Who Am I? Why Am I Here? Teachers Losing Their Professional Identity and Commitment During Challenging Times

With ongoing concerns in England regarding teacher recruitment and retention, one challenge for government and school leaders is to foster commitment to the profession.
Professional identities and career phases influence teacher commitment, and while previous studies have focused on developing a professional identity in early career, relatively fewer studies examine how teachers sustain their professional identity and commitment over time. Stemming from a PhD study, which explores the development of identity across a teaching career, this paper explores the experiences of three teachers working in different career phases and the relationship between times when they have lost their sense of identity and the ensuing decline in commitment.
Analysis reveals that, during challenging times, teachers in all three stages of their career teachers can lose their sense of identity and experience a decline in their commitment to the school they are working in or to the teaching profession as a whole.