Observing Teacher Identities through Video Analysis

Book excerpt: Teaching is often seen as an identity process, with teachers constructing and enacting their identities through daily interactions with students, parents and colleagues. This volume explores how conducting video analysis helps teachers gain valuable perspectives on their own identities and improve classroom practice over time. This form of interactional awareness fosters reflection and action on creating classroom conditions that encourage equitable learning. The volume follows preservice English teachers as they examine video records of their practice during student teaching, and how the evidence impacts their development as literacy teachers of diverse adolescents. By applying an analytic framework to video analysis, the authors demonstrate how novice teachers use positioning theory to transform their own identity performance in the classroom. Education scholars, teachers and professional developers will greatly benefit from this unique perspective on teacher identity work.