Understanding new teachers’ professional identities through metaphor Lynn Thomas a, * , Catherine Beauchamp b a Faculté d’éducation, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1K 2R1 Canada b School of Education, Bishop’s University, Sherbrooke, Quebec, J1M 1Z7 Canada article info Article history: Received 27 May 2010 Received in revised form 20 December 2010 Accepted 22 December 2010 Keywords: Professional identity Metaphors New teachers Teacher education abstract This qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews examines the metaphors new teachers use to describe their professional identities and compares metaphors chosen immediately following graduation with those suggested part way through their first year of teaching. Findings indicate that new teachers make a shift from seeing themselves as ready for the challenge, to adopting a survival mode. The metaphors suggest that new teachers struggle to develop a professional identity during their first year, and that this development process is gradual, complex and often problematic. Implications for teacher education indicate that greater emphasis needs to be placed on exploring professional identity in pre- service programmes. Crown Copyright Ó 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Professional identity in teachers has recently become of consid- erable interest to educational researchers (Bullough, 2005; Flores & Day, 2006; Riopel, 2006; Watt, Richardson, & Tysvaer, 2007), in part as a way to understand and promote the “professionalization” of teaching (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999; Darling-Hammond, Wise, & Klein, 1999; Sachs, 2001, 2005). One difficulty for new teachers is coming to a greater understanding of the range and entirety of professional identity as it applies to teachers in today’s society. Changes on a global scale in terms of expectations of public educa- tion require teachers to anticipate new roles in an attempt to keep up with constant diversification in society, development of knowledge and increases in access to knowledge. In many countries of the world, schools are now expected to fulfill functions of socialization that were once the jurisdiction of families, religious organizations or the workplace. In a rapidly transforming global society, teachers, regardless of the country in which they work, are experimenting with their roles and recreating their professional identities in relation to the contexts that surround them, contexts that are shifting, sometimes in unexpected ways. This reality can make the development of a strong professional identity even more complex for new teachers. The study presented here looks at ways in which new teachers describe their professional identities through the metaphors they choose to represent their teaching selves, and compares the metaphors chosen by new teacher graduates during the summer immediately following graduation with those they use during the spring of the their first year of teaching. The changes noted provide insight on the development process that these inex- perienced teachers are undergoing as they adapt to their new professional roles. 1.1. Studying the development of professional identity Some teacher education programmes and ministries of educa- tion outline goals for teachers in terms of identity (c.f. Quebec Ministry of Education, 2001), but few studies have looked at the process by which teachers come to develop their professional identity. Developing a strong sense of a professional identity as a teacher may be crucial to the well-being of new members of the profession. Recent interest in the identity of teachers, professional and otherwise, stems from earlier work on the professional lives of teachers (Zeichner & Liston, 1996), and their narratives (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999.) The development of a professional identity has been defined as “an ongoing and dynamic process which entails the making sense and (re)interpretation of one’s own values and experiences” that may be influenced by personal, social and cognitive factors (Flores & Day, 2006, p. 220). Teacher education literature clearly emphasizes the develop- ment of identity in the path a becoming teacher follows (Britzman, 2003; Hammerness, 2006; Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, & Bransford, 2005; Sachs, 2005). We believe that the process of envisioning the self as a professional is a crucial stage in the * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 819 821 8000x62808; fax: þ1 819 821 7121. E-mail addresses: Lynn.Thomas@usherbrooke.ca (L. Thomas), Catherine.Beau champ@ubishops.ca (C. Beauchamp). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Crown Copyright Ó 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tate.2010.12.007 Teaching and Teacher Education 27 (2011) 762e769