Postmodernity Fears and Transformations of Teachers’ Identities

Elissavet (Elizabeth) Lintzerakou and Eleftheria Argyropoulou

European Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 2024, vol. 5, issue 4, 62-65

Abstract: Postmodernity affected educational systems and teaching practices in several ways, such as deconstructing knowledge and changing the power dynamics in class, as well as putting emphasis on diversity, inclusivity, interdisciplinary approaches, critical pedagogy, and reflexivity. These changes led to the alterations and fluidity of teachers’ professional identities. The purpose of this small-scale qualitative research is to depict teachers’ fears in association with changes in their profession caused by postmodernity. Two distinct tools were used: a priority list and an explanation-justification template for each respondent to indicate the reasons behind their priority choices. Thematic analysis was used to indicate major themes and subthemes in the participants’ verbatim answers. Findings indicated that teachers at different stages of their careers are worried about continuous educational and environmental changes. Younger teachers with less experience are especially worried about systemic changes and abruptions that affect not only their profession but their lives as a whole. The findings of this study verify previous research concerning teachers’ professional identity determinants with an emphasis on contextual factors and career advancement. Postmodernity as a factor underpinning professional alterations indicates that the dominance of various factors depends on variations between contexts, cultures, and structures of educational systems, as well as on the psychological mechanisms employed by individuals in forming the perception of their self.

Keywords: postmodernity; teachers’ fears; teachers' identity; transformations in the teaching profession (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejedu/article/view/30864 Abstract page (text/html)
https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejedu/article/download/30864/6279 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:epw:ejedu0:v:5:y:2024:i:4:id:30864

DOI: 10.24018/ejedu.2024.5.4.864

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in European Journal of Education and Pedagogy from European Open Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Support ().