Bulletin of Educational Research

Abstract

This research project is based on a post-structuralist perspective; it uses the notion of “teacher role” to reflect on the problems of “teacher change.” The empirical-rational model tends to be limited by the inhibitions of a national bureaucracy, the demands of social transformation, and the “consumerism” of professional knowledge, inasmuch as these three factors tend to make educational reform and teacher change unsuccessful. Even when using the word “professionalism” for “teacher change,” most people still can’t avoid thinking of “teaching” (or “being a teacher”) as a role. Due to this situation, I am suggesting here that we begin to think from another point of view-that of the “teacher self” — in order to more readily create the possibility of genuine teacher change. Based on the reflections and criticisms of post-structuralism, there are three possible ways to make teacher change happen: by performing a social-historical critique, by engaging in dialogue with others as a form of “narrative,” and by developing the “phronesis” of the self.

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