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How teachers in different educational contexts view their roles
Teaching and Teacher Education 19 (2003) 277–290
How teachers in different educational contexts view their roles Miriam Ben-Peretza,*, Nili Mendelsona, Friedrich W. Kronb a
Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel b Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Received 27 October 1999; received in revised form 20 June 2002; accepted 8 July 2002
Abstract Based on the premise that teachers’ perceptions of their professional roles are closely linked to their self images and their impact on the learning and achievement of their students, a study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the context of teachers’ work and their views of themselves as professionals. Sixty teachers in Israeli vocational senior high schools participated in the study. Half taught high-achieving and half low-achieving students. Teachers’ professional images of self were uncovered by asking them to match their images of themselves as teachers with drawings of other, carefully chosen, occupations and to comment on their choices. The use of metaphoric pictures was found to be a meaningful vehicle for raising teachers’ awareness of their roles and functions in school. The major finding of this study was that the teaching context has a significant impact on teachers’ images of their professional selves. The caring metaphor, for instance, is more prevalent in some educational situations than in others, leading to potential pedagogical implications. The rejection of some images proved to be no less important than the positive choices. It is argued that metaphoric pictures could serve not only as research instruments but also as an instructional tool in teacher education programs. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Professional self image; Teaching context; Picture metaphors
‘‘I want to understand the roles of images in the governing of the teaching profession—i.e. the social and political definitions, of norms, rules, beliefs, convictions and ‘‘truths’’ about what it means to be a ‘‘good’’ and ‘‘reasonable’’ teacher’’ (Novoa, 2000, p. 23).
The study which is the focus of this paper was conducted in the framework of this intention and concerns two main issues: *Corresponding author. Tel.: +972-4-8249358; fax: +972-48249353. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Ben-Peretz).
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the relationship between the context of teachers’ work and their views of themselves as professionals; the use of metaphoric pictures to uncover teachers’ view of their role.
1. Rationale and study questions All students deserve equal opportunities to develop their full potential as human beings and as learners. Teachers play a central role in providing these opportunities and yet, records of education do not present a high level of success. For instance, about 50% of a cohort of secondary
0742-051X/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00100-2
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school students in Israel study in vocational schools, but only 27% of these are eligible for the matriculation certificate which is a prerequisite for higher education in Israel. According to Bandura (1977), teachers’ professional activities are closely linked to their sense of efficacy and their belief that they have an impact on the learning and achievement of their students. The sense of efficacy might be dependent on teachers’ general views of themselves as professionals. Combs, Blume, Newman, and Wass (1974) contend that teachers’ self-image is determined by their way of perceiving themselves and their role in society. This self-image in turn influences their teaching strategies and behavior in class. Teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity have been studied by various researchers (Beijaard, Verloop, & Vermunt, 2000; Bromme, 1991; Kompf, Bond, Dworet, & Boak, 1996; Nias, 1989) investigated teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity from a personal knowledge perspective, using a questionnaire which combined Likert-type statements with participating teachers’ clarifications of reasons for their choices and descriptions of their most important learning experiences. Most of the teachers in their study saw themselves as a combination of subject matter experts, didactical experts and pedagogical experts. Significant differences were found between teachers’ self-image, as beginning versus experienced teachers. It is interesting to note that teachers from different subject areas did not undergo changes in their perceptions of their professional identity. Beijaard et al. (2000) state that: ‘‘It remains unclear to what extent learning experiences regarding subject matter, didactical, and pedagogical aspects influenced the teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity. How such experiences influenced teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity formation might be an important issue for future research. This may contribute considerably to our understanding of teachers’ professional images of themselves y It would appear that in future research, other methods will need to be explored to establish clear relationships between these
factors and the teachers’ different perceptions of their professional identity’’ (p. 762). The study which is the basis of this paper is an attempt to deal with the issues mentioned by Beijaard et al. It is maintained herewith that the study of teacher metaphors is appropriate for exploring relationships between contextual factors and teachers’ professional identity. The scrutiny of metaphorical images is a way to reveal teachers’ underlying assumptions and beliefs concerning education, students, and their own roles in classrooms. Several studies have sought to determine teachers’ metaphors concerning teaching. Inbar (1996) collected and categorized 7042 metaphorical images suggested by teachers, students and principals. The participants were asked to give four images of students, teachers, principals and schools, and to choose one image in each section which most appealed to them. Half of the students participating in Inbar’s study viewed their teachers as ‘‘super controller’’ (i.e. policeman, big boss, judge), but only 13.3% of the educators shared this view; more than half of the educators’ views of themselves were positive (i.e. listening ear, supporting shoulder, protective tree). It seems that the educators in Inbar’s study tended to perceive themselves more in a caring role, whereas students tended to focus on the evaluative, controlling aspects of teaching. Inbar argues, though, that ‘‘special studies to learn about differences among schools with unique programs, or among special groups of educators, are still needed’’ (p. 82). In their study of teachers’ thinking about their profession, Arnon, Shani, and Zeiger (1999) included a component of analysis of teachers’ metaphors. The participants, who were not divided according to their work context, were asked to indicate on a Likert-type questionnaire their degree of agreement with 16 different metaphors of teaching, and to choose those that most closely matched their perception of the profession. Of 253 participants almost two-thirds (59%) chose the image of ‘‘gardener’’ as closest to their own perception of teaching. The metaphor of ‘‘traveling guide’’ was ranked second. It is interesting to note that another ‘‘caring’’ image of ‘‘a bird caring for its young’’ was also ranked high, as was the
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image of ‘‘conductor’’. On the other hand, ‘‘judge’’ was ranked very low, together with ‘‘policeman’’ and ‘‘entertainer in a circus’’. Teachers’ emphasis on work with individual students is evident in the high ranking of caring metaphors. On the other hand, the ‘‘conductor’’ metaphor, represents teachers’ engagement with the whole class, leading the group while still paying attention to the individual performances. These two metaphors reflect the dual nature of teaching according to Arnon et al., who found metaphors to be a valid source for gaining insights into teachers’ thoughts and feelings regarding their profession. Images about teaching are important because of their potential impact on teachers’ actions. Hannay (1996) explored the difficulties teachers face when asked to change their practices because of the persistence of past images concerning teaching. ‘‘The difficulty is that existing images, as part of an individual’s personal practical knowledge, might be dysfunctional as a means to develop new images congruent with the change initiations being experienced’’ (p. 109). What shapes and influences teachers’ professional images of self? It is reasonable to assume that one’s practical experiences are powerful determinants of the image a teacher has of his or her professional role. Research about teaching suggests that self-definition is the result of dynamic interactions with others, students, parents and principals (Lieberman & Miller, 1984; Nias, 1985). This is not to claim that the engulfing culture in which teachers live does not play a powerful role in creating a sense of reality and in shaping one’s identity. Weber and Mitchell (1995) in their study of teacher images in popular culture state that: ‘‘we are searching for the deep or structural metaphors that underlie and often sabotage educational theory and practice’’ (p. 130). The power of images might create our sense of reality, our deep understanding of what is possible and desirable. Still, people manage to construct their own meaning within the general culture. Thus the personal experiences of teachers serve to shape the conventions of their professional lives. A study by Berlak and Berlak (1977) reveals how teachers’ professional perception of self is influenced by
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their environment. This environment is enormously complex and includes institutional characteristics, as well as different target populations of students. Casey (1995) claims that connection between images of self and processes of work practices have seldom been studied. Whereas Weber and Mitchell (1995) studied teacher images in popular culture and showed the link between work and self-definition, our research focuses on teachers’ self-images in different work contexts. The main goal of our study was to determine how different work contexts have an impact on teachers’ professional images. This issue may be considered to be of major importance in our understanding of teaching and learning processes. Beijaard et al. (2000) have shown that the perception of professional identity of teachers changes over time, and may explain some of the impact of experience on teaching styles. But what about teaching context? Does the teaching situation in which teachers find themselves shape their professional self-image? And, if it does, what is the nature of this impact? Most important, what are some possible implications of the relationship between context, professional self-image, and classroom teaching? As our method of investigation, we chose to uncover teachers’ self-images in a projective mode by asking them to match their image of themselves as teachers with drawings of other occupations. The matching of drawings to their perception of themselves as teachers provided the participants with an opportunity to concretize their images, and to liberate their thinking by distancing themselves to a certain extent from their everyday experiences. Inbar (1996) who studied metaphors of students, teachers and principals in relation to themselves and to schooling, contends that ‘‘Metaphors can never convey the full content of their message, nor can they transmit only the content of their intended message. Metaphors rest on the mental process of selection and emphasis. They represent an emphasis of certain selected features of a whole phenomenon’’ (pp. 78–79). These selected features of metaphors in the form of visual images were the stimuli for teachers’ responses in our study.
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Specifically, the study attempts to answer the following questions: *
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Which of seven occupations presented in the form of drawings matches best the professional images of participating teachers? How do teachers’ choices relate to the characteristics of the classes they teach? How do teachers’ choices relate to their own background traits (education, seniority)? What are some implications of the relationship between professional self-images and the educational context?
demanding too much effort; ‘‘conductors’’ determine the nature of performances and set the format and tone of the outcome, being responsible for both the group and the individuals in it; ‘‘puppeteers’’ are similar to conductors but their image also implies the total passivity of their puppets. Finally, ‘‘animal trainers’’ use behavioristic methods, including reward and punishment, in order to achieve certain behaviors, without considering the intentions and preferences of their trainees (see Appendix A for drawings related to these images).
