Weaving Forgotten Pieces of Place and the Personal: Using Collaborative Auto-Ethnography and Aesthetic Modes of Reflection to Explore Teacher Identity Development

Y

31

Professional Identity; Preschool Teachers; Ethnography; Reflection; Art Activities; Teacher Researchers; Teacher Collaboration; Foreign Countries

1529-8094

How do we develop understanding of our teacher identities and what can aesthetic modes offer to assist reflection and learning about shifting images of identity? These questions provoked our auto-ethnographic project. As two experienced early childhood teachers, we found ourselves transitioning into new professional terrain as teacher-researcher and teacher-director. This progression represented a significant shift in how we conceptualised, enacted, and located our respective identities. Using a new aesthetic framework, we explored what was known about our professional lives at key moments of "self and the other in practice" (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009, p. 12). We discovered that our histories matter, place matters, as do relationships made within these social spaces. This work opens opportunity for collaborative dialogue and critical reflection on self-as-teacher. Situating selfunderstandings within social systems of learning recognises forces influencing identity development (Hickey & Austin, 2007) and expands pedagogical frameworks for navigating sociopolitical complexities of educational realities.

As Provided

2019

EJ1207122