This presentation presents the findings from a participatory research project (Imperiale, 2022) conducted with a group of ten early career English teachers from Armenia, Brazil, Morocco, Nigeria, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as part of the British Council's Widening Participation programme. The project purpose was threefold: first, to strengthen teacher development by providing an opportunity for teachers to meet and exchange knowledge and experiences with colleagues from different backgrounds; second, to understand early career teachers' perspectives on teacher identity and agency, including their roles within their local communities and within an international community of teachers; and third, to understand the value of bringing together a small group of international teachers in this way, with a view to informing new ways of working at the British Council.
These aims, and the ethos of the project, called for a participatory and decolonising research methodology. The Tree of Life (Ncumbe, 2006) is a strength-based tool used to develop collective narratives, which was first used in the context of therapy work, but has since expanded into research methodology. Through a series of three workshops, we explored participants' roots, their strengths and capabilities and their dreams and hopes through a visual, metaphorical representation of a tree. The approach proved to be useful both in terms of providing relevant research findings, and more importantly as a way of enabling participants to feel heard and valued. After the workshop series we had individual interviews with all the participants, and a final meeting where preliminary findings were presented and participants provided their feedback.
Our findings focus on four main points:
a) Participants perceive identity as a transformative process, strictly intertwined with 'agency' (Imperiale, 2018); b) Participants believe in education for hope and social change, where students can flourish and have a positive impact on their communities and society; c) In order to achieve change, participants feel they need to work both within and outside the system, since the education system itself may limit teachers' freedom in constructing the education they aspire to be part of; and d) While teachers may experience isolation and even despair, participants raised the need to keep their motivation alive and that one way of doing this is through peer-to-peer collaboration.
We conclude by proposing the development of further research projects that adopt participatory and praxis-oriented ways of working, which may be increasingly sustainable and have long-term impact, and with the suggestion that teacher identity and agency are embedded in teacher development.
References
Imperiale, M. G. (2018). Developing language education in the Gaza Strip: pedagogies of capability and resistance. Unpublished PhD thesis (University of Glasgow).
Imperiale, M.G.; Mander, S.; Ross D. (2022) Early career teacher identity project report: exploring teacher identity and agency through the Tree of Life approach. London: British Council.
Ncube, N. (2006). The Tree of Life project: using narrative ideas in work with vulnerable children in Southern Africa. The International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 1, 3-16.
