Tales from the watershed: Peer relationships and the construction of mid-career primary teachers’ professional identity

Teachers often have little opportunity to reflect upon how critical events in their personal and professional lives provide drivers and steers to influence their future sense of identity formation. This paper reports on a study which explored how peer relationships influence and contribute to the professional identity of a group of mid-career primary teachers. This phase covers the period of between 8 and 15 years of teaching, which has been described as a ‘watershed’ period during which a teacher can experience a number of changes in their professional and/or personal lives (Day et al. 2007; Kington et al. 2014). Exploring the perceptions of 18 primary school teachers in England, this study was informed by the use of an integrated mixed methods design employing critical event narrative and repertory grid interviewing techniques. These methods provided a meaningful way to facilitate teachers’ descriptions or social interactions, enabling them to articulate and understand the intricacies that underpin a primary teacher’s sense of identity and how these were influenced by peers. These insights have provided conceptual and empirical contributions to understandings of influences on primary teachers’ identity and the implications of these for initial teacher preparation, continuing professional development, as well as for maintaining teacher quality, and retention of effective practitioners.