The construction of teaching identities as aconstruct of a systemic structure and dynamic: arguments and theoretical and practical virtues

Resumen

This article underlies the importance that in studies about teachers’ identities we have to invest in a theoretical perspective that is both integrated and elaborated. It relies on the author’s research biography and has the following goals: to present “the construction of professional identities” as a construct that has both a systemic structure and a systemic dynamic, and to show their theoretical and practical virtues. 

After we have discussed about identity conceptions framed by symbolic interactionism and their meaning, we develop an argumentation in two phases: one that focuses teachers’ identity crisis and another one that focuses in the construction of new identities.
Finally we emphasize the virtues of considering the construction of new teachers’ identities as a construct that has both a systemic structure and a systemic dynamic, namely: the possibility of relating the construction of professional identities and the processes of teachers’ professionalization; and the importance of thinking about teachers’ training in various levels of the system, having in mind its specificities and interactions.