3. Incorporating visual culture into research 2. How were the occupations chosen? Teaching is often compared to other professions such as medicine or law. For example, Soder (1998) in his paper, ‘‘Studying the education of educators: what we can learn from other professions’’, makes the point that considering the assumptions and practices of other professions would give a useful perspective on, and insight into, teaching. Moreover, the very process of choosing teaching as an occupation or vocation may be accompanied by an examination of other occupations and professions. When teachers are asked to provide their professional images, they tend to focus on occupations that share some perceived inherent qualities with teaching, such as ‘‘gardener’’, who assists the growth of students, ‘‘potter’’ who molds the minds of learners, or an ‘‘orchestra conductor’’ who manages the whole class and each student in it simultaneously (Arnon et al., 1999; Inbar, 1996). The specific professions and occupations in our study were chosen because they embody some of the qualities associated with teaching. Thus, the ‘‘shopkeeper’’ sells goods and is perceived as reflecting a transmission role in education; the ‘‘judge’’ is seen as representing authority, strict rules and a judgmental attitude; ‘‘animal keepers’’ in zoos are perceived as the embodiment of looking after a rather difficult and demanding population acting in the role of caregivers; ‘‘entertainers’’ represent the role of amusers, who may make us feel happy for a short while without
Since 1990 the field of educational research has seen the emergence of several works inquiring into aspects of visual culture and education, or using visual images as part of the research process (Margolis, 2000; Maeroff, 1998; Novoa, 2000; Tobin, 2000; Weber & Mitchell, 1995). According to Fischman (2001) visual sources of data, film, cartoons, drawings etc., should be used to advance our knowledge about a variety of topics in educational research. Fischman claims that the incorporation of visual culture into educational research ‘‘constitutes a challenge to the blind spot created by the more traditional ways of seeing and doing research in education, but it is a risk worth taking. If we dare to engage in the dynamic process of looking at the field using new tools and questioning those areas which have been unchartered and treacherous, we may enter insecure territory, but one that holds layers of meaning we may not have otherwise encountered’’ (p. 32). Scenes and characters represented in a picture consist of many properties, lines, shapes, composition, style, etc. Jolly, Zhi, and Thomas (1998), who studied how children in different cultures understand moods that were metaphorically expressed in pictures, state that ‘‘all these properties can work together not only to literally represent but also to metaphorically express moods and ideas that are not easily presented literally’’ (p. 359). Kennedy (1982) argued that types of metaphoric pictures correspond to major groups of verbal metaphors, such as allegory,
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allusion, euphemism, etc. The pictures representing different professions and occupations in our study may be understood to correspond to ‘‘hyperboles’’, namely, uses of exaggerated terms for emphasis rather than deception, e.g. ‘‘a man as big as a mountain’’. According to Kennedy, some psychologists have claimed that pictorial equivalents for hyperbole are caricatures (Kumpunen, 1980; Perkins, 1975). There seems to be no doubt that viewers understand that these pictures are exaggerations. The picture of the ‘‘judge’’ used in our study is a good example of such a caricature, exaggerating the difference in status between the judge and the person being judged. The pictures of the different occupations in the study share this quality of exaggerated caricature, emphasizing a central quality of the object being shown. An important point made by Kennedy (1982) concerns the interaction between viewer and picture. In his words, ‘‘various pictorial effects are selected by viewers... the viewer has to sort out the relevant from the irrelevant and determine the governing principles rather than accept all features equally’’ (p. 604). That is what the teachers who participated in our study were required to do and what they actually did. The main features of all pictures were noted by the teachers, some also mentioned specific details, such as the pineapple in the hand of the shopkeeper which may be interpreted to signify the worth of his goods.
4. Methodology of study
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The two main technological disciplines in Israeli secondary vocational education are electricity electronics (22.8% of vocational students) and mechanics (21.2% of vocational students). Other disciplines are construction and design, information technology and woodworking. The field of electricity electronics attracts the high-achieving students. Conversely, the field of mechanics has a high percentage of low-achieving students. The classification of students in the technological stream is based upon their previous academic achievements and according to Barak, Yehiav, and Mendelson (1994) leads to further reduction in their academic ambition and achievement. Group l (levels 1+2) is characterized by high-achieving students who are motivated to advance toward full matriculation exams. Students in group 2 (levels 3+4), by contrast, have both academic and discipline problems. Usually these students are low achievers who will not sit for the matriculation exams. The proportional division between male and female teachers participating in the study was as follows: 52 males and 8 females. In group l there were 23 males and 7 females, while group 2 had 29 males and only one female. Thus, most women in our study taught the high-achieving students. The division of teachers according to their level of education showed that in group 1 there were 19 teachers with university degrees. In group 2, by contrast, 5 teachers had a university degree. The result of this division is that high-achieving students had teachers with a higher level of education. No difference in seniority existed between teachers in groups l and 2.
4.1. Participants 4.2. Procedures Sixty teachers of vocational tracks in Israeli senior high schools participated in the study. Thirty of these taught high achievers, group 1 (level 1+2) students, and thirty taught low achievers, group 2 (level 3+4) students. The term ‘‘vocational’’ is used in Israel to describe technological studies (i.e. electronics and mechanics) and general vocational studies (i.e. secretarial work, fashion, and design arts). It is important to note that in Israel vocational schools are not necessarily considered to have a lower status than other high schools.
Seven drawings of the chosen occupations (see Appendix A) were individually presented to each of the participating teachers. These occupations were shopkeeper, judge, animal keeper in a zoo, entertainer, conductor of an orchestra, puppeteer, and animal trainer. Each participant was asked to choose the drawing that reflected to the highest degree his or her self-image as a teacher and to explain this choice. The participants were also asked to suggest an occupation which reflected
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their self-image as teachers and which was not included in the set of drawings. They were given an opportunity to comment on their choices. All responses and comments were noted by the interviewer. Male participants were shown pictures of males in each occupation and female participants were shown pictures of females. Chi-square tests were conducted in order to examine the relationships between the chosen pictures and class achievement level, and the relationships between demographic measures (education level) and the choice of pictures. The participants expressed great interest in the drawings and their responses were highly articulate.
5. Findings We present our findings in an exploratory way, without claims of generalization to other teachers. Our aim is to draw attention to the issue of the impact of different teaching contexts on the selfimage of teachers and the possible implications for educational practice. Though the overall number of participating teachers is not high, they are clearly divided into two groups based on the achievement level of their students. Therefore, any significant differences concerning their image of themselves as teachers found between these two groups call for attention, analysis and discussion, because of their potential implications for educational situations. 5.1. Overall results The distribution of choices of occupation by all participants and for each group separately are presented in Table 1 Altogether 35% of all teachers chose the ‘‘caring’’ image as most appropriately matching their own work, teachers of low-achieving students preferred this choice. Altogether 30% of all participants chose the ‘‘conductor’’ drawing but there exists a difference between teachers of highand low-achieving students, with the former leaning more toward this choice.
Table 1 Distribution of pictures’ selection (raw numbers) Picture
Group 1 (level 1+2) (N ¼ 30)
Group 2 (level 3+4) (N ¼ 30)
Total (N ¼ 60)
Shopkeeper Puppeteer Judge Animal keeper Animal trainer Entertainer Conductor
8 0 0 5 0 2 15
6 3 1 16 0 1 3
14 3 1 21 0 3 18
The third most popular choice was ‘‘shopkeeper’’ (23.3% of all participants), and this was selected about equally by teachers of high- and low-achieving students. Teachers who chose this drawing explained their choice as follows: ‘‘It is important for me to transfer knowledge so that the students wish to acquire it’’. ‘‘I have to convince my audience that my merchandise is worthy’’. ‘‘I have to sell what I have got, there is no free choice’’. This is a rather sad image of teaching. It is important for teachers and student teachers to become aware of this possible image and its implications for their teaching as transmitting knowledge using salesmanship and marketing as the motivating mode. All teachers in our study tended to reject drawings which projected notions of control and judgments. Nobody chose ‘‘animal trainer’’, possibly because of the negative connotations of viewing students as comparable to trained animals, and only one chose the drawing of ‘‘judge’’. The drawing of a judge emphasizes the power judges have over the lives and fates of people at their mercy. On the one hand, it allows respondents to identify with this powerful role. On the other hand, rejecting it offers teachers an opportunity to detach themselves from the evaluative stance of teaching. In our study the latter was the preferred response of teachers. Teachers also rejected a view of themselves as ‘‘entertainers’’; only three chose this drawing. Though sometimes teachers are admonished to ‘‘make learning fun’’ and to use humor in their classrooms, this was not an image that appealed to the participants of the study. One possible explanation is that these
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teachers deal with technological subjects in vocational classes and are therefore inclined to view themselves as engaged in a serious endeavor, closely related to the world of work. 5.2. Comparison of the two groups The main finding of this study is that out of the three dominant pictures, most teachers in low-level academic achievement classes (64%) chose the drawing depicting an animal keeper in the zoo, whereas only 17.85% of the teachers in high-level academic classes chose this drawing (Table 2). Conversely, only l2% of the teachers in low-level academic classes chose the drawing of a conductor, whereas 53.57% of teachers in high-level academic classes chose the conductor drawing. These differences are statistically significant. In explaining their choice of animal keeper in the zoo, the teachers in the group of low achievers said, for instance: ‘‘We are taking care of them more than teaching them’’; ‘‘I don’t feel that I am teaching, they made me into a nursemaid. I am supposed to solve their social problems ... Instead of teaching I serve as a baby-sitter’’. Teachers in the group of high achievers, who chose animal keeper, perceived it in positive terms, as a ‘‘caring’’ image. The ‘‘carer’’ conveys a sense of Table 2 Distribution of selection of three dominant pictures by level of students (frequencies and columns percentages) Picture
Group 1 (level 1+2) (N ¼ 28 of 30a)
Group 2 (level 3+4) (N ¼ 25 of 30a)
Total (N ¼ 53)
Shopkeeper
8b 28.58c 5 17.85 15 53.57 100
6 24.00 16 64.00 3 12.00 100
14 26.41 21 39.62 18 33.97 100
Animal Keeper Conductor total
w2(2)=13.92 ; p ¼ 0:0009: a The raw number is 30, other teachers chose different pictures. b First number shows absolute value. c Lower number shows percentage out of the actual number of teachers in each class level, who chose the three dominant pictures.
