Titill: | Professional roles, leadership and identities of Icelandic preschool teachers: perceptions of stakeholders / |
Höfundur: | |
Leiðbeinandi: | Marianne Coleman |
Útgáfa: | 2012 |
Tungumál: | Enska |
Háskóli/Stofnun: | University of London |
Efnisorð: | Leikskólakennarar; Kynhlutverk; Konur; Leikskólastjórar; Ímynd; Rannsóknir; Doktorsritgerðir |
URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/728 |
Útdráttur:The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how the professional role and
leadership of preschool teachers are perceived by them and other stakeholders and
what contextual factors affect the preschool teachers’ role and leadership. A further
purpose is to investigate how preschool teachers see their professional identity and
how the stakeholders’ perceptions and relevant contextual factors appear to affect
this. The research also has a political purpose as it is giving a voice to a profession
that has been fighting for many years for acknowledgement whilst a gendered
stereotypical view and discourse in society means that working with the youngest
children is considered women’s work and therefore subordinated.
A theoretical framework, emerging from the literature, is used to analyse the
findings, including Whitty’s (2008) and Oberhuemer’s (2005) ideas of ‘democratic
professionalism’. The theoretical perspective, or the philosophical stance, informing
the methodology of the research, is interpretive, or ‘symbolic interactionism’, which
stems from the pragmatist philosopher and social psychologist George Herbert
Mead (1934), and the sociologist Herbert Blumer (1969). The main research tool
used is focus group interviews.
The main findings of the research reveal that the preschool teachers tend to
focus on the educational dimension of their role where they see themselves as
professionals and experts. All elements strengthening that dimension are perceived
as ‘positive’. They hardly mention the preschools’ function of social justice and
contextual factors related to the economic function, as the number of children in the
groups (classes) and the children’s long day in preschools are affecting their role
and leadership in a ‘negative’ way and impacting on their professional identity.
Leadership within preschools is mainly seen as traditional and the professional
identities of Icelandic preschool teachers, or how they see themselves as
professionals and leaders, are also affected by prevailing stereotypically gendered
perceptions of some of the stakeholders. In fact they are barely differentiated from
the laypersons who numerically dominate their field.
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Athugasemdir:Ritgerðin var varin 25. júní 2012 við Institute of Education, University of London
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