Collaborative professional identities and continuity of practice: a narrative inquiry of preschool and primary teachers

Communing to re-imagine figured worlds

“…In the past, historically accepted professional boundaries had made it difficult for early childhood leaders to engage in processes of communing within their site, across their system and across sectors. Consistent with our earlier work (Sisson et al, 2018), the leaders reported that physical and even philosophical boundaries positioned them within different figured worlds. As Holland et al (1998: 41) suggested, artefacts and discourses can be used to maintain power relations within and across figured worlds, where '[s]ome figured worlds we may never enter because of our social position or rank; some we may deny to others; some we may simply miss by contingency; some we may learn fully'.…”

Preschool teachers as undercover agents within the figured world of public school

“…Emotionality discourse is recognized as significant in the professional identities of early childhood teachers (Osgood, 2010; Sisson, 2011). The basic premise of an emotionality discourse is that important decisions in early childhood settings require more than standardized responses.…”

“…The dominant managerial discourse circulating in the Midwestern Metropolitan School District was enforced by official entities such as district- and school-level leaders, and served to position teachers as technicians and service providers. The participants struggled with these roles as they competed with their own understandings of their roles as informed by their professional identities (Sisson, 2011). As such, many responded by resisting mandates in subversive and undercover ways.…”

Papel de la familia en la transición de prescolar a primaria

“…Concretamente, Apostolou y Stellakis (2020) y Sisson et al (2020) sostienen que se debe capacitar a los padres para aumentar y mejorar su participación, y así contribuir con el éxito de la articulación, pues les permitirían atender las necesidades académicas de los alumnos, considerando sus características individuales y la diversidad cultural de sus familias (Correia y Marques-Pinto, 2016;McLean et al, 2017). De lo contrario, la ausencia de programas educativos para las familias podría disminuir su participación y, en consecuencia, contribuir con el fracaso de la transición (Balduzzi et al, 2019;Medina, 2006;Shinali, 2020); por lo tanto, las autoridades educativas y las instituciones escolares tienen esa gran responsabilidad.…”