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love. ‘‘It is my role as a teacher to promote the strength and independence of my students’’. In explaining their choice of ‘‘conductor’’, teachers of high-achieving students said, for instance: ‘‘When I enter the high academic-level class, I am confident that this is a gifted ‘‘orchestra’’ that is capable of doing everything. I have only to provide them with the leading note and they carry on’’. Another comment was: ‘‘It is important to integrate the whole class, while developing individual students. Harmony and togetherness are very important’’. There is a statistically significant difference in choices between teachers in the two groups, a difference which seems to be determined by the nature of their students. As can be seen in Table 3 the variables of class level and teacher education are significantly related. Most teachers in high-achievement classes had an academic education, whereas most teachers in low-achieving classes lacked an academic degree. It is interesting to note the distribution of pictures among each level, academic versus non-academic teachers (see Table 4). Most of the academic teachers of high-level classes chose the conductor picture (11 out of 19) but none of the five academic teachers of low-level classes chose this picture, they preferred the caring image of the animal keeper. Conversely, 4 out of 11 non-academic teachers of high-level classes chose the conductor image, whereas 13 out of 25 non-academic teachers of low-level classes chose the animal keeper pictures. Thus we see the tendency of teachers to respond to their teaching context. Though the relationship between teacher education level and the impact of teaching context needs further study, our study shows that lowachieving students tend to find themselves in a
Table 3 Distribution of teachers by education and class level Education (class level)
Academic
Non-academic
Total
1–2 3–4 Total
19 5 24
11 25 36
30 30 60
w2(1)=13.6 p 0.001.
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Table 4 Distribution of chosen pictures among each class level: academic versus non-academic teachers
Level
Academic education (N ¼ 24)
Non-academic (N ¼ 36)
1–2 (N ¼ 19)
3–4 (N ¼ 5)
1–2 3–4 (N ¼ 11) (N ¼ 25)
1 1 0 3 0 0
5 0 0 2 0 4
Shopkeeper 3 Puppeteer 0 Judge 0 Animal keeper 3 Entertainer 2 Conductor 11
5 2 1 13 1 3
teaching–learning situation that focuses on the caring function of teaching. This finding is cause for worry. Students who need their teachers’ attention to promote their academic progress and achievement are denied this help. Their teachers ‘‘give up’’ and confine themselves to ‘‘caring’’ activities. Though teachers in low-level classes might lack the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with the special problems those classes present, they also seem to lack a disposition to act as teachers who are committed to, and responsible for, the cognitive growth of their students.
6. Teachers’ own suggested images The comparison of alternative suggestions with teachers’ first choices of drawings shows that out of 21 teachers whose first choice was animal keeper, 14 suggested an alternative image that also reflected caring elements, such as psychologist, occupational therapist, Kindergarten teacher, guide, and big brother. The others suggested inherently different images, such as, actor, virtuoso, builder, driver and ‘‘small teacher who is surrounded by students who are four times as big as he is’’. This suggestion is of special interest. This teacher of low achievers is himself a rather big person, who used all through his interview very harsh words: ‘‘we lost control over our students’’; ‘‘we are degraded as teachers and our self-image
has been completely destroyed’’; ‘‘I feel I am in a circus, not in a classroom’’. The image suggested by him does not focus on his role as teacher but rather on himself as a person who is frustrated and demoralized. His self-image reflects his lack of power. Another teacher whose first choice was ‘‘animal keeper’’ suggested the image of ‘‘magician’’. His explanation emphasized the many difficulties he faces and the expectation that he performs magic in his classroom. A teacher who suggested ‘‘driver’’ in place of ‘‘animal keeper’’, explained that his students need guidance because they are unable to find their way by themselves: ‘‘my students don’t know how to study and I have to show them the way’’. Out of 14 teachers who chose shopkeeper as their first choice, two did not suggest an alternative. The others suggested occupations like pediatrician, Kindergarten teacher, actor, and driver. Some of their explanations reveal underlying similarities with their first choice. One of the teachers stated that ‘‘the pediatrician shares some positive qualities with shopkeepers, in his or her attempt to convince clients, or patients, what is best for them’’. The ‘‘driver’’ image reflected for one teacher the role of teachers to show the way: ‘‘the driver has a logical goal and he has to reach it in an appropriate way’’. The alternative image of ‘‘actor’’ focused on the ability to convince others. One teacher said: ‘‘generally speaking the teacher is an actor, especially in the mechanics group where he is required to convince the students of the worth of the programs’’. In spite of the different images, these explanations reflect some common features with the choice of pictures. And yet there is a certain dissonance between the meaning of the shopkeeper image, which is after all an unusual image for teachers’ role, and the more conventional images of caring professions, like pediatrician and Kindergarten teacher. The shopkeeper image was the first choice of a fairly large number of teachers (23.3%), some of whom might have tried to compensate for this somewhat cynical view by suggesting alternative images. Teachers who chose the ‘‘conductor’’ image in the drawings as most closely reflecting their role as teachers, tended to suggest alternative images with
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artistic connotations, such as, ‘‘sculptor’’, ‘‘virtuoso’’, or images expressing qualities of leadership, such as ‘‘team head’’, ‘‘basketball trainer’’ and ‘‘theatre director’’. In their explanations, they emphasized the role of a leader who tries to shape students. The virtuoso image was also suggested because ‘‘a teacher has to fulfill many roles simultaneously’’. Another interesting image was that of ‘‘a teacher with a big book in front of students with small books’’. In his explanation, this teacher said: ‘‘Like a conductor who has to reach everyone in the orchestra and make him play correctly, so the teacher with the big book has to be able to develop a dialogue with all his students and to help all of them to learn’’. The comparison of teachers’ own verbal metaphors concerning their teaching with their choices among the drawings raises some interesting points. For some teachers their choice seems related to their own suggestions, even if the images are different, such as the teacher providing a rationale for his image as ‘‘actor’’, though he had chosen ‘‘shopkeeper’’, or the teacher who found similarities between a ‘‘conductor’’ and a ‘‘teacher with a big book before him’’. Some teachers’ own verbal images strengthened their choices among metaphorical pictures, such as the artistic metaphor with leadership connotations suggested by teachers who had chosen the ‘‘conductor’’ drawing. A major point concerns the apparent power of metaphorical pictures to reveal teachers’ deepseated sense of their own role as teachers, overriding some of the more conventional professional images, and uncovering the impact of teaching contexts on their role perceptions.
7. Discussion As stated above, the main goal of this study was to determine the power of different work contexts to shape teachers’ own professional images. We compared the images of teachers working in highand low-achieving classes in vocational schools in Israel. We based our research on the perceptions of teachers comparing their work as teachers to the work in other occupations.
