Being a strategic teacher: When changing strategies is not enough
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Being a strategic teacher: When changing
strategies is not enough
1 2 3
CARLES MONEREO , ANTONI BADIA , GILDA BILBAO ,
4 1
MARIA CERRATO & CRISTA WEISE
1
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona; 2Universitat Oberta Catalunya;
3
Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile; 4Universitat Ramon Llull
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is two-fold: on the one hand, our aim is to expand the conceptual frame on which the
notion of strategic lecturer is based in order to make it more explicative and to help understand teachers’ difficulties
when they must face conflictive and unsettling situations at different levels (conceptual, strategic and emotional). In the
first part we define and characterise the concepts of teachers’ identity and self together with critical incident, which is
optimum to reach the teacher’s self. In the second part, we present a descriptive case study dealing with the
relationships between the identity and self of two university teachers. The results obtained in this study demonstrate the
existing level of coherence between the characteristics of the teacher’s identity and his/her real teaching performance
(self). On the other hand, the study presents evidence on how teachers act when faced with critical incidents and how
they change to adjust to the conflict situation. Finally, we address the potential and limitations of using critical
incidents as a methodological research tool in this study field and in teacher training.
Keywords: Identity, self, teaching strategies, critical incidents, teachers training.
Correspondencia con los autores: Carles Monereo. Dep. Psicología Básica, Evolutiva y de la Educación. Facultad de Psicología.
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. Campus de Bellaterra. 08193 Barcelona. Tel.: +34 935812103. E-mail:
carles.monereo@uab.cat
© 2009 Fundación Infancia y Aprendizaje, ISSN: 1135-6405 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), 237-256
Introduction
In the literature specialized in strategic teaching –Strategic Instruction– (for example
Gaskins and Pressley, 2006) the teacher is considered to be strategic if s/he is fit to adjust, in a
deliberate way, his/her practices to the context of each subject (aims, contents, students, resources,
personal competences, etc) and more specifically, if s/he is capable of self-regulating his/her actions
when unexpected needs are required in his/her classrooms. From this approach the cognitive
decision making on what to do and to say in each circumstance would be sufficient to resolve any
eventuality. We ourselves have supported this position for a long time (Badía and Monereo, 2004;
Monereo, Pozo and Castelló, 2001).
Nevertheless, it is necessary to admit that on numerous occasions when the teacher (in many
cases trained in the use of teaching strategies) perceives a conflict of such a magnitude that
compromises his/her teaching role and undermines his/her professional identity, his/her answer
tends not to be strategic, in the sense of a deliberate and appropriate action, but automatic reactions
of self-protection, refusal, depression, aggressiveness, etc. may appear (Hargreaves, 2000; Roberts,
2007). These answers frequently lead to the adoption of instructional formats of greater control
focused on the authority of the teacher (Benejam, 1993). This evidence obliges us to redefine thenotion of strategic lecturer and to consider new variables that allow us to better understand why
many teachers, in spite of being provided with innovative methodological and theoretical tools, they
do not change their way of teaching or they return permanently to more conservative practices.
In this sense, the investigation about how difficult it is for teachers to change their practices
and adopt more innovative options, and to make these alternatives sustainable over time, indicates
two key dimensions: the stability of teachers' conceptions about teaching and about their own
professional role, and the emotional cost that the change involves. Regarding the conceptions,
numerous works confirm that they are installed early –in the first teaching and/or learning
experiences of the future teacher–, that they underline their implicit nature, mainly anchored in
objectivist and positivist views, and that they consider the teacher the only protagonist that
transmits knowledge in class (Day, Elliot and Kington, 2005; Lewis, 1990; Lortie, 1975; Well et al,
2006).
As for the emotional cost involved in introducing and maintaining innovative teaching
practices that generally give more prominence to students and that imply at the same time a smaller
control on the part of the teacher, also the investigation has pointed out the feelings of loss of
security and loss of self-steem (Darby, 2008; Kelchterman, 2005), of vulnerability in front of the
students and the colleagues (Lansky, 2005) and of difficulty discerning and regulating appropriate
emotions to the new context (Zembylas, 2005), that affect the teachers and that lead them to refuse
the change and to keep the classroom interactions that they know better and that compromise them
less at a personal level.
As it may be easily deduced, when certain instructional conceptions coincide with particular
feelings and experiences, the teaching strategies that are put into action tend to be coherent and to
respond to the teacher' worries, expectations and goals. Nonetheless, when the teacher faces
conflictive contexts, modifying strategies –as if they consist in independent knowledge– may not be
enough, but a more radical change attacking the conceptions and related feelings is needed. We are
referring to a more molar and complex construct that exactly contains the professional identity of
the teacher and the possible "versions" that in each situation or context this identity can adopt,
versions that we have called "self".Ser un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 239
Our hypothesis re-considers the concept of strategic teacher defining him/her not only as
someone capable of mobilizing the adequate knowledge in a complex, educational and demanding
context, but also as a professional person capable of adopting a version of his/her own identity –a
self– adjusted to this new situation, emotionally compromised, in which his/her identity is
questioned (not only his/her knowledges, but also his/her conceptions and feelings).
