an ethnographic account of emerging professional identities of novice teachers in the English lifelong learning sector
University of East London
2016
Ed.D.
University of East London
2016
In adopting a qualitative, ethnographically informed approach this thesis explores the identity formation of novice teachers in the lifelong learning sector in England. The research is concerned with four areas for inquiry: how novice teachers perceive the relationship between their professional practices, experiences and emerging teacher identities; the usefulness of the concept of 'craft' in sociological writings to theorise the identities of novice teachers; the appropriateness of a digital ethnographic methodological approach enabling effective research into teachers lives in this sector; and, the applicability of online asynchronous blogging practices to support the development of the professional practices by novice teachers in the lifelong learning sector in England. The identity and pedagogic practices of these novice teachers are contextualised by the 'turbulent times' for both the workplace of this sector and the teacher education that supports entrants into this sector. The fieldwork for the research follows two cohorts of new entrants into first-time employment across an 18-month period. In developing an understanding of craft identities, blogging practices are developed as a methodological tool within a digital ethnographic approach, exploring the potential for this revised ethnography. The use of reflective practices through online tools to generate data is conceived herein as an 'epistemology of doing': a research practice that in turn supports in an ethical way the lives and social practices of those who participate. The findings of the thesis suggest (contrary to use of the term craft by neo-liberalism) that novice teachers' craft practice and craft identity are a potentially stable basis for sustained practice in the otherwise turbulent lifelong learning sector. However, this 'stable basis' also provides contradictions, uneasy relations, compromises and insurmountable challenges when buttressed against the performativity cultures of the sector.