To author yourself: Teachers in Swedish school-age educare centres describe their professional identity

Abstract

This study aims to construct knowledge about how teachers in Swedish school-age educare centres build on their professional identity by listening to their narratives about their work, their interpretations of their mission and how they apply their intentions. The study takes its point of departure from sociocultural (Vygotsky, 1978) and dialogical (Bakhtin, 1986) perspectives. The analysis starts with Bakhtin’s notion of authoring. The construction of data was carried out in three steps. Firstly, by collecting written narratives from 21 teachers, secondly by oral narratives from ten teachers among the 21 teachers participating in ‘walk-and-talk’ conversations and finally from a commonly created conversation in two focus interviews with eight of the teachers. The results from this study indicate that there is a commonly shared general discourse unifying the professional identity of the teacher in school-age educare centres.