Professional learning, commonly referred to in policy and practice as continuing professional development, is presented to teachers as both a requirement and an entitlement in current education policy (Gewirtz, 2002; Ball, 2003). This work explores the ways in which professional learning is experienced by three teachers, and the meanings they attribute to those experiences. The study adopts a narrative approach to these accounts (Clandinin, 2013; Clandinin and Connelly, 1996; 1998; 2004) and is underpinned by the recognition of the complexity in the interplay between the individual teacher and their social context specifically focusing on “the relationship between the state, the ideologies of professionalism, and lived interiority” (Hey and Bradford, 2004: 693). The methodology was developed to overcome the problem of policy and aspects of practice that fail to focus on the effective involvement and engagement of teachers in professional learning: the teachers have become “missing persons” (Evans, 1999: i). The research process placed the meaning made by the teachers of their past experiences, and the way they understood them in the present, at the centre of the research (Kelchtermans, 2009; MacLure, 1993). Data were collected as part of a collaborative process with teachers who shared and analysed their narratives of professional learning through a series of research conversations. The teachers gave accounts of the people and incidents that they understood to be significant in influencing their professional learning, in relation to their expectations of themselves and of professionals and people more generally. In doing so they drew on both professional and personal contexts (Makopoulou and Armour, 2011). There were significant challenges in relation to ethics, analysis and re-presentation. This study illustrates the complexity and contingency of teachers’ professional learning through their understanding of themselves and their interaction with, and response to, significant people and incidents (Kelchtermans and Vandenberghe, 1994). Their “stories to live by” (Clandinin and Connelly, 1998: 149) illuminate the ways in which teachers explain the complexities and contingencies underpinning their experiences of professional learning. The data illustrate the crucial role that context plays in understanding professional learning (Clandinin and Connelly, 2000: 27) and the challenges teachers face in balancing their roles as policy subjects and policy actors (Ball, Maguire, Braun and Hoskins, 2011a and b). This work makes a unique contribution to the field of professional learning by using the detailed individual cases of each teacher to illustrate general concerns for the development of effective policy and practice. It also contributes to the methodological debates around the use of narratives as a means of understanding the “human condition” (Arendt, 1958). The data challenge us to consider the possibilities that narrative accounts and analyses offer for the generation of knowledge in this area with implications for both teachers and other professionals, and policy and practice.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T16:16:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Marilia Ferreira.pdf: 756855 bytes, checksum: e4a2fcac1fe5dc6176f5a2527a981a67 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-09-19 / The purpose of this study was to analyze how the teacher-being narrates and interprets himself/herself as subject in the profession, bearing in mind to comprehend in which way this professional constructs the personal/professional identity, being capable of assuring and of negating himself/herself as a subject inside the schoolsystem. It is a research performed with educators from the first and from the sixth grade of Elementary school from the Public network in São Bernardo do Campo and taking a Master s degree in Education. It was opted to interview six educators, from different teaching areas, turning them into authors of this research. The qualitative methodological approach was used prioritizing the educator narrative. To fulfill this methodology the contributions of Maria Isabel Cunga, Ludke and André; Connelly and Clandini were necessary in order to explain the importance of working with this methodology in the perspective of interpreting and comprehending the building of the teaching identity, mainly, in the line of Educators Formation. The educators formation theme and the identity construction was brought to the light of the studies from Pimenta; Brzezinski; Freire; Vianna; Sung; Nóvoa; Ciampa among others. In the analysis scope, some categories throughout this theme were privileged: reasons that drove to the profession choice; perceptions that the teacher has as subject in the profession; conditions of being a teacher temporarily or being a teacher for life ; building of an identity: conditions of subjecting himself/herself to self-assure as a professional subject. While dealing with these categories and, throughout the research; the perceptions of the teachers were considered as being valuable elements to identify the construction of the teaching identity. These considerations are based on the methodological theoretic support that has great contributions to the theme. From this, relations between Social Psychology and Sociology that enable to identify in the educators narrative one lack of satisfaction towards the system. Some teachers go from the own feeling while narrating all discomfort that the institutions proportionate them; others emphasize in an objective way their daily life, outlining and explaining differences in the condition of being a teacher temporarily or being a teacher for life . / Este estudo teve por objetivo analisar como o ser-professor se narra e interpretase como sujeito na profissão, tendo em vista compreender de que maneira esse profissional constrói a identidade pessoal/profissional, sendo capaz de afirmar-se ou negar-se como sujeito dentro do sistema-escola? Trata-se de uma pesquisa realizada com educadores de 1º e 2º ano do ciclo I e II do Ensino Fundamental da Rede Pública de São Bernardo do Campo e Mestrandos em Educação. Optou-se por entrevistar seis educadores, de diferentes áreas de ensino, tornando-os autores desta pesquisa. A abordagem metodológica de cunho qualitativo foi utilizadas priorizando a narrativa dos educadores. Para esta metodologia recorreu-se às contribuições de Maria Isabel Cunha; Lüdke; André; Connelly e Clandini que explicitam sobre a importância de trabalhar com essa metodologia na perspectiva de interpretar e compreender a construção da identidade docente, sobretudo, na linha Formação de Educadores. A temática formação docente e construção da identidade foi trazida à luz dos estudos de Pimenta; Brzezinski; Freire; Vianna; Lane; Sung; Nóvoa; Ciampa, entre outros. No âmbito da análise, foram priorizadas algumas categorias ao longo desta temática: razões que levaram à escolha da profissão; percepções que o professor tem de sujeito na profissão; condições de ser e estar na profissão ; sistema e construção da identidade: condições de se sujeitar para se auto-afirmar como sujeito profissional. No trato destas categorias e, ao longo desta pesquisa, foram consideradas as percepções dos professores, como sendo elementos valiosos para identificar da construção de identidade docente. Estas considerações fundam-se no aporte teórico-metodológico que apresentam grandes contribuições referentes à temática. A partir daí, são estabelecidas relações entre Psicologia Social e Sociologia que possibilitam identificar nas narrativas dos educadores uma insatisfação perante o sistema. Alguns professores partem do próprio sentimento ao narrar todo desconforto que as instituições propiciam-lhes; outros enfatizam de modo objetivo seu cotidiano, contornando e explicitando diferenças na condição de ser estar na profissão .

This thesis concentrates on literary works written by writers belonging to the resident Korean minority in Japan (zainichi Koreans). Through the use of postcolonial methodology, this work attempts to monitor the development and changes in the complex concept of "identity" in works written between the 1960s and 2010. The thesis is divided into two major parts. The first, theoretical part, explains the birth of the minority, the conflicts that influenced it and the changes it went through during its history. Postcolonial methodology is also explained, with focus put on the parts that are relevant to Japan. The second, practical part of the thesis, shortly explains the history of zainichi literature and then concentrates on five important postwar resident Korean writers - Ri Kaisei, Kin Kakuei, Yi Yang-ji, Kaneshiro Kazuki and Yu Miri. It analyzes between one and four works by each author and attempts to identify changes in the perception of "identity". It also takes into account female characters and the way they are portrayed by the authors and also the language the book is written in, focusing on whether the author chooses to incorporate the Korean language into the text.