CHAPTER 1: CAN I CARVE A MASTERPIECE OF TEACHERS’ PERSONAL-
1.9 ORGANISATION OF THE THESIS: OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS
chapter for the different scholarship on teachers’ personal and professional lives, as many conventionally organised theses do. Instead, I have opted to address each critical question and to provide an analysis in each section based on the theoretical framework and literature. I refer to recent PhD theses that have employed this approach (Masinga, 2013;
Naicker, 2014; Pithouse, 2007). As such, I have opted to separate my literature review into my remaining contributing chapters to prevent a repetition of pertinent scholarship around my focus. My intention is to avoid annoying my readers by unnecessarily repeating information and introducing redundancy.
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Chapter One: Can I carve a masterpiece of teachers’ personal-professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling?
Chapter One affords an insight into the entire study. This chapter provides a window into what it means for me to be a teacher at a poor, Q4 public school in the township of Chatsworth in South Africa. I discuss the mental, physical and emotional predicaments and challenges that I experience as a teacher. As the introductory chapter that discusses the overall design of my study, Chapter One provides the focus, purpose and context for the study. The three critical questions that inform my study are also presented. The chapter also offers insight into the metaphor I employ throughout my research, which is the metaphor of the Jadeite Cabbage.
Chapter Two: Tools required to carve a masterpiece around teachers’ personal- professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling
In Chapter Two, I discuss the theoretical framework of my study. I describe the theoretical lens that I employ for the research as the framework needed to assist with composing my masterpiece around teachers’ work. The theoretical framework will be used by me, the master carver, to better understand, interpret and shape the claims that I make for this research. The framework is composed of Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) social identity theory, Rodgers and Scott’s (2008) teacher identity theory, Fransson and Grannäs’s (2013) dilemmatic space conceptual framework, and Ehrich et al.’s (2011) ethical dilemma decision-making model. These eclectic theories assist in establishing a holistic picture of teachers’ social lives within the dilemmatic spaces of school quintiling, and assist in understanding how teachers negotiate the dilemmas produced by these spaces while drawing on an ethics of care.
Chapter Three: Developing the tools as a master carver: Producing and collecting the material to creatively understand teachers’ personal-professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling
In Chapter Three, I offer the methodological positioning of the study. I explain my paradigmatic position and discuss narrative inquiry as the chosen methodology. The chapter also includes a review of the research methods that are used to understand the personal and professional lives of teachers in the context of school quintiles. I then
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proceed to the process involved in the analysis of the field texts, namely, narrative analysis and analysis of narratives. I culminate by addressing the issue of rigour and trustworthiness, and the matter of ethics in this study.
Chapter Four: Carving the first layer of my masterpiece around teachers’ lived and told stories of their personal-professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling
Chapter Four offers an analysis of my first critical question: What are the personal- professional stories of teachers teaching in the dilemmatic context of different school quintiles? This chapter shows how data from the interviews, collage inquiry, photovoice and poetic inquiry was taken and transformed into a multi-dimensional story. The section represents the reconstructed stories of my five participants. The stories were written in the first person, and the narrative recount captures my participants’ lives from childhood to adulthood. The stories are intended to provide a reflective gaze into the teachers’
identity formation in relation to their interpersonal relationships with family and community, and the diverse experiences that they encounter in relation to their socio- cultural, historical, economic and political backgrounds.
Chapter Five: Carving unique portraits of teachers’ personal-professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling
Chapter Five looks at the second critical question: What personal beliefs and meanings inform the teachers’ professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiles?
The analyses are written as vignettes and attempt to understand the experiences of my participants. The meanings of the teacher-participants are presented individually and incorporate both the personal and professional aspects of their subjective selves. I also employed Rodgers and Scott’s (2008) teacher identity theory as an analytical tool to better understand the person in relation to the many social forces that influence and shape human behaviour.
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Chapter Six: Carving the third layer of my masterpiece on teachers’ personal- professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling
Chapter Six addresses the third critical question: How are teachers’ personal- professional identities negotiated in everyday dilemmatic situations of school quintiles?
This chapter aims to explore how teachers positioned within different school quintiles can negotiate their personal-professional identities and meanings of self within their social contexts. It also looks at how these contexts shape their daily practices. This chapter highlights how personal meanings inform professional choices, and shows how this intertwined symbiotic relationship between the personal and the professional selves opens up creative spaces for reinventing self. This chapter also offers insight into the teachers’
practice in the context of school quintiling as a dilemmatic space, focusing on negotiation as a two-way interactive process. The chapter examines the negotiation between the teachers’ personal and professional selves, and also their negotiation with other teachers, learners, parents and stakeholders in the context of school quintiling, drawing on the ethics of care.
Chapter Seven: From flawed teacher to a Jadeite understanding of teachers’
personal-professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling Chapter Seven is the final thesis chapter. The section pulls the whole research study together, and intends to bring my masterpiece on teachers’ personal-professional identities in the dilemmatic context of school quintiling to completion. This chapter offers a reflection on my learning, and describes the methodological and theoretical contribution of this research study, as well as its findings and implications. It also presents a model developed for future research.