Next, we will revise the notions of identity and self from which we started and that
constitute the central point of our proposal and investigation.
The notions of identity and self
While the concept of identity refers to an autoreferential representation formed on emotional
and cognitive attributes that we perceive as being our own and that are relatively permanent and
stable over time, giving continuity to our existence (who I am, how I am, to what I aspire, etc), a
self would be a possible version of this identity, that is to say a cognitive-emotional, integral action
in which conceptions, feelings and procedures (or strategies) are articulated to respond to a
demanding context (Day et al., 2005; Day, Kington, Stobart and Sammons, 2006). This action, the
self, could be performed when facing an incident that is sufficiently unsettling or threatening; or on
the contrary, it could obey conscious planning –if we have the sufficient time and resources– on
what to think, feel, do and say in certain compromised circumstances quite ready to take place
(Monereo, 2007: Roberts, 2007).
Throughout his/her professional history, the teacher forges an autobiographical
representation of himself/herself, a professional identity, based on conceptions about his/her role
and about what teaching and learning his/her subject implies, notions which are quite stable and
permanent. As we have said, this professional identity is initiated very early, when the vocation of
teaching or the purpose to devote himself/herself to teaching begins to arise. Some biographical
milestones –again conflictive situations– are very important for this autoreferential representation,
because they favor the elaboration of a speech on the sense and meaning of "to be a teacher" and
"to be the teacher of" a certain subject.
Together with this sense of identity, the teacher builds forms of action, selfs, that are useful
for him/her to handle particular situations and to efficiently exercise his/her influence (Gergen,
1989). Later on, when this teacher faces situations that s/he perceives as similar to previous ones,
s/he will be able to evoke the corresponding self and perform this action again.
The fact that a teacher, in a specific conflictive situation, activates automatically a self,
reconstructs a self evoked to adjust it to the new situation, or builds a new self, thought and planned
to face this particular circumstance, responds to complex socio-cognitive processes of which we
have little empirical evidence. For example, the hypothesis of the existence of an intramental
context in which a dialogue is established among different selfs in competition (and therefore
among different "packages" of conceptions, feelings and strategies) and in which, through this
interaction, similar to the one that takes place in a social context among various speakers, a decision
is made and one self is executed (or a synthesis of several), turns out to be suggestive, even heuristic
for the investigation, but it is still speculative (Monereo, 2007; Yau-fai, Fiona Chan, Peng and
Kwang, 2001).
In any case, what the literature on the topic indicates (Neisser and Jopling, 1997), which we
might cautiously admit, is that the same subject cannot activate any self and that this activation is
subject to restrictions according to: (I) his/her own identity and the previous selfs that can be
evoked, faced and, finally, activated; (ii) the cultural niche in which we unfold ourselves and that
determines these possible selfs.240 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256
In this sense, at least theoretically, we might admit that variability among people, and in the
case we consider among teachers, is extremely large. From teachers without versions or alternative
selfs and, as a result, doomed to repeat routines, to, at the other extreme, theachers capable of
anticipating, and to a certain extent planning what they will think (conceptions), feel (feelings), do
and say (strategies) in each new teaching context, totally or partially building a self for each
occasion.
This last possibility seems to better define a strategic teacher, capable of performing a
metacognitive action, taking awareness of his/her decisions and of the effects of these ones on the
context, reflecting and re-describing representations (in the sense of Pozo et al., 2006) and building
selfs, easily evocable in the future when required by the circumstances.
As far as a methodological analysis is concerned, a teacher that strategically perfoms should
take decisions in three moments of the development of a self, moments that would be coherent
among them:
a) A planned self: it would consist in the anticipatory reading of a context and its possible
conflicts and incidents and the planning of speech, emotional states and strategies of action to face
them. As we have just formulated, it would be based on evoked selfs, on the internal dialogue
among these ones and on the production of a plan of intentional action.
b) A self-in-action: it would consist in the unfolding, supervision and autoregulation of the
planned self during the development of the activities (a class, for example).
c) A performed self: it would consist in the reflection and conscious evaluation of the
developed self-in-action. It would enlarge the possibilities to make a self available and evocable for
future events and, according to its emotional impact, it would contribute to the re-construction of
the identity.
As we have tried to show, the need for a change or a re-construction of a self appears when
we think about a conflictive situation with special characteristics; these situations capable of leading
to the appearance, in an automatic or strategic way, of a self constitute critical incidents on which
the following section is focused.
The critical incidents as a way to have access to the teacher's self
Although the notion of critical incident (henceforth CI) has its origin in the 50s3, first in the
field of military aviation (as a way to diagnose the pilots' ability) and then in the business field, and
in particular in medicine and nursing, its application to the educational context is due to David
Tripp (1993) who defines CI as an event that captures the essence of what is trying to be achieved in
an educational situation. According to Tripp it is critical as soon as it is indicative of a purpose, a
reason or a specific structure that is quite frequently repeated. From this perspective a CI is to a
considerable extent typical in that it is characteristic of a context. Nevertheless, there is another
subsequent meaning that assimilates critical to the fact that it makes the person be in crisis,
emotionally unsettling him/her, making him/her vulnerable and resulting in losing control over the
situation that is being developed. In this case we refer to stressful CI (e.g. Everly and Mitchell,
1999). Adopting this last version we understand that a CI is an event, delimited in time and space,
that, when overcoming a certain emotional threshold of the teacher, unsettles his/her self-in action,
so that in order to recover the control of the situation, applying a local strategy is not enough, but a
new version of himself/herself, a change of self, is required.
