Title
Vocational Identity: What Makes a Teacher and Why Do They Teach? A Qualitative Narrative Study
Date of Award
Spring 5-10-2021
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education in Secondary Education
Department
Education
Committee Chair
Dr. Kimberly Gray
First Committee Member
Dr. Ivan M. Jorrin-Abellan
Second Committee Member
Dr. Camille Sutton Brown-Fox
Third Committee Member
Dr. Aaron Levy
Abstract
This study explored the creation and maintenance of vocational identity as it relates to teachers. The vocational identities of five participants spanning the educational spectrum were explored and then storified following a qualitative narrative research design. Until this study, the research on vocational identity was sparse and tended to focus on identity alone and not on the concept of vocational identity. Teacher identity and its formation had not been explored in the literature and there were no studies that addressed how a teacher formed their vocational identity and how that formed identity manifested itself in their classroom. A series of semi-structured interviews and participant-driven photo elicitation were used to collect data. This raw data was then analyzed using Atlas. ti (V9) and assembled for review.
The findings of this qualitative narrative study suggested that vocational identity was created within four identified areas: Personal/Behavioral factors, Political/Educational factors, Contextual factors, and Life Domain factors. Each of these areas of interest were explored in this study through the lived experiences and photographs of elements that represented the vocational identities of the participants.
Keywords: Self-efficacy theory, self-determination theory, vocational identity, teacher identity, teacher motivation, identity theory, social identity theory, social hierarchy, narrative study, narrative research.