As an early childhood teacher one of the key challenges is cultivating your professional identity. Your professional identity is not an understanding that you arrive at overnight but is an ongoing process. Good teachers continue to reflect on their professional identity and remain open to new ways of thinking that sit with their values base. In this webinar we will discuss how identity sits at the heart of our role as professionals, yet it is a wonderfully complex and diverse concept to define. Professional identity is intensely personal; it is evolving through everyday practice; it is contextual. As a beginning teacher your identity matters and will be formed by a variety of experiences and the growing knowledge you will experience.
Jerome Bruner, in his book ‘On Knowing,’ asks, “Who am I, where do I belong, and of what am I capable?” (Bruner, 1997, p. 43). These questions will frame this presentation through the lens of what it means to evolve as an early childhood teacher in current times and we will share practical ideas that will assist you in your teacher identity journey.
Current events have impacted our time with peers and colleagues and the rich professional conversations that allow us to reflect on our work and thinking. This session will ask you to consider your professional identity and look to the future – the teacher you want to be, offering strategies and using practical examples for 2022 and beyond.
After this session, you will be able to:
- discuss what may shape our ways of being as an early childhood teacher
- reflect on and be cognizant of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions of teaching for today and into the future
- see the value in the vital relationship between theory and practice
- explore the concept of reciprocal professionalism with peers and colleagues
- discuss your thinking about teaching being grounded in political beliefs and advocacy
Completing Who am I in the world of children? – Cultivating our professional identity will contribute one hour of PD that aligns with the NESA (NSW) criteria for Elective PD and addresses:
The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers: APST 3: Plan for and implement effective teaching and learning
The National Quality Standard: QA 7: Governance and leadership