Conceiving of a Teacherly Identity

Abstract

Based on a study of collected teaching statements, this article analyzes how compositionists use metaphors of writing and teaching to describe their pedagogical practice and philosophy. I argue that the interactive use of metaphors within teaching statements shows how a teacher's pedagogical identity is endorsed by disciplinary values.

Writing the Classroom: Pedagogical Documents as Rhetorical Genres

“…Irene Clark's (2005) examination of assignment prompts highlights how teachers can use the genre to negotiate their identities as participant readers in student writing, and David Thomas Sumner's (2001) study of the syllabus shows how it offers instructors the opportunity to construct a sustainable pedagogical and disciplinary identity. Similarly, I have analyzed the statement of teaching philosophy as a pedagogical genre-external of the classroom-wherein both novice and experienced teachers negotiate tensions between the genre's value as a reflective document and its common use as an evaluative document in job searches and faculty reviews (Neaderhiser 2016a). Dylan Dryer (2012) has also explored how graduate teaching assistants might struggle with genres meant to reflect their identities as teachers while they themselves still identify as students.…”