En förändrad yrkesidentitet: Förskollärares berättelser fyra och tolv år efter examen

Abstract

Title: A changed professional identity: Preschools teachers’ narratives twelve years after examination.
Abstract: How do preschool-teachers describe their professional work with children four and twelve years after their graduation? The purpose was also to identify important factors concerning their professional development and identity. The empirical data are the narratives of three Swedish preschool-teachers, four and twelve years after their teacher graduation. The narrative is considered, according to Giddens (2008) as an expression of the professional identity, which is regarded as a relational concept and deals with the ability to be occupied with a specific narrative. Three recurrent themes were identified in the narratives, which show a changed professional identity. The first is a changed professional identity concerning a process from adaption to challenge in relation to the preschools self-narratives. The second is about a changed professional identity in relation to care and education. The third theme describes a change from focusing the teacher’s listening to the child into supporting and challenging the child’s learning process.