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The major and most important finding of this study was that the teaching context has a significant impact on teachers’ images of their professional selves. We saw that metaphorical images are context-related and some metaphors, for instance caring, were more prevalent in some educational situations than in others. Teachers of low-achieving students in our study tended to see their practice in terms of ‘‘caring’’, seeming to absolve themselves of their duties to contribute to the knowledge growth of students. This might be a rational response from the point of view of the teachers in the face of what they perceive as inabilities and lack of motivation of their students. They were aware of the fact that they served more as ‘‘baby-sitters’’ than as teachers and see themselves as solving social problems, acknowledging the importance of this role which had been imposed on them by circumstances. Still, from the point of view of students, this is a dysfunctional image of teaching, which might lead to a neglect of students’ needs. Anyon (1981) describes a similar situation when teachers of working-class students view these as unable to reach, or even aspire, to academic achievement. Thus, the social status quo is maintained. Teachers of high-achieving students in Israel, who chose the caring image as representing their view of themselves as teachers, emphasized the positive aspects of caring as serving the personal growth of students. This is an important difference. It is not teacher caring itself which is undesirable. On the contrary, caring is an important positive component of teaching, whenever it is not conceived as replacing other roles of teachers as contributors to the academic growth of their students. At this point, it is interesting to compare our findings with those of Fischman (2000). In responding to a question, ‘‘what other activities are like teaching?’’, 37.5% of female student teachers, and only 13.8% of male student teachers said that teaching is like parenthood because it is a caring profession. In our study the caring metaphor was chosen by males, as well as females, who inhabited a similar educational context. Fischman goes on to provide evidence that experienced
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teachers do not consider the ideology of ‘‘second motherhood’’ to be a positive one. The identification between teachers and a kind of ‘‘foster relatives’’ does not necessarily provide any positive value. It might mean, on the contrary, the taking away of something fundamental for teachers, their professional responsibility. It is our view, as well, that the caring approach should not become the center of the teaching role, especially for lowachieving students, because students, are dependent on their teachers to provide them with chances of academic achievement. The Israeli teachers were drawn to the image of conductor, notably when teaching high-achieving students. Various reasons might explain this finding. Conductors generally enjoy a high societal status, and it could be inherently gratifying for teachers to view themselves in a similar role. Though fulfilling a leading role conductors also share with the orchestra the responsibility for a successful outcome. Teachers of high achievers might be willing to view their students as partners in the teaching–learning endeavor, working together in harmony. ‘‘Shopkeeper’’ was a popular image among about a quarter of teachers. The ‘‘shopkeeper’’ image is ambiguous and might be interpreted in different ways. Though Israeli teachers talked about the transfer of knowledge they are engaged in, and claimed that they have to sell what they have got, ‘‘there is no free choice’’, the notion of shopkeeper also might be viewed as entailing some measure of choice. Buyers of goods might combine and use the acquired merchandise in different ways, exercising a degree of autonomy. Thus, choice of the shopkeeper image is not to be interpreted necessarily as enacting a transmission role which leaves no place for students’ active involvement in their learning. Though this interpretation was not offered by the teachers participating in our study, it might be brought up in reflections about teachers’ roles. The rejection of some images is no less important than the positive choices. Teachers in our study tended to reject a view of teaching as judgmental and controlling. This apparent refusal to recognize the fact that most teachers do spend time and effort to control their
students’ behavior and learning, and that they do test and judge classroom climate and achievement, seems quite astonishing. One might explain this blind spot in teachers’ perception of their own role and actions as the outcome of a more idealistic view of teaching. If teaching is understood as supporting the construction of knowledge by students and as the promotion of student autonomy, then control and ongoing judgment are counterproductive. Such a view is congruent with Schwab’s (1954) admonition to separate the teaching and evaluation functions of teachers. Whatever the reason, it seems to us that uncovering this possible gap between the realities of teachers’ lives and their perceived images of themselves is important for promoting awareness concerning the nature of teaching and the roles of teachers.
8. Metaphoric pictures The use of metaphoric pictures is a meaningful vehicle for raising teachers’ awareness of their roles and functions in schools. Munby (1987) claims that teachers may construe their professional features, and he deals with the question of how metaphors become part of professional speech. In our study we presented teachers with pictorial images of some metaphors that might be associated with teaching. These images, with their exaggerated features, stimulated the participants to disclose some of their beliefs, attitudes, and feelings concerning their teaching situations. Teachers were required to choose one drawing from among seven that matched to the highest degree their self-image as a teacher and to explain their choice. This process allowed us to make comparisons between the different groups of participants. Weber and Mitchell (1995) used teachers’ own drawings to gain insights into the images that shape, and possibly distort, teacher education. We contend that images, as revealed by teachers’ choices in our study, might also shape, and possibly distort, classroom teaching. Casey (1995) argues that work affects orientations to behavior, ‘‘people become what they do’’
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(p. 81). Therefore the context of teachers’ work might shape not only their actions in classrooms but the very nature of their being teachers. As stated above, the use of visual information, in the form of images, is underrepresented in educational research. Images, drawings, and pictures are always in need of interpretations, yet as Fischman (2000) argues, we need ‘‘a new angle to look at education through a different lens without discarding the tools and methodologies of other more established approaches’’ (p. 10). Pictorial metaphors provide one such new angle; they stimulate teachers to voice their feelings, their frustration and anger, as well as their satisfactions and ideals. Not just looking at the drawings, but attempting to see them through an interpretational lens, was a novel and exciting opportunity for the participating teachers to reveal to themselves, and to others, how they think and feel about their role as teachers.
9. Implications for teacher education Teachers face a very serious task. Beyond their knowledge of content, pedagogical content knowledge, and beyond their mastery of instructional strategies, they need intimate knowledge of learners. Yet, even this is not enough, it is important for teachers to understand their own approach to teaching, to gain insights, not only into their personal theories concerning the teaching—learning situation, but to apprehend how they view their role as teachers. The ‘‘reading’’ of students is a complicated and extremely difficult process. Lampert and Lowenberg Ball (1998), in their arguments for a pedagogy of teaching for understanding, note that discerning student knowledge is fraught with uncertainties. It might be even more difficult for teachers to uncover their students’ motivation to learn, as shown by Givvis, Stipek, Salmon, and Macgyvers (2001). Becoming aware of and confronting one’s own perception of being a teacher is not less complicated, yet very important. As stated above (Hannay, 1996) teacher images concerning their professional role
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tend to persist over time and become counterproductive to the introduction of school reform plans. These images might go back to their early experiences as students in schools or as members of a family of teachers. Goddard and Foster (2001) examined the experiences of nine neophyte teachers and concluded that almost without exception they mentioned an ‘‘archetype’’ teacher as a role model. The authors argue that ‘‘the archetype as a role model for neophyte teachers appears to conceptually extend Lortie’s (1975) notion of ‘apprenticeship of observation’ (p. 355) as it might be traced to family members who were teachers as well as to former school teachers. The drawback of this phenomenon is that the tendency of one generation to form the next leads to a continuation of the same teaching practices, which might not be appropriate in the face of an increasingly pluralistic society. Clandinin (1986) argues that images embody a person’s experiences and are ‘‘the perspective from which new experience is taken’’ (p. 166). We consider it essential that both future teachers and experienced teachers become aware of these images, their origins, and the manner in which they impact their teaching, so that they are able to change intentionally the images that shape their teaching. Metaphoric pictures could serve not only as research instruments but also as an instructional strategy in teacher education programs. The following are some possible strategies for using metaphoric pictures in teacher education. In the entry phase of teacher education programs, student teachers could be asked to match their perception of teacher’s role with the drawings of occupations. This matching exercise could lead to a discussion of the possible origins and educational implications of their choices. In later phases, especially after the student teachers have entered their practicum, the metaphoric images of teaching, in the form of occupational characteristics as represented by drawings, could be a stimulus for judging strengths and weaknesses of different role perceptions in diverse teaching contexts. Films and videotapes of educational practice could be analyzed based on this framework. Role perception of neophyte teachers might change
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considerably once they enter the world of schooling in different contexts. The direction these changes take might have far-reaching consequences for the daily practice of teachers and their impact on students. Student teachers and beginning teachers are in the process of searching for their professional identity. Metaphoric pictures could serve as a communication tool, opening dialogues on teaching–learning situations between teacher educators and their students. The choice of occupations does not necessarily have to be the same as in our study, and can be based on student teachers’ own suggestions. The main principles of the strategy are:
*
*
*
developing an understanding of the relationship between images and educational context; stimulating the ability to judge the appropriateness of different role perceptions for diverse classroom situations; introducing the use of metaphoric pictures into teacher education programs might serve as a stimulus for creating self-awareness and for in-depth discussions of the nature of teachers’ roles and their potential impact on students.
Appendix A *
creating explicit awareness of one’s professional images;
Fig. 1.
The picture metaphors used in the study (Fig. 1).
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Fig. 1 (continued).
References Anyon, J. (1981). Social class and school knowledge. Curriculum Inquiry, 11(1), 3–42. Arnon, R., Shani, M., & Zeiger, T. (1999). Teacher thinking about their profession. Tel Aviv: Beit Berl College (in Hebrew). Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Barak, M., Yehiav, R., & Mendelson, N. (1994). Advancement of low-achievers within technology studies in high school. Research in Science and Technological Education, 12(2), 175–186. Beijaard, D., Verloop, N., & Vermunt, J. D. (2000). Teachers’ perceptions of professional identity: An exploratory study from a personal knowledge perspective. Teaching and Teacher Education, 16(7), 749–764. Berlak, A., & Berlak, H. (1977). On the uses of social psychological research on schooling. Essay review of Beyond surface curriculum: An interview study of teachers’ understandings (A. M. Bussis, E. A. Chittenden and M. Amarel.
Boulder, CO.: Westview Press, 1976). School Review, 85(4), 577–588. Bromme, R. (1991). Wissenstypen und professionelles Selbstverstandniss (Types of knowledge and professional selfconcept). Zeitschrift fuer Pedagogik, 37, 769–785. Casey, C. (1995). Work, self and society: after industrialism. New York: Routledge. Clandinin, D. J. (1986). Classroom practice: teacher images in action. London: Falmer Press. Combs, A. W., Blume, R. A., Newman, A. J., & Wass, H. L. (1974). The professional education of teachers: A humanistic approach to teacher preparation. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Fischman, G. E. (2000). Imagining teachers: Rethinking gender dynamics in teacher education. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Fischman, G. E. (2001). Reflections about images: Visual culture, and educational research. Educational Researcher, 30(8), 28–33. Givvis, K. B., Stipek, D. J., Salmon, J. M., & Macgyvers, V. L. (2001). In the eyes of the beholder: Students’ and teachers’
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judgment of student’ motivation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(3), 321–331. Goddard, J. T., & Foster, R. Y. (2001). The experiences of neophyte teachers. A critical constructivist assessment. Teaching and Teacher Education, 17(3), 349–365. Hannay, L. M. (1996). The role of images in the secondary school change process. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 2(1), 105–121. Inbar, D. (1996). The free educational prison: Metaphors and images. Educational Research, 28(1), 77–92. Jolly, R. P., Zhi, Z., & Thomas, G. V. (1998). The development of understanding moods metaphorically expressed in pictures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29(2), 358–376. Kennedy, J. M. (1982). Metaphor in pictures. Perception, 11(5), 589–605. Kompf, M., Bond, W. R., Dworet, D., & Boak, T. (Eds.) (1996). Changing research and practice: Teachers’ professionalism, identities and knowledge. London: Falmer Press Kumpunen, J. I. (1980). Exaggeration and simplification in cartoons. Papers in language use and language function, no. 14. Scarborogh College, West Hill Ont. Lampert, M., & Lowenberg Ball, D. (1998). Teaching, multimedia and mathematics: investigations of real practice. New York: Teachers College Press. Lieberman, A., & Miller, L. (1984). Teachers, their world and their work. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Lortie, D. C. (1975). School teacher. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Maeroff, G. (Ed.) (1998). Imagining education: The media and schools in America. New York: Teachers College Press.
