A dialogical self approach to the conceptualisation of teacher- inquirer identity

Abstract

Over the last thirty years, a substantial number of publications have attempted to conceptualise the ways in which teachers carry out inquiries in order to affect changes in educational practice. A number of different psychological models have been applied to the study of teachers’ activities as inquirers, including models focusing on teachers’ professional development, socio-constructivist models of teacher thinking and teacher learning models. The aim of this article is to provide a more comprehensive, in-depth conceptualisation of teacher inquiry by using the central concepts of dialogical self theory and by establishing a closer relationship between teacher identity and individual teacher inquiry. We begin by defining the notions of teacher inquiry and teacher identity, and then go on to describe dialogical-self theory and how this approach can be applied to the description of the teacher-inquirer identity. We conclude this position paper with a detailed example in the form of a single case study illustrating how teachers’ identity as inquirers can be analysed, and we offer some reflexions about potential future research in this new area of study.