| Abstract [eng] |
Teacher professional identity research has been flourishing in recent decades. Researchers are trying to understand not only the self-perceptions of teachers but also the relationship between policy makers and teachers. The research examines how teachers working in public schools in Lithuania construct their professional identity, and what is the relationship between their personally and politically formed identities. Applying Pierre Bourdieu's field theory and Michael Foucault's power discourse ideas as a theoretical framework, this paper analyses how teachers accept or (re)construct their professional identity in the relation of the political discourse of the teacher role. Bourdieu's theory helped in understanding how an individual's identity is shaped by the social spaces in which they operate,school culture and community in which they work or expectations from different government institutions. Michel Foucault's theory of power and discourse suggest that power is not something that is possessed by individuals or groups, but rather it is something that is exercised and negotiated in social interactions and discourses. Examining teacher‘s identity and how is it constructed through the language and discourse used inpolicy documents, gives a deeper understanding of the of the education policy and its implementation in the schools. The study revealed many issues, such as the disagreement between the government expecations for the teachers and reality in the schools, exclusion of the teachers while ignoring their needs in decision making within the field of education and failures in education policy implementation. |
