The aim of this study is to examine how a particular object for consumption, professional development for teachers and principals, is marketed to schools, and what propositions and understandings are embedded in such offers. Adopting a conceptualization of marketing as a "perpetual questioning machine," the study deploys and develops a…

The aim of this article is to develop and validate an analysis instrument of principal' identity in the Swedish context. A point of departure is taken in the work of Crow, Day, and Møller (2017) and three dimensions of the concept: professional, personal, and situated or socially located. The article builds on a survey on Swedish principals…

Purpose: This study explores the role of previous occupational identity in the formation of the (new) teacher identity of vocational teachers. The focus is on how vocational teachers discover their teaching identity, how they describe the connection between their previous occupation and teacher identity and how they describe a competent member of…

The following paper aims to investigate how student teachers relate to the suitability of their student teacher peers after experiencing challenges to their emerging teacher identity, resulting in emotional responses. A constructivist grounded theory study was conducted in which 18 student teachers participated. Data from 14 individual interviews…

Purpose: This study identifies gendered disparities among women students participating in work-integrated learning and explores the effects of the disparities on their perceptions on perceived opportunities, competencies, sense of belonging, and professional identity. Design/methodology/approach: A series of semi-structured focus groups were run…

Due to the changing landscapes of higher education, a large body of research has studied how scholars make sense of academic identities and careers. Yet, little is known about how academics actually 'work' on their identities to navigate normative demands and complex career structures. This paper explores how scholars negotiate career scripts…

Identity is of increasing interest in teacher education. Crucial for resilience, the development of a coherent professional identity has been characterized as emerging from tensions between multiple and sometimes conflicting conceptions of what it means to be someone who teaches (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011). While light is being shed on these…

This study outlines the self-positioning of skin and spa therapy students. More specifically, it focuses how they position themselves as professionals in terms of knowledge, and how gender is at play throughout this process. Drawing on a poststructural approach, inspired by Foucault and feminist theory, regularities of description and…

The aim of this article is to examine non-traditional graduates' life transitions before, during, and after higher education (HE) in Sweden. The article builds on a theory called biographical work, which is used for understanding non-traditional graduates' identity formation and transformation. The article is based on the narratives of two…

This study explores how bilingual teachers with an immigrant background construct professional identity in the context of initial literacy and second language teaching of adults. Specifically, the study seeks to understand what the teachers' membership of different work-related communities means for their professional identity and what capital the…

In Sweden and many other countries, the academisation of teacher education goes along with increased emphasis on a student thesis, in Sweden formally entitled the final degree project. This study deals with students' writing trajectories in Early Childhood Education and Care aimed at work in the preschool or the recreation centre. The study…

Currently, the inner dynamics of teacher identity transformations remain a "black box." Conceptualizing preservice teacher identity as a complex dynamic system, and the notion of "being someone who teaches" in dialogical terms as involving shifts between different teacher voices, the study investigates the dynamical processes…

Academic achievement is regarded an indicator of the success of individuals, schools, universities and countries. 'Success' is typically measured using performance indicators such as test results, completion rates and other objective measures. By contrast, in this article we explore students' subjective understandings and constructions of success,…

The act of teaching is constituted by tensions between contradictory influences of national educational systems, teachers' professional/personal identity, cultural and social values. Qualitative research methods can explore this complex situation. Indeed, narrative methods have explored teachers' "life histories". This article provides a…

The neo-liberal restructuring of academia justifies research concerning what constitutes academic work, what it means to be an academic researcher and how researchers manoeuvre in academia. The aim of this article is to investigate how this reshaping of higher education affects how research careers are formed and impacts on "becoming…