This exploratory study examines the modernisation of the education system in Bhutan. It focuses on three key dimensions of the modernisation process. The first dimension concerns the debates and discussions surrounding the question of modernisation. As is to be expected, there are strongly held views that modernisation is a ‘good’ thing for Bhutan; however, conversely, there exist equipotent views that traditional culture may erode in the quest for modernisation. The study seeks to tease out these contestations through the examination of available text, including oral texts such as radio discussions, written policy documents, newspaper articles, and conversations. The second key dimension of this study examines the translation of decisions from the aforementioned debate – it is significant that modernisation policies have already been shaped though the debate is ongoing – into the delivery of education. Thus, the study focuses both on curriculum policy as well as pedagogic strategies. Finally, the third key dimension focuses on the role of the teacher as a mediator. Here, the inquiry focuses on how teachers manage the tensions. The primary purpose of this research is to contribute to our understanding of changes in Bhutan’s education policy and curriculum (1990-2010), which charge the education sector with supporting the continuity of tradition and mediating the tension between tradition and modernisation. There is a growing body of literature that examines Bhutanese discourses on tradition, culture, and modernisation of Bhutan’s education sector (see Phuntsho, 2000; Roder, 2012; Ueda, 2003; Wangyal, 2001; Whitecross, 2002). However, despite the comprehensive education reforms currently underway which position teachers at the centre of a number of initiatives (VanBalkom & Sherman, 2010), a gap exists in available studies that bring the voices of teachers to the fore. Given that teachers occupy a central role in the education system and that the implementation of curriculum innovations succeed ‘only when the teachers concerned are committed to them and especially, when they understand as well as accept, their underlying principles,’ (Kelly, 2009:15) this study is an exploration of interplay between policy and practice and considers teachers as the focal point. This research was conducted in 2010 and 2011 in the Thimphu and Paro dzongkhags. It included semi-structured interviews with 9 prominent policy makers and politicians, 11 education leaders, and 51 middle secondary school teachers, 7 of which were observed. More specifically, this study tells the stories of individuals who were involved in the modernisation of the national system of education from its inception in the 1960s and uncovers the experiences of a younger generation of educators. Overall, the findings of this study reveal that in Bhutan, traditional and modern epistemologies are strong currents that converge and intermingle. However, at particular points of intersection, they flow in two competing directions. Education stakeholders are thus positioned at a critical juncture where different knowledge ‘flows’ (Appadurai, 1996) converge and diverge, generating fracture lines and, at times, hindering the possibility of balance. The participants in this study revealed a range of complex and contradictory voices as many attempted to reconcile the evident tensions.

This work has the purpose of analyzing the trajectory of the professional life of ten educators that actuate in classroom for at least fifteen years, in public schools in Maceió city, leading with students from the 1st to the 4th school years, in order to understand how the identity making process develops itself concerning their profession. The methodological approach used was the analysis of the speech. The main recourse for collecting information was the recorded interviews, in which we got description of the professional activity including the graduation period of the educators up to present days. From this point, we had reports about the way gone through for formation of professional identity, also considering goals and expectance that contributed to their experience as teachers. As a reference point, we have got the vision of identity proposed by Stuart Hall, that supposes identity in a movement where there is not a nuclear fixity. All identity is made during all the trajectory of the life process. Also were used documents elaborated by the Bureau of Fundamental Education of the Education Ministry ( Secretaria de Educação Fundamental do Ministério da Educação). The research showed a general professional identity crisis resulting of a theoretical instability of social, political and economical new context. This ambiguous movement may produce crisis due to the necessity of persistent adaptation of the educators to a new work. / Neste trabalho temos como objetivo analisar a trajetória de vida profissional de educadoras que atuam em Escolas Públicas do Município de Maceió, com alunos de 1ª a 4ª séries do Ensino Fundamental, para entendermos como se dá o processo de construção identitária dessa profissão. Para sua realização, utilizamos a análise do discurso através de entrevistas gravadas, a fim de colhermos descrições da atividade profissional abrangendo o período de formação das professoras até aos dias atuais. A partir daí nos foram descritos os processos percorridos para a formação da identidade profissional, considerando também objetivos e perspectivas que foram mediadores da prática docente. Tomamos como referência a visão de identidade na proposta de Stuart Hall, que supõe identidade associada à identificação, num movimento, onde não há fixidez teórica. Toda identidade se constrói ao longo do processo de vida. Neste estudo, o aporte Foucaltiano esteve presente numa análise discursiva dos sentidos apontados no discurso das professoras entrevistadas; do Referencial para a formação dos professores; do documento elaborado pela Secretaria de Educação Fundamental do Ministério da Educação. A pesquisa trouxe à tona a relação das educadoras com a construção de sua identidade, e sua relativa autonomia mediante as variadas propostas governamentais. A pesquisa apontou a existência de crises de identidade profissional generalizada, mediante uma desestabilidade teórica causada pelo novo contexto social, político e econômico. Este movimento ambíguo tende a produzir crises pela necessidade de constantes adaptações das educadoras a um novo trabalho.