to basic, embodied, affect-laden, generalized worldviews. People in this study see the world as either a) an ordered universe; b) a matter of interpersonal bond; c) a caring society; d) consisting of a niche of belongingness; e) a hostile place (others’ world). These symbolic universes were also interpreted as semiotic capital: they reflect the capacity of a place to foster social and civic development. Moreover, the distribution of the symbolic universes, and therefore social and civic engagement, is demonstrated to be variable across the 4 countries in the analysis. Finally, we develop a retrospective reconstruction of the distribution of symbolic universes as well as the interplay between their current state and past, present and future socio-institutional scenarios.

Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe

This paper reports the framework, method and main findings of an analysis of cultural milieus in 4 European countries (Estonia, Greece, Italy, and UK). The analysis is based on a questionnaire applied to a sample built through a two-step procedure of post-hoc random selection from a broader dataset based on an online survey. Responses to the questionnaire were subjected to multidimensional analysis–a combination of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. We identified 5 symbolic universes, that correspond to basic, embodied, affect-laden, generalized worldviews. People in this study see the world as either a) an ordered universe; b) a matter of interpersonal bond; c) a caring society; d) consisting of a niche of belongingness; e) a hostile place (others’ world). These symbolic universes were also interpreted as semiotic capital: they reflect the capacity of a place to foster social and civic development. Moreover, the distribution of the symbolic universes, and therefore social and civic engagement, is demonstrated to be variable across the 4 countries in the analysis. Finally, we develop a retrospective reconstruction of the distribution of symbolic universes as well as the interplay between their current state and past, present and future socio-institutional scenarios.

Symbolic universes between present and future of Europe: First results of the map of European societies’ cultural milieuDe første resultater fra kortet over det europæiske samfundenes kulturmiljø

This paper reports the framework, method and main findings of an analysis of cultural milieus in 4 European countries (Estonia, Greece, Italy, and UK). The analysis is based on a questionnaire applied to a sample built through a two-step procedure of post-hoc random selection from a broader dataset based on an online survey. Responses to the questionnaire were subjected to multidimensional analysis–a combination of Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. We identified 5 symbolic universes, that correspond to basic, embodied, affect-laden, generalized worldviews. People in this study see the world as either a) an ordered universe; b) a matter of interpersonal bond; c) a caring society; d) consisting of a niche of belongingness; e) a hostile place (others’ world). These symbolic universes were also interpreted as semiotic capital: they reflect the capacity of a place to foster social and civic development. Moreover, the distribution of the symbolic universes, and therefore social and civic engagement, is demonstrated to be variable across the 4 countries in the analysis. Finally, we develop a retrospective reconstruction of the distribution of symbolic universes as well as the interplay between their current state and past, present and future socio-institutional scenarios.

Dialogue for Bridging Student Teachers’ Personal and Professional Identity

This research on student teachers’ professional identity formulation contributes to the emerging development of utilizing dialogical approaches in teacher identity research. Following the conceptual framework and practical implications of Alsup (2006) and Hermans and Hermans-Konopka (2010), we developed support for professional identity development. The main aim of the support was to facilitate the negotiation and solving of tensions between student teachers’ professional and personal I-positions.

Career as Affective Journey: How Constant Flux Challenges the Search for Career Pathways and Counseling.

Individuals have to actively manage their careers and with it their identities in this life domain. With the help of empirical findings and field reports, we will show how these changing demands need to be negotiated as part of identity development and, thus, career counseling processes. While Dialogical Self Theory (DST) is used to describe the constant negotiation of the self (identity) including dialogues within the person as well as dialogues with others, the Trajectory Equifinality Model (TEM) will help depict the development of career pathways that result from both – with a special focus on affective linking. Based on DST and TEM, it is argued that finding the right career is an ongoing and affective process and with that a developmental phenomenon that can be supported by different means: typologies that relate the individual to a larger population as well as idiographic approaches.