Margolis, E. (2000). Class pictures: Representation of race, gender, and ability in a century of school photography. Visual Sociology, 14, 7–36. Munby, H. (1987). Metaphors, puzzles and teachers professional knowledge. Paper presented at the Annual Educational Research Association meeting, Washington, D.C. Nias, J. (1985). Reference groups in primary teaching: talking, listening and identity. In S. J. Ball, & I. F. Goodson (Eds.), Teachers’ lives and careers (pp. 61–77). London: Falmer Press. Nias, J. (1989). Teaching and the self. In M. Holly, & C. McLoughlin (Eds.), Perspectives on teachers’ professional development (pp. 155–172). London: Falmer Press. Novoa, A. (2000). Ways of saying, ways of seeing—public images of teachers (19th-20th centuries). Paedagogica Historica, 36(1), 21–52. Perkins, D. (1975). A definition of a caricature. Studies in the Anthropology of Visual Communication, 7, l–21. Schwab, J. J. (1954). Eros and education: A discussion of one aspect of discussion. Journal of General Education, 8, 54–71. Soder, R. (1998). Studying the education of educators: What we can learn from other professions. Phi Delta Kappan, 70(4), 299–305. Tobin, G. (2000). Good guys don’t wear hats.. New York: Teachers College Press. Weber, S., & Mitchell, C. (1995). That’s funny. You don’t look like a teacher: Interrogating images and identity in popular culture. London and Washington: Falmer Press.
How teachers in different educational contexts view their roles Miriam Ben-Peretza,*, Nili Mendelsona, Friedrich W. Kronb a
Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel b Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
Received 27 October 1999; received in revised form 20 June 2002; accepted 8 July 2002
Abstract Based on the premise that teachers’ perceptions of their professional roles are closely linked to their self images and their impact on the learning and achievement of their students, a study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the context of teachers’ work and their views of themselves as professionals. Sixty teachers in Israeli vocational senior high schools participated in the study. Half taught high-achieving and half low-achieving students. Teachers’ professional images of self were uncovered by asking them to match their images of themselves as teachers with drawings of other, carefully chosen, occupations and to comment on their choices. The use of metaphoric pictures was found to be a meaningful vehicle for raising teachers’ awareness of their roles and functions in school. The major finding of this study was that the teaching context has a significant impact on teachers’ images of their professional selves. The caring metaphor, for instance, is more prevalent in some educational situations than in others, leading to potential pedagogical implications. The rejection of some images proved to be no less important than the positive choices. It is argued that metaphoric pictures could serve not only as research instruments but also as an instructional tool in teacher education programs. r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Professional self image; Teaching context; Picture metaphors
‘‘I want to understand the roles of images in the governing of the teaching profession—i.e. the social and political definitions, of norms, rules, beliefs, convictions and ‘‘truths’’ about what it means to be a ‘‘good’’ and ‘‘reasonable’’ teacher’’ (Novoa, 2000, p. 23).
The study which is the focus of this paper was conducted in the framework of this intention and concerns two main issues: *Corresponding author. Tel.: +972-4-8249358; fax: +972-48249353. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Ben-Peretz).
*
*
the relationship between the context of teachers’ work and their views of themselves as professionals; the use of metaphoric pictures to uncover teachers’ view of their role.
1. Rationale and study questions All students deserve equal opportunities to develop their full potential as human beings and as learners. Teachers play a central role in providing these opportunities and yet, records of education do not present a high level of success. For instance, about 50% of a cohort of secondary
0742-051X/03/$ - see front matter r 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0742-051X(02)00100-2
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school students in Israel study in vocational schools, but only 27% of these are eligible for the matriculation certificate which is a prerequisite for higher education in Israel. According to Bandura (1977), teachers’ professional activities are closely linked to their sense of efficacy and their belief that they have an impact on the learning and achievement of their students. The sense of efficacy might be dependent on teachers’ general views of themselves as professionals. Combs, Blume, Newman, and Wass (1974) contend that teachers’ self-image is determined by their way of perceiving themselves and their role in society. This self-image in turn influences their teaching strategies and behavior in class. Teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity have been studied by various researchers (Beijaard, Verloop, & Vermunt, 2000; Bromme, 1991; Kompf, Bond, Dworet, & Boak, 1996; Nias, 1989) investigated teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity from a personal knowledge perspective, using a questionnaire which combined Likert-type statements with participating teachers’ clarifications of reasons for their choices and descriptions of their most important learning experiences. Most of the teachers in their study saw themselves as a combination of subject matter experts, didactical experts and pedagogical experts. Significant differences were found between teachers’ self-image, as beginning versus experienced teachers. It is interesting to note that teachers from different subject areas did not undergo changes in their perceptions of their professional identity. Beijaard et al. (2000) state that: ‘‘It remains unclear to what extent learning experiences regarding subject matter, didactical, and pedagogical aspects influenced the teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity. How such experiences influenced teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity formation might be an important issue for future research. This may contribute considerably to our understanding of teachers’ professional images of themselves y It would appear that in future research, other methods will need to be explored to establish clear relationships between these
factors and the teachers’ different perceptions of their professional identity’’ (p. 762). The study which is the basis of this paper is an attempt to deal with the issues mentioned by Beijaard et al. It is maintained herewith that the study of teacher metaphors is appropriate for exploring relationships between contextual factors and teachers’ professional identity. The scrutiny of metaphorical images is a way to reveal teachers’ underlying assumptions and beliefs concerning education, students, and their own roles in classrooms. Several studies have sought to determine teachers’ metaphors concerning teaching. Inbar (1996) collected and categorized 7042 metaphorical images suggested by teachers, students and principals. The participants were asked to give four images of students, teachers, principals and schools, and to choose one image in each section which most appealed to them. Half of the students participating in Inbar’s study viewed their teachers as ‘‘super controller’’ (i.e. policeman, big boss, judge), but only 13.3% of the educators shared this view; more than half of the educators’ views of themselves were positive (i.e. listening ear, supporting shoulder, protective tree). It seems that the educators in Inbar’s study tended to perceive themselves more in a caring role, whereas students tended to focus on the evaluative, controlling aspects of teaching. Inbar argues, though, that ‘‘special studies to learn about differences among schools with unique programs, or among special groups of educators, are still needed’’ (p. 82). In their study of teachers’ thinking about their profession, Arnon, Shani, and Zeiger (1999) included a component of analysis of teachers’ metaphors. The participants, who were not divided according to their work context, were asked to indicate on a Likert-type questionnaire their degree of agreement with 16 different metaphors of teaching, and to choose those that most closely matched their perception of the profession. Of 253 participants almost two-thirds (59%) chose the image of ‘‘gardener’’ as closest to their own perception of teaching. The metaphor of ‘‘traveling guide’’ was ranked second. It is interesting to note that another ‘‘caring’’ image of ‘‘a bird caring for its young’’ was also ranked high, as was the
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image of ‘‘conductor’’. On the other hand, ‘‘judge’’ was ranked very low, together with ‘‘policeman’’ and ‘‘entertainer in a circus’’. Teachers’ emphasis on work with individual students is evident in the high ranking of caring metaphors. On the other hand, the ‘‘conductor’’ metaphor, represents teachers’ engagement with the whole class, leading the group while still paying attention to the individual performances. These two metaphors reflect the dual nature of teaching according to Arnon et al., who found metaphors to be a valid source for gaining insights into teachers’ thoughts and feelings regarding their profession. Images about teaching are important because of their potential impact on teachers’ actions. Hannay (1996) explored the difficulties teachers face when asked to change their practices because of the persistence of past images concerning teaching. ‘‘The difficulty is that existing images, as part of an individual’s personal practical knowledge, might be dysfunctional as a means to develop new images congruent with the change initiations being experienced’’ (p. 109). What shapes and influences teachers’ professional images of self? It is reasonable to assume that one’s practical experiences are powerful determinants of the image a teacher has of his or her professional role. Research about teaching suggests that self-definition is the result of dynamic interactions with others, students, parents and principals (Lieberman & Miller, 1984; Nias, 1985). This is not to claim that the engulfing culture in which teachers live does not play a powerful role in creating a sense of reality and in shaping one’s identity. Weber and Mitchell (1995) in their study of teacher images in popular culture state that: ‘‘we are searching for the deep or structural metaphors that underlie and often sabotage educational theory and practice’’ (p. 130). The power of images might create our sense of reality, our deep understanding of what is possible and desirable. Still, people manage to construct their own meaning within the general culture. Thus the personal experiences of teachers serve to shape the conventions of their professional lives. A study by Berlak and Berlak (1977) reveals how teachers’ professional perception of self is influenced by
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their environment. This environment is enormously complex and includes institutional characteristics, as well as different target populations of students. Casey (1995) claims that connection between images of self and processes of work practices have seldom been studied. Whereas Weber and Mitchell (1995) studied teacher images in popular culture and showed the link between work and self-definition, our research focuses on teachers’ self-images in different work contexts. The main goal of our study was to determine how different work contexts have an impact on teachers’ professional images. This issue may be considered to be of major importance in our understanding of teaching and learning processes. Beijaard et al. (2000) have shown that the perception of professional identity of teachers changes over time, and may explain some of the impact of experience on teaching styles. But what about teaching context? Does the teaching situation in which teachers find themselves shape their professional self-image? And, if it does, what is the nature of this impact? Most important, what are some possible implications of the relationship between context, professional self-image, and classroom teaching? As our method of investigation, we chose to uncover teachers’ self-images in a projective mode by asking them to match their image of themselves as teachers with drawings of other occupations. The matching of drawings to their perception of themselves as teachers provided the participants with an opportunity to concretize their images, and to liberate their thinking by distancing themselves to a certain extent from their everyday experiences. Inbar (1996) who studied metaphors of students, teachers and principals in relation to themselves and to schooling, contends that ‘‘Metaphors can never convey the full content of their message, nor can they transmit only the content of their intended message. Metaphors rest on the mental process of selection and emphasis. They represent an emphasis of certain selected features of a whole phenomenon’’ (pp. 78–79). These selected features of metaphors in the form of visual images were the stimuli for teachers’ responses in our study.
