My identity as a professional... What do I think shapes it?
When reading the readings on identity Jawitz (2009) and Day, Kington, Stobart & Sammons (2005), I came up with a few conclusions of my own. Jawitz discusses something that I think is interesting and an obvious point that is often made in higher education, which is "Both discipline and the institution play an important role in the development of the academic identity" (Austin, 1990; Becher &Trownler, 2001; Clark, 1987; Henkel, 2000; Newmann, 2001) as cited in Jawitz (2009, p. 242). As I was reading this I was wondering whether I agreed with it. To some extent I think that this plays a part in how we form our academic identity. I work at a higher education institution, I sit in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, but I am not a nurse or midwife. I always start conversations with, "No I am not a nurse, I am a teacher by trade", and if I was at Oxford as opposed to a multi-campus regional Australian university, I am sure that this would have an impact on how I saw myself as an academic also.
When reading through Day, Kington, Stobart and Sammons (2005) I agreed with what Goffmann (1959) as cited in (
Day, Kington, Stobart & Sammons, 2005, p. 602) that, "each person had a number of 'selves', each one focusing on the execution of one role at any given time and situation'. I agree that dependant on the situation or the role that I am in in that situation will depend on how I respond and behave. Day et.al. 2005 suggest that this is situated identity. They then discuss Ball's (1972) idea that there is situated identity and substantive identity. Substantive identity - being everything else that makes up my identity, experiences, culture, education etc. I agree with this notion too. I do believe that my substantive identity does impact on my situated identity also though, and here is my example....
Example
Situation: Posting to Facebook
What is impacting on this task?: My education - do I shorten what I have to say e.g.. LOL. No. Culture - Do I post half naked photos of myself, absolutely not. Experiences - do I enjoy posting to Facebook, No.
Would I post something on Facebook that I would say to someone in person?: No, mainly because when something is posted online it is very difficult to get it back. It is stuck somewhere out there.
Would I post something to Facebook that was academic in nature?: No, not generally. For several reasons, firstly this would be boring and most of my Facebook friends wouldn't get it, nor would they care. Secondly, this is not the purpose of using Facebook for me.
So you can see that how I might behave in a formal work environment and how I behave in an online social environment are different. I still have the same underlying identity, that stems from the same things, but how I chose to portray myself in an online environment and how I chose to portray myself in other situations is different.
In regards to me as a teacher and my identity and what shapes it, I would like to have a connectivist approach to teaching, however I am constrained somewhat in this approach, not necessarily by myself but institutional influences and the like. I would say that I still sit in the constructivist approach to my teaching and learning, but perhaps through this course I can move/ transform my approach to a more connectives approach.
Now that the navel gazing is finished....
What random thing am I going to learn that I can write about? Hmmmm I have solicited my colleagues on what they think I could learn. I also asked my husband. The question I asked them was this, "I have to learn something interesting but not too time intensive for a course I am doing. I have to learn off the net. What do you think I could learn, as I don't have a yearning to learn anything new so I have no idea." Oh and I also mentioned that I was seriously time poor.
Answers:
Colleagues: You could learn how to train for a half marathon.
Husband: Learn how to build a time machine that fractures time so that you have more and can then have time to figure out what you are going to learn for your course that you find interesting enough to blog about.
Hmmmm not sure which one to go with..... Your thoughts?
References
Day, C., Kington, A., Stobart, G., & Sammons, P. (2006). The personal and professional selves of teachers: stable and unstable identities. British Educational Research Journal, 32(4), 601-606. Retireved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.usq.edu.au/doi/10.1080/01411920600775316/epdf
Jawitz, J. (2009). Academic identities and communities of practice in a professional discipline. Teaching in Higher Education, 14:3, 241-251, DOI: 10.1080/13562510902898817