European concepts in teacher education

How teachers in different educational contexts view their roles

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 metaphor…