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Specifically, the study attempts to answer the following questions: *
*
*
*
Which of seven occupations presented in the form of drawings matches best the professional images of participating teachers? How do teachers’ choices relate to the characteristics of the classes they teach? How do teachers’ choices relate to their own background traits (education, seniority)? What are some implications of the relationship between professional self-images and the educational context?
demanding too much effort; ‘‘conductors’’ determine the nature of performances and set the format and tone of the outcome, being responsible for both the group and the individuals in it; ‘‘puppeteers’’ are similar to conductors but their image also implies the total passivity of their puppets. Finally, ‘‘animal trainers’’ use behavioristic methods, including reward and punishment, in order to achieve certain behaviors, without considering the intentions and preferences of their trainees (see Appendix A for drawings related to these images).
3. Incorporating visual culture into research 2. How were the occupations chosen? Teaching is often compared to other professions such as medicine or law. For example, Soder (1998) in his paper, ‘‘Studying the education of educators: what we can learn from other professions’’, makes the point that considering the assumptions and practices of other professions would give a useful perspective on, and insight into, teaching. Moreover, the very process of choosing teaching as an occupation or vocation may be accompanied by an examination of other occupations and professions. When teachers are asked to provide their professional images, they tend to focus on occupations that share some perceived inherent qualities with teaching, such as ‘‘gardener’’, who assists the growth of students, ‘‘potter’’ who molds the minds of learners, or an ‘‘orchestra conductor’’ who manages the whole class and each student in it simultaneously (Arnon et al., 1999; Inbar, 1996). The specific professions and occupations in our study were chosen because they embody some of the qualities associated with teaching. Thus, the ‘‘shopkeeper’’ sells goods and is perceived as reflecting a transmission role in education; the ‘‘judge’’ is seen as representing authority, strict rules and a judgmental attitude; ‘‘animal keepers’’ in zoos are perceived as the embodiment of looking after a rather difficult and demanding population acting in the role of caregivers; ‘‘entertainers’’ represent the role of amusers, who may make us feel happy for a short while without
Since 1990 the field of educational research has seen the emergence of several works inquiring into aspects of visual culture and education, or using visual images as part of the research process (Margolis, 2000; Maeroff, 1998; Novoa, 2000; Tobin, 2000; Weber & Mitchell, 1995). According to Fischman (2001) visual sources of data, film, cartoons, drawings etc., should be used to advance our knowledge about a variety of topics in educational research. Fischman claims that the incorporation of visual culture into educational research ‘‘constitutes a challenge to the blind spot created by the more traditional ways of seeing and doing research in education, but it is a risk worth taking. If we dare to engage in the dynamic process of looking at the field using new tools and questioning those areas which have been unchartered and treacherous, we may enter insecure territory, but one that holds layers of meaning we may not have otherwise encountered’’ (p. 32). Scenes and characters represented in a picture consist of many properties, lines, shapes, composition, style, etc. Jolly, Zhi, and Thomas (1998), who studied how children in different cultures understand moods that were metaphorically expressed in pictures, state that ‘‘all these properties can work together not only to literally represent but also to metaphorically express moods and ideas that are not easily presented literally’’ (p. 359). Kennedy (1982) argued that types of metaphoric pictures correspond to major groups of verbal metaphors, such as allegory,
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allusion, euphemism, etc. The pictures representing different professions and occupations in our study may be understood to correspond to ‘‘hyperboles’’, namely, uses of exaggerated terms for emphasis rather than deception, e.g. ‘‘a man as big as a mountain’’. According to Kennedy, some psychologists have claimed that pictorial equivalents for hyperbole are caricatures (Kumpunen, 1980; Perkins, 1975). There seems to be no doubt that viewers understand that these pictures are exaggerations. The picture of the ‘‘judge’’ used in our study is a good example of such a caricature, exaggerating the difference in status between the judge and the person being judged. The pictures of the different occupations in the study share this quality of exaggerated caricature, emphasizing a central quality of the object being shown. An important point made by Kennedy (1982) concerns the interaction between viewer and picture. In his words, ‘‘various pictorial effects are selected by viewers... the viewer has to sort out the relevant from the irrelevant and determine the governing principles rather than accept all features equally’’ (p. 604). That is what the teachers who participated in our study were required to do and what they actually did. The main features of all pictures were noted by the teachers, some also mentioned specific details, such as the pineapple in the hand of the shopkeeper which may be interpreted to signify the worth of his goods.
4. Methodology of study
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The two main technological disciplines in Israeli secondary vocational education are electricity electronics (22.8% of vocational students) and mechanics (21.2% of vocational students). Other disciplines are construction and design, information technology and woodworking. The field of electricity electronics attracts the high-achieving students. Conversely, the field of mechanics has a high percentage of low-achieving students. The classification of students in the technological stream is based upon their previous academic achievements and according to Barak, Yehiav, and Mendelson (1994) leads to further reduction in their academic ambition and achievement. Group l (levels 1+2) is characterized by high-achieving students who are motivated to advance toward full matriculation exams. Students in group 2 (levels 3+4), by contrast, have both academic and discipline problems. Usually these students are low achievers who will not sit for the matriculation exams. The proportional division between male and female teachers participating in the study was as follows: 52 males and 8 females. In group l there were 23 males and 7 females, while group 2 had 29 males and only one female. Thus, most women in our study taught the high-achieving students. The division of teachers according to their level of education showed that in group 1 there were 19 teachers with university degrees. In group 2, by contrast, 5 teachers had a university degree. The result of this division is that high-achieving students had teachers with a higher level of education. No difference in seniority existed between teachers in groups l and 2.
4.1. Participants 4.2. Procedures Sixty teachers of vocational tracks in Israeli senior high schools participated in the study. Thirty of these taught high achievers, group 1 (level 1+2) students, and thirty taught low achievers, group 2 (level 3+4) students. The term ‘‘vocational’’ is used in Israel to describe technological studies (i.e. electronics and mechanics) and general vocational studies (i.e. secretarial work, fashion, and design arts). It is important to note that in Israel vocational schools are not necessarily considered to have a lower status than other high schools.
Seven drawings of the chosen occupations (see Appendix A) were individually presented to each of the participating teachers. These occupations were shopkeeper, judge, animal keeper in a zoo, entertainer, conductor of an orchestra, puppeteer, and animal trainer. Each participant was asked to choose the drawing that reflected to the highest degree his or her self-image as a teacher and to explain this choice. The participants were also asked to suggest an occupation which reflected
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their self-image as teachers and which was not included in the set of drawings. They were given an opportunity to comment on their choices. All responses and comments were noted by the interviewer. Male participants were shown pictures of males in each occupation and female participants were shown pictures of females. Chi-square tests were conducted in order to examine the relationships between the chosen pictures and class achievement level, and the relationships between demographic measures (education level) and the choice of pictures. The participants expressed great interest in the drawings and their responses were highly articulate.
5. Findings We present our findings in an exploratory way, without claims of generalization to other teachers. Our aim is to draw attention to the issue of the impact of different teaching contexts on the selfimage of teachers and the possible implications for educational practice. Though the overall number of participating teachers is not high, they are clearly divided into two groups based on the achievement level of their students. Therefore, any significant differences concerning their image of themselves as teachers found between these two groups call for attention, analysis and discussion, because of their potential implications for educational situations. 5.1. Overall results The distribution of choices of occupation by all participants and for each group separately are presented in Table 1 Altogether 35% of all teachers chose the ‘‘caring’’ image as most appropriately matching their own work, teachers of low-achieving students preferred this choice. Altogether 30% of all participants chose the ‘‘conductor’’ drawing but there exists a difference between teachers of highand low-achieving students, with the former leaning more toward this choice.
