Teacher Identity and Symbolic Boundaries: A Case Study of a Private School

Date

2024-07-26

Author

Göktürk Ağın, Duygun
Soycan, Nihan

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The inclination of neoliberalism to eradicate teacher identity is also supported by Turkish literature focusing on public school teaching (Buyruk, 2015; Durmaz, 2014). Considering the differing workflow, structure and teacher roles in private institutions and the growing area of teacher employment in private schools, this qualitative single-instrumental case study focuses on the experiences of 11 teachers in a private high school in Çankaya, Ankara. Thus, it is aimed to contribute to the literary discussions about the wholeness of teacher identity in Turkey, which is legally subcategorized lately. Additionally, we aim to form a basis for discussions with finer details about private school teaching in Turkey. Similarly, although the investigations of teacher identity with respect to their class positions and agencies help us understand structural factors, the need for exploring the role of individuals’ experiences and social interactions continues. For these reasons, this study is based on the following theoretical approaches: 1) Individual (self-perception), interactional (reflections to daily socializations) and structural (reference to power centrality) layers of social identity occurs in simultaneous fluidity (Jenkins, 2016). 2) Belonging to and exclusion from a social group are marked with symbolic boundaries which are created through cognitively processed similarities and differences. While symbolic boundaries form social groups in the micro level, they differentiate social groups from each other in the macro level, thus standing as an important source for inequalities (Lamont et al., 2015). Inequalities cause stigmatization of specific groups (Goffman, 2020) and members’ forming coping mechanisms to protect their social prestige (Turgut, 2021). We present the detailed findings of our research aiming to discuss how marketized educational system and high-stakes exam pressure makes devaluation and technicianization the principal features of private school teaching. Then, we will inquire the mechanisms of symbolic boundaries marked with inner-school discrimination and nepotism integrating with the structural features of educational system and labor processes. We will continue with a discussion of how private school teachers’ coping mechanisms with devaluation form the unique sense of teacher identity in private schools, yet in the meantime, perpetuating inequalities for teachers. We argue that private school teacher identity is a sum of devaluation, technicianization and discrimination which are chronically symptomized with the reflections of productive forces that make teachers’ labor flexible and insecure. Keywords: Teacher identity, teacher roles, private schools, symbolic boundaries, Covid-19.

URI

https://icce2024ankara.wordpress.com/conference-program/
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/111130

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Department of Educational Sciences, Conference / Seminar