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Resilience and loss in work identities: A narrative analysis of some retired teachers’ work‐life histories
Author(s) -
Kirk John,
Wall Christine
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/01411920903018216
Subject(s) - narrative , psychological resilience , identity (music) , feeling , constitution , sociology , work (physics) , narrative inquiry , pedagogy , social psychology , psychology , gender studies , political science , aesthetics , law , mechanical engineering , philosophy , linguistics , engineering
The article examines the importance of ‘emotional labour’ in the constitution of the ‘teacherly‐self’. Deriving from a research project on work and social identity, the article explores the ways teachers have negotiated the radical changes in the profession in recent years, and uses the notion of ‘teacher resilience’ to explore the ways teachers have reacted to the effects of neo‐liberal reforms to education; reforms that have powerfully impacted on the more child‐centred ways of working in the classroom and school environment. Using narrative analysis of the work‐life histories of these retired teachers, recorded using oral history methodology, the authors examine structures of feeling that turn on notions of emotional labour and commitment, resilience and loss in relation to the occupational identity of teachers.