Table 1 Distribution of pictures’ selection (raw numbers) Picture
Group 1 (level 1+2) (N ¼ 30)
Group 2 (level 3+4) (N ¼ 30)
Total (N ¼ 60)
Shopkeeper Puppeteer Judge Animal keeper Animal trainer Entertainer Conductor
8 0 0 5 0 2 15
6 3 1 16 0 1 3
14 3 1 21 0 3 18
The third most popular choice was ‘‘shopkeeper’’ (23.3% of all participants), and this was selected about equally by teachers of high- and low-achieving students. Teachers who chose this drawing explained their choice as follows: ‘‘It is important for me to transfer knowledge so that the students wish to acquire it’’. ‘‘I have to convince my audience that my merchandise is worthy’’. ‘‘I have to sell what I have got, there is no free choice’’. This is a rather sad image of teaching. It is important for teachers and student teachers to become aware of this possible image and its implications for their teaching as transmitting knowledge using salesmanship and marketing as the motivating mode. All teachers in our study tended to reject drawings which projected notions of control and judgments. Nobody chose ‘‘animal trainer’’, possibly because of the negative connotations of viewing students as comparable to trained animals, and only one chose the drawing of ‘‘judge’’. The drawing of a judge emphasizes the power judges have over the lives and fates of people at their mercy. On the one hand, it allows respondents to identify with this powerful role. On the other hand, rejecting it offers teachers an opportunity to detach themselves from the evaluative stance of teaching. In our study the latter was the preferred response of teachers. Teachers also rejected a view of themselves as ‘‘entertainers’’; only three chose this drawing. Though sometimes teachers are admonished to ‘‘make learning fun’’ and to use humor in their classrooms, this was not an image that appealed to the participants of the study. One possible explanation is that these
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teachers deal with technological subjects in vocational classes and are therefore inclined to view themselves as engaged in a serious endeavor, closely related to the world of work. 5.2. Comparison of the two groups The main finding of this study is that out of the three dominant pictures, most teachers in low-level academic achievement classes (64%) chose the drawing depicting an animal keeper in the zoo, whereas only 17.85% of the teachers in high-level academic classes chose this drawing (Table 2). Conversely, only l2% of the teachers in low-level academic classes chose the drawing of a conductor, whereas 53.57% of teachers in high-level academic classes chose the conductor drawing. These differences are statistically significant. In explaining their choice of animal keeper in the zoo, the teachers in the group of low achievers said, for instance: ‘‘We are taking care of them more than teaching them’’; ‘‘I don’t feel that I am teaching, they made me into a nursemaid. I am supposed to solve their social problems ... Instead of teaching I serve as a baby-sitter’’. Teachers in the group of high achievers, who chose animal keeper, perceived it in positive terms, as a ‘‘caring’’ image. The ‘‘carer’’ conveys a sense of Table 2 Distribution of selection of three dominant pictures by level of students (frequencies and columns percentages) Picture
Group 1 (level 1+2) (N ¼ 28 of 30a)
Group 2 (level 3+4) (N ¼ 25 of 30a)
Total (N ¼ 53)
Shopkeeper
8b 28.58c 5 17.85 15 53.57 100
6 24.00 16 64.00 3 12.00 100
14 26.41 21 39.62 18 33.97 100
Animal Keeper Conductor total
w2(2)=13.92 ; p ¼ 0:0009: a The raw number is 30, other teachers chose different pictures. b First number shows absolute value. c Lower number shows percentage out of the actual number of teachers in each class level, who chose the three dominant pictures.
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love. ‘‘It is my role as a teacher to promote the strength and independence of my students’’. In explaining their choice of ‘‘conductor’’, teachers of high-achieving students said, for instance: ‘‘When I enter the high academic-level class, I am confident that this is a gifted ‘‘orchestra’’ that is capable of doing everything. I have only to provide them with the leading note and they carry on’’. Another comment was: ‘‘It is important to integrate the whole class, while developing individual students. Harmony and togetherness are very important’’. There is a statistically significant difference in choices between teachers in the two groups, a difference which seems to be determined by the nature of their students. As can be seen in Table 3 the variables of class level and teacher education are significantly related. Most teachers in high-achievement classes had an academic education, whereas most teachers in low-achieving classes lacked an academic degree. It is interesting to note the distribution of pictures among each level, academic versus non-academic teachers (see Table 4). Most of the academic teachers of high-level classes chose the conductor picture (11 out of 19) but none of the five academic teachers of low-level classes chose this picture, they preferred the caring image of the animal keeper. Conversely, 4 out of 11 non-academic teachers of high-level classes chose the conductor image, whereas 13 out of 25 non-academic teachers of low-level classes chose the animal keeper pictures. Thus we see the tendency of teachers to respond to their teaching context. Though the relationship between teacher education level and the impact of teaching context needs further study, our study shows that lowachieving students tend to find themselves in a
Table 3 Distribution of teachers by education and class level Education (class level)
Academic
Non-academic
Total
1–2 3–4 Total
19 5 24
11 25 36
30 30 60
w2(1)=13.6 p 0.001.
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Table 4 Distribution of chosen pictures among each class level: academic versus non-academic teachers
Level
Academic education (N ¼ 24)
Non-academic (N ¼ 36)
1–2 (N ¼ 19)
3–4 (N ¼ 5)
1–2 3–4 (N ¼ 11) (N ¼ 25)
1 1 0 3 0 0
5 0 0 2 0 4
Shopkeeper 3 Puppeteer 0 Judge 0 Animal keeper 3 Entertainer 2 Conductor 11
5 2 1 13 1 3
teaching–learning situation that focuses on the caring function of teaching. This finding is cause for worry. Students who need their teachers’ attention to promote their academic progress and achievement are denied this help. Their teachers ‘‘give up’’ and confine themselves to ‘‘caring’’ activities. Though teachers in low-level classes might lack the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with the special problems those classes present, they also seem to lack a disposition to act as teachers who are committed to, and responsible for, the cognitive growth of their students.
6. Teachers’ own suggested images The comparison of alternative suggestions with teachers’ first choices of drawings shows that out of 21 teachers whose first choice was animal keeper, 14 suggested an alternative image that also reflected caring elements, such as psychologist, occupational therapist, Kindergarten teacher, guide, and big brother. The others suggested inherently different images, such as, actor, virtuoso, builder, driver and ‘‘small teacher who is surrounded by students who are four times as big as he is’’. This suggestion is of special interest. This teacher of low achievers is himself a rather big person, who used all through his interview very harsh words: ‘‘we lost control over our students’’; ‘‘we are degraded as teachers and our self-image
has been completely destroyed’’; ‘‘I feel I am in a circus, not in a classroom’’. The image suggested by him does not focus on his role as teacher but rather on himself as a person who is frustrated and demoralized. His self-image reflects his lack of power. Another teacher whose first choice was ‘‘animal keeper’’ suggested the image of ‘‘magician’’. His explanation emphasized the many difficulties he faces and the expectation that he performs magic in his classroom. A teacher who suggested ‘‘driver’’ in place of ‘‘animal keeper’’, explained that his students need guidance because they are unable to find their way by themselves: ‘‘my students don’t know how to study and I have to show them the way’’. Out of 14 teachers who chose shopkeeper as their first choice, two did not suggest an alternative. The others suggested occupations like pediatrician, Kindergarten teacher, actor, and driver. Some of their explanations reveal underlying similarities with their first choice. One of the teachers stated that ‘‘the pediatrician shares some positive qualities with shopkeepers, in his or her attempt to convince clients, or patients, what is best for them’’. The ‘‘driver’’ image reflected for one teacher the role of teachers to show the way: ‘‘the driver has a logical goal and he has to reach it in an appropriate way’’. The alternative image of ‘‘actor’’ focused on the ability to convince others. One teacher said: ‘‘generally speaking the teacher is an actor, especially in the mechanics group where he is required to convince the students of the worth of the programs’’. In spite of the different images, these explanations reflect some common features with the choice of pictures. And yet there is a certain dissonance between the meaning of the shopkeeper image, which is after all an unusual image for teachers’ role, and the more conventional images of caring professions, like pediatrician and Kindergarten teacher. The shopkeeper image was the first choice of a fairly large number of teachers (23.3%), some of whom might have tried to compensate for this somewhat cynical view by suggesting alternative images. Teachers who chose the ‘‘conductor’’ image in the drawings as most closely reflecting their role as teachers, tended to suggest alternative images with
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artistic connotations, such as, ‘‘sculptor’’, ‘‘virtuoso’’, or images expressing qualities of leadership, such as ‘‘team head’’, ‘‘basketball trainer’’ and ‘‘theatre director’’. In their explanations, they emphasized the role of a leader who tries to shape students. The virtuoso image was also suggested because ‘‘a teacher has to fulfill many roles simultaneously’’. Another interesting image was that of ‘‘a teacher with a big book in front of students with small books’’. In his explanation, this teacher said: ‘‘Like a conductor who has to reach everyone in the orchestra and make him play correctly, so the teacher with the big book has to be able to develop a dialogue with all his students and to help all of them to learn’’. The comparison of teachers’ own verbal metaphors concerning their teaching with their choices among the drawings raises some interesting points. For some teachers their choice seems related to their own suggestions, even if the images are different, such as the teacher providing a rationale for his image as ‘‘actor’’, though he had chosen ‘‘shopkeeper’’, or the teacher who found similarities between a ‘‘conductor’’ and a ‘‘teacher with a big book before him’’. Some teachers’ own verbal images strengthened their choices among metaphorical pictures, such as the artistic metaphor with leadership connotations suggested by teachers who had chosen the ‘‘conductor’’ drawing. A major point concerns the apparent power of metaphorical pictures to reveal teachers’ deepseated sense of their own role as teachers, overriding some of the more conventional professional images, and uncovering the impact of teaching contexts on their role perceptions.
