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Using activity theory grounded in cultural historical theory, the study analyzes how three teachers construct professional identities within schools as activity systems and social-semiotic ecosystems. The article treats tensions within the activity system as the basis for a constructed teacher conversation, drawing on ethnographic, thematic analysis and discourse markers of social action. Findings highlight multiple roles, struggling voice, and identity forging amid complex educational transformation.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-conversation-of-teachers-in-search-of-professional-identity/593469/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-conversation-of-teachers-in-search-of-professional-identity/593469.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Jasmine","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-07","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":29},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"How does the article define teacher professional identity?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Teacher professional identity is treated as lived experience shaped by educational change, constructed through teachers’ actions and how they see themselves as professionals within schools.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What theoretical framework guides the analysis?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Activity theory, rooted in cultural historical theory, is used to examine identity representation within school activity systems and social-semiotic ecosystems.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the study focus on in its data and findings?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The study captures a constructed teacher conversation based on three teachers’ voices, emphasizing a theme of “struggling voice” and the negotiation of identity in a changing educational landscape.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},593469,1792168123,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":29,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},2336478487870,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","A Conversation of Teachers: In Search of Professional Identity  \nBrigitte Smit  \nElzette Fritz  \nValencia Mabalane  \nUniversity of Johannesburg, South Africa  \nAbstract  \nThe authors describe teacher professional identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools, the educational space, which is their workplace. Activity theory is utilised as the broad theoretical lens and the design type and methodology are discussed accordingly. The school and the classroom are activity systems (Engeström, 1991), and social and semiotic ecosystems (Lemke, 1995) . It is therefore in the tensions within the activity system that we capture and represent a constructed teacher conversation, composed of the voices of three social actors on an imaginary social stage, which is the empirical text of the article. Main findings speak to multiple roles, struggling voice and forging professional identity in the changing educational landscape.  \nThis article attends to teacher identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. In a young democracy such as South Africa, teachers play a critical role in educating the youth and advancing the social collective good. We argue that, in a society where the social capital divide is increasing, teachers are one of the last hopes for the young from especially rural and poor township communities. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in schools, the educational space, their workplace. This workplace is neither fixed nor static, but a site for intersecting networks of relations, technology (tools) and practice which extend in complex interrelations beyond what is seen as the institution (McGregor, 2003) . All of these aspects are enlarged in a society in transition where there are numerous structural and semiotic changes.  \nThe Australian Educational Researcher, Volume 37, Number 2, August 2010 •93  \nBRIGITTE SMIT, ELZETTE FRITZ & VALENCIA MABALANE  \nThe guiding research question for this inquiry relates to what constitutes the identity of three teacher participants and how the negotiation of identity interfaces with the ethnographic characteristics of the schools. That said, the purpose of this particular inquiry as part of the larger study1 is to capture the lived experience of three teachers and to construct identity portraits that have been negotiated with them. The larger study involved 12 researchers visiting 10 schools in the northern part of South Africa. These schools varied from rural village schools to inner city schools, townships schools, informal settlement schools and farm schools. For the purpose of this article, the authors produced data of three teachers, to construct a conversation, using teachers’ voices to explore their respective identities as negotiated within the educational landscape in transition. Teachers were purposively selected, based on their experience and number of years in education. Empirical data were analysed for ethnographic, thematic content in grounded theory mode, after which we searched for discourse markers that would reveal social action (Van Dijk, 1997) . A prominent theme of “struggling voice” in the educational space of complexity points to culture and identity in flux.  \nIn the process of working the data and implementing the design of the larger project, we used activity theory as our broad theoretical lens and discussed our design type and methodology accordingly. Our vantage point was that the school and the classroom are activity systems (Engeström, 1991), and that they are also social and semiotic ecosystems (Lemke, ","cbCaikcZOoXaDUOi","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaikcZOoXaDUOi","pdf",138720,14,"English","# Abstract\n## Identity as Lived Experience in Educational Change\n## Activity Theory as Analytical Framework\n## Teacher Conversation as Empirical Text\n## Guiding Research Question and Methodology\n## Framing Identity Theoretically","[{\"question\":\"How does the article define teacher professional identity?\",\"answer\":\"Teacher professional identity is treated as lived experience shaped by educational change, constructed through teachers’ actions and how they see themselves as professionals within schools.\"},{\"question\":\"What theoretical framework guides the analysis?\",\"answer\":\"Activity theory, rooted in cultural historical theory, is used to examine identity representation within school activity systems and social-semiotic ecosystems.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the study focus on in its data and findings?\",\"answer\":\"The study captures a constructed teacher conversation based on three teachers’ voices, emphasizing a theme of “struggling voice” and the negotiation of identity in a changing educational landscape.\"}]","A Conversation of Teachers - In Search of Professional Identity | PDF",1792077312,35]