Abstract:

The identity of a teacher can be characterized in a comprehensive concept based on a psychological, sociological, and sociocultural approach. In vocational education, as a part of the educational process providing not only general education but especially education in a wide range of professional areas, there is other significant part of teacher's identity – professional identity. This professional identity relates to both, teaching activities (professional teachers’ identity) and activities of branch professional (professional experts’ identity). By intertwining these two forms of teachers’ professional identity, three areas can be defined. Pedagogical-psychological competencies, which are normally part of the common basis in teacher training, are related to a purely professional teachers’ identity. The purely professional expert’s identity is related to the competencies of a specialist in the relevant field of expertise, which can be obtained especially through practical work in the given field. The last, third area concerns branch-didactic competences. These competencies specifically combine expert knowledge of the given field with the necessary pedagogical and didactic knowledge. They thus emphasize the fact that expert knowledge needs to be appropriately selected for the educational process in the form of the curriculum and adequate didactic analysis and transformation of the curriculum should be done. VET teachers may have negative feelings if they have chosen a teaching career over the career of an expert in given field. But they can also use knowledge both from the field of pedagogy and from the field of an expert in the field. This can be characterized as “boundary crossing”, i.e., moving from one field to another, or remaining in both fields to gain benefits. In addition, identity relates to self-concept, self-confidence, self-efficacy, i.e., with an internal view of teacher’s own identity. However, it is also connected with how the teacher is viewed by others, and what role the teacher plays in interactions with the others or is attributed to teacher. Teachers can interact with pupils, their parents, colleagues, school management, or in the case of VET teachers, also with experts in the relevant field. If the internal conception of the current VET teacher’s identity does not correspond to the idea of the given identity, a feeling of lack and therefore a need arises. Satisfying this need can be achieved through the development of appropriate competencies, the acquisition of which can eliminate the internal contradiction. Even the external environment can initiate the need to develop competences, especially in the case when the current competences are not sufficient to solve the current situation, whether in relation to pupils, parents, colleagues, or experts from the field. In this case, we can talk about “bumpy moments” that initiate change. In the paper, based on a literary search of relevant sources related to the identity of VET teachers, I present a conceptualization of the complex professional identity of a VET teacher and connect this concept with individual specific areas of competencies of VET teachers.

Keywords:

Teacher identity, vocational education, VET teacher identity, teacher competencies, boundary crossing.