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RESEARCH PRODUCT

How teachers in different educational contexts view their roles

subject

description

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.