Identity Theft on the Way to an Administrative Role
Chris J. North, Maura Coulter, Kevin Patton · Dublin City University Open Access Institutional Repository (Dublin City University) · 2020
Identity theft on the way to an administrative role Context: This paper explores changes in identity experienced by three teacher educators on their journey into an administrative role in our institutions.After 14-19 years as teacher educators, we see an administrative role, including managerial and leadership aspects, as a way to support our field more broadly.Yet as we consider and reflect on our career changes, we feel that we are in danger of losing connection with our teacher educator identities.At times these feelings are so profound that we wonder if we have become victims of identity theft.This collective S-STEP examines our identity shifts in the transition into administrative roles.S-STEP research is guided by a 'desire to be more, to improve, to better understand' (Ovens & Fletcher, 2014, p.7).Yet at times the 'desire to be more' can have unintended consequences for our core values and identities.Therefore, any 'desire to be more' must also be balanced by the 'desire to better understand'.This collective S-STEP provided us with the opportunity to better understand these consequences by quilting together insights from across organisations and cultures to take a more purposeful approach to managing identity change during a transition to administration.Chris, from a University in New Zealand, has 14 years' experience in teacher education with a specialisation in outdoor and environmental education.Three years of his work was in a teacher education college prior to merging with a University.Chris was shoulder-tapped to become Deputy Head of School.While enjoying (mostly) the challenges of the new role, Chris's motivation for joining this collaboration was a sense of isolation and feeling of career drift.He found his relationships with teacher education colleagues was changing in ways that did not feel comfortable and he also did not feel at home in the new administrative contexts.Kevin has 15 years' experience in physical education teacher education in two universities in western United States.For the last three years, he has served as Department Chair of Kinesiology, which houses programs in both exercise science and teacher education.Kevin viewed a leadership role as an opportunity for professional learning as well as an opportunity to serve his department.Assuming the chair role took Kevin largely out of a teaching role.As a result, he slowly began to feel disconnected from students, teacher education, and scholarship.Kevin views this new role as largely gratifying, but also personally and academically unsettling.For Kevin, the collaboration described in this paper represented opportunities to remain connected with and intentional about his own identity.Maura has 19 years' experience as a teacher educator in primary physical education teacher education in Ireland.She spent 16 years in a teacher education college prior to the college incorporating with a university to become a Faculty of Education, where she has spent the last three years.While employed in the teacher education college, teaching was Maura's primary role with little to no opportunity for promotion or movement from this role.Following incorporation many opportunities to move into administrative roles and for promotion were presented to her.Maura collaborated with Chris and Kevin to establish how she might best navigate these opportunities and maintain her personal and professional identity by learning from, and challenging, their experiences.Over the course of this research, and influenced by the collaboration, Maura applied for, and was appointed Associate Dean for Research (a three-year appointment).Maura sees this position of responsibility not as a weight to be carried (weighed down with responsibility) but rather to view the word differently and look at being 'able to respond' while you are in that position.