7. Discussion As stated above, the main goal of this study was to determine the power of different work contexts to shape teachers’ own professional images. We compared the images of teachers working in highand low-achieving classes in vocational schools in Israel. We based our research on the perceptions of teachers comparing their work as teachers to the work in other occupations.
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The major and most important finding of this study was that the teaching context has a significant impact on teachers’ images of their professional selves. We saw that metaphorical images are context-related and some metaphors, for instance caring, were more prevalent in some educational situations than in others. Teachers of low-achieving students in our study tended to see their practice in terms of ‘‘caring’’, seeming to absolve themselves of their duties to contribute to the knowledge growth of students. This might be a rational response from the point of view of the teachers in the face of what they perceive as inabilities and lack of motivation of their students. They were aware of the fact that they served more as ‘‘baby-sitters’’ than as teachers and see themselves as solving social problems, acknowledging the importance of this role which had been imposed on them by circumstances. Still, from the point of view of students, this is a dysfunctional image of teaching, which might lead to a neglect of students’ needs. Anyon (1981) describes a similar situation when teachers of working-class students view these as unable to reach, or even aspire, to academic achievement. Thus, the social status quo is maintained. Teachers of high-achieving students in Israel, who chose the caring image as representing their view of themselves as teachers, emphasized the positive aspects of caring as serving the personal growth of students. This is an important difference. It is not teacher caring itself which is undesirable. On the contrary, caring is an important positive component of teaching, whenever it is not conceived as replacing other roles of teachers as contributors to the academic growth of their students. At this point, it is interesting to compare our findings with those of Fischman (2000). In responding to a question, ‘‘what other activities are like teaching?’’, 37.5% of female student teachers, and only 13.8% of male student teachers said that teaching is like parenthood because it is a caring profession. In our study the caring metaphor was chosen by males, as well as females, who inhabited a similar educational context. Fischman goes on to provide evidence that experienced
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teachers do not consider the ideology of ‘‘second motherhood’’ to be a positive one. The identification between teachers and a kind of ‘‘foster relatives’’ does not necessarily provide any positive value. It might mean, on the contrary, the taking away of something fundamental for teachers, their professional responsibility. It is our view, as well, that the caring approach should not become the center of the teaching role, especially for lowachieving students, because students, are dependent on their teachers to provide them with chances of academic achievement. The Israeli teachers were drawn to the image of conductor, notably when teaching high-achieving students. Various reasons might explain this finding. Conductors generally enjoy a high societal status, and it could be inherently gratifying for teachers to view themselves in a similar role. Though fulfilling a leading role conductors also share with the orchestra the responsibility for a successful outcome. Teachers of high achievers might be willing to view their students as partners in the teaching–learning endeavor, working together in harmony. ‘‘Shopkeeper’’ was a popular image among about a quarter of teachers. The ‘‘shopkeeper’’ image is ambiguous and might be interpreted in different ways. Though Israeli teachers talked about the transfer of knowledge they are engaged in, and claimed that they have to sell what they have got, ‘‘there is no free choice’’, the notion of shopkeeper also might be viewed as entailing some measure of choice. Buyers of goods might combine and use the acquired merchandise in different ways, exercising a degree of autonomy. Thus, choice of the shopkeeper image is not to be interpreted necessarily as enacting a transmission role which leaves no place for students’ active involvement in their learning. Though this interpretation was not offered by the teachers participating in our study, it might be brought up in reflections about teachers’ roles. The rejection of some images is no less important than the positive choices. Teachers in our study tended to reject a view of teaching as judgmental and controlling. This apparent refusal to recognize the fact that most teachers do spend time and effort to control their
students’ behavior and learning, and that they do test and judge classroom climate and achievement, seems quite astonishing. One might explain this blind spot in teachers’ perception of their own role and actions as the outcome of a more idealistic view of teaching. If teaching is understood as supporting the construction of knowledge by students and as the promotion of student autonomy, then control and ongoing judgment are counterproductive. Such a view is congruent with Schwab’s (1954) admonition to separate the teaching and evaluation functions of teachers. Whatever the reason, it seems to us that uncovering this possible gap between the realities of teachers’ lives and their perceived images of themselves is important for promoting awareness concerning the nature of teaching and the roles of teachers.
8. Metaphoric pictures The use of metaphoric pictures is a meaningful vehicle for raising teachers’ awareness of their roles and functions in schools. Munby (1987) claims that teachers may construe their professional features, and he deals with the question of how metaphors become part of professional speech. In our study we presented teachers with pictorial images of some metaphors that might be associated with teaching. These images, with their exaggerated features, stimulated the participants to disclose some of their beliefs, attitudes, and feelings concerning their teaching situations. Teachers were required to choose one drawing from among seven that matched to the highest degree their self-image as a teacher and to explain their choice. This process allowed us to make comparisons between the different groups of participants. Weber and Mitchell (1995) used teachers’ own drawings to gain insights into the images that shape, and possibly distort, teacher education. We contend that images, as revealed by teachers’ choices in our study, might also shape, and possibly distort, classroom teaching. Casey (1995) argues that work affects orientations to behavior, ‘‘people become what they do’’
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(p. 81). Therefore the context of teachers’ work might shape not only their actions in classrooms but the very nature of their being teachers. As stated above, the use of visual information, in the form of images, is underrepresented in educational research. Images, drawings, and pictures are always in need of interpretations, yet as Fischman (2000) argues, we need ‘‘a new angle to look at education through a different lens without discarding the tools and methodologies of other more established approaches’’ (p. 10). Pictorial metaphors provide one such new angle; they stimulate teachers to voice their feelings, their frustration and anger, as well as their satisfactions and ideals. Not just looking at the drawings, but attempting to see them through an interpretational lens, was a novel and exciting opportunity for the participating teachers to reveal to themselves, and to others, how they think and feel about their role as teachers.
9. Implications for teacher education Teachers face a very serious task. Beyond their knowledge of content, pedagogical content knowledge, and beyond their mastery of instructional strategies, they need intimate knowledge of learners. Yet, even this is not enough, it is important for teachers to understand their own approach to teaching, to gain insights, not only into their personal theories concerning the teaching—learning situation, but to apprehend how they view their role as teachers. The ‘‘reading’’ of students is a complicated and extremely difficult process. Lampert and Lowenberg Ball (1998), in their arguments for a pedagogy of teaching for understanding, note that discerning student knowledge is fraught with uncertainties. It might be even more difficult for teachers to uncover their students’ motivation to learn, as shown by Givvis, Stipek, Salmon, and Macgyvers (2001). Becoming aware of and confronting one’s own perception of being a teacher is not less complicated, yet very important. As stated above (Hannay, 1996) teacher images concerning their professional role
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tend to persist over time and become counterproductive to the introduction of school reform plans. These images might go back to their early experiences as students in schools or as members of a family of teachers. Goddard and Foster (2001) examined the experiences of nine neophyte teachers and concluded that almost without exception they mentioned an ‘‘archetype’’ teacher as a role model. The authors argue that ‘‘the archetype as a role model for neophyte teachers appears to conceptually extend Lortie’s (1975) notion of ‘apprenticeship of observation’ (p. 355) as it might be traced to family members who were teachers as well as to former school teachers. The drawback of this phenomenon is that the tendency of one generation to form the next leads to a continuation of the same teaching practices, which might not be appropriate in the face of an increasingly pluralistic society. Clandinin (1986) argues that images embody a person’s experiences and are ‘‘the perspective from which new experience is taken’’ (p. 166). We consider it essential that both future teachers and experienced teachers become aware of these images, their origins, and the manner in which they impact their teaching, so that they are able to change intentionally the images that shape their teaching. Metaphoric pictures could serve not only as research instruments but also as an instructional strategy in teacher education programs. The following are some possible strategies for using metaphoric pictures in teacher education. In the entry phase of teacher education programs, student teachers could be asked to match their perception of teacher’s role with the drawings of occupations. This matching exercise could lead to a discussion of the possible origins and educational implications of their choices. In later phases, especially after the student teachers have entered their practicum, the metaphoric images of teaching, in the form of occupational characteristics as represented by drawings, could be a stimulus for judging strengths and weaknesses of different role perceptions in diverse teaching contexts. Films and videotapes of educational practice could be analyzed based on this framework. Role perception of neophyte teachers might change
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considerably once they enter the world of schooling in different contexts. The direction these changes take might have far-reaching consequences for the daily practice of teachers and their impact on students. Student teachers and beginning teachers are in the process of searching for their professional identity. Metaphoric pictures could serve as a communication tool, opening dialogues on teaching–learning situations between teacher educators and their students. The choice of occupations does not necessarily have to be the same as in our study, and can be based on student teachers’ own suggestions. The main principles of the strategy are:
*
*
*
developing an understanding of the relationship between images and educational context; stimulating the ability to judge the appropriateness of different role perceptions for diverse classroom situations; introducing the use of metaphoric pictures into teacher education programs might serve as a stimulus for creating self-awareness and for in-depth discussions of the nature of teachers’ roles and their potential impact on students.
Appendix A *
creating explicit awareness of one’s professional images;
Fig. 1.
The picture metaphors used in the study (Fig. 1).
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Fig. 1 (continued).
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