Primary school teachers’ stories of acknowledgement and their personal and professional identities.

Abstract

This study on Primary School Teachers’ Stories of Acknowledgement and Their Personal and Professional Identities explores the narratives of primary school teachers in relation to their lived experiences of Teacher Acknowledgement and the way in which it shapes their personal and professional selves. This leads to the underpinning research question: What are teachers’ lived experiences of acknowledgement in primary schools? Set against the backdrop of a narrative inquiry approach, the study is framed by Axel Honneth’s (1995) theory of recognition, and is further supported by discourse analysis and semiotics as theories to understand how recognition or the lack thereof is ensconced within everyday school contexts. The South African primary school setting, where various structural and social factors influence the teachers’ experiences of recognition and identity, provides the location within which the study is based. Employing a qualitative approach and an interpretivist paradigm, a purposive sample of four level one teachers from the greater Durban area of Verulam and Ottawa, engaged, via online and in-person interactions in arts-based activities, selecting either letter-writing, collage inquiry or object inquiry, followed by unstructured interviews to uncover their narrative realities about Teacher Acknowledgement. Narrative analysis, followed by analysis of the narratives itself served as the data analysis method employed. The stories revealed that acknowledgement, or its absence, significantly shaped their personal and teacher self, their ideas of belonging and their proficiency in work practices. Recognition by various stakeholders such as teachers, learners, management and within broader community circles manifested as integral to teachers’ sense of self. In contrast, stories of misrecognition gave way to emotional instability, feelings of low self-worth, and an erosion of the teacher’s professional roles. The study reveals that teachers’ identities are not fixed, but fluid-like and constantly evolving and moulded by relational and discursive engagements. It also focuses on emotional investments that mirror the yearning for recognition in sites wherein acknowledgement is largely unreliable or non-existent. In highlighting the teacher’s voice and their storied experiences of acknowledgement, the study paves the way for continuous discussions on the formation of teacher personal and professional identity, teacher well-being and the inferences surrounding recognition in schools. The findings argue towards systemic movements about how recognition is engaged within the school context, implying that authentic acknowledgement is not merely an ethical essentiality but a formal imperative for teacher retention and a call for a complete educational overhaul.