Understanding teacher ethico-political identity formation from a Foucauldian perspective

Abstract

In recent years, we have seen an increased politicisation and objectification of what teachers should know, what teachers should do and who teachers should be while they are doing it. While evident across the continua of teacher education, such politicised constructions are particularly acute at initial teacher education. Given such attention to constructing what has been described as a ‘preferred’ teacher identity, this paper explores how prospective teachers construct themselves in ethico-political terms (i.e., how prospective teachers construct the relationship that they have with themselves and how they account for themselves in that regard). Informed by a Foucauldian perspective and using a composite case that draws on interview data (photovoice and semi-structured interviews) from a small sample (n = 4) of prospective Irish primary school teachers at various stages during their final semester of initial teacher education, this paper addresses ethico-political identity in terms of substance, authority sources, self-practices and telos. Findings illuminate prospective teacher ethico-political identity as: (i) substance as the basis for nascent teacher practical knowing-in-action and pedagogical sensitivities; (ii) temporally organised authority sources; (iii) dynamic and interrelated self-practices; and (iv) telos as a form of identity prolepsis that emphasises three major valuational endpoints. The paper concludes by contemplating the generativity of an ethico-political conceptualisation of teacher identity (re)formation for teacher education purposes in terms of its conceptual, contextual, critical and reflective utility.