Since their appearance the CI have had an obvious impact on the creation of materials and
training programs for the teachers, both in the Anglo-Saxon world (Brookfield, 1995; Burgum and
Bridge, 1997), and, in a more incipient way, in Spain (for example with elementary school teachers:
Navarro, López Martínez and Barroso, 1998; and secondary school teachers: Elórtegui, Medina and
Ser un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 241Fernández, 2003). However, theses initiatives suffer from theoretical beliefs that explain what
specific mechanisms lead to the change and what definitively changes. On the other hand they are
based on the analysis of hypothetical CI that could take place or CI that the teachers evoke, but
never on CI that have been really registered and have taken place in situ.
The possibility to analyse real CI, that have occurred naturally (those that can appear in an
unexpected way, in habitual situations of class) or in an induced way (the ones that other people can
introduce in a class to observe the changes that take place in the interactive dynamics, with the
object of training or investigating), seems to constitute a privileged means of having access to the
possible changes that might be produced in the self with which the teacher performs and of
observing if these changes have a reactive and automated nature or, on the contrary, they respond to
a more propositive and strategic orientation. But besides the advantages the CI offer as
methodological devices for the investigation of the change of selfs (Woolsey, 1986), we understand
that they open a wide range of possibilities thinking about the teachers training.
With the purpose of, on the one hand, providing empirical arguments that contribute to
clarify the relationships already mentioned among identity, self and strategies, and, on the other
hand, initiating the identification of some typical incidents in the case of university teaching, we
design a qualitative study that we will describe below.
A case study of the mobilization of the self based on critical incidents
The purpose of our case study was to know better which is the teachers' professional identity
(in this case university teachers), what role this identity plays in the decisions that are taken to face
a particular teaching context and which are the answers adopted when they face a supposedly
critical incident.
In particular, we wanted to chek if, as the literature indicates (Gewerc and Montero, 2000),
teachers represent themselves with different identities (e.g. teacher, researcher, manager,
professional) and if this representation is related to the way they understand their role (what being a
university teacher and student means; what teaching and learning implies, particularly teaching and
learning their subject) and the way they live or feel their profession; and if these representations
have an impact on the decisions taken during the development of a class.
On the other hand, we wondered whether the way this identity is adjusted to particular
contexts, specially when facing critical incidents, is translated into specific ways to think, act and
feel, that is to say selfs, and to what extent these selfs are the result of conscious decisions
(automatic vs. strategic self).
To provide answers to these questions, we define the following objectives of investigation:
1. Identifying the contents that the university teachers state when they have to define their
identity and their selfs in relation to their teaching role, the procedures/strategies that they use and
the feelings that they express.
2. Showing relationships, coherences and/or inconsistencies between identity and self, in its
different states: planned self, self-in-action and performed self.
3. Exploring if facing induced or natural critical incidents, teachers tend to activate a
change of strategy or of self.
Design and procedure
As we have already said, it is about a qualitative study in which an analysis of the practice of
two veteran teachers in the area of evolutionary psychology and of education (intentional sample),
that teach two subjects from a master's degree destined to graduates in psychology, pedagogy and
psycho-pedagogy, was carried out. For such an analysis information from three fortnightly
242 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256consecutive sessions was collected.
The teachers of the sample had solid academic training, work experience over seven years,
and they corresponded a priori to two different professional profiles: a profile near that of the
researcher (coordinator of a recognized investigation team) and, in the second case, near the
intervention (psychoeducational advisor in services commission).
During the development of the investigation semi-structured interviews and class
observation with the support of audio recording were used. The procedure consisted in the
development of a general prior interview, before the beginning of each subject, interviews before
and after each class session and a general final interview, once the subject was concluded.
In order to unfold the activation of strategies on the part of teachers or of a change of self,
three induced incidents were introduced, and others that occurred naturally (that were not induced
by the researchers) were collected. The incidents were thought by three of the researchers that were
part of the class group, as students. These incidents consisted of three questions (one was carried
out per session) that could perfectly have taken place during the normal development of a course
(see the description of the incidents in Table II).
For greater clarity, Table I presents the dimensions tackled in the study, the units of analysis
defined, the instruments used for registration and the procedures followed for the analysis. We
started from a four-dimensional analysis, extracted from bibliographic review and from the
discussions undertaken by the research team: the conceptions of identity, planned self, self-in-action
and performed self.
TABLE I
Dimensions, units and instruments for registration and analysis of the investigation
Dimension Analysis Unit Registration instrument Analysis procedure
Identity Professional role Initial interview and Assignation of each
Procedures/Strategies literal transcription statement to each unit of
Feelings analysis (by general
consent)
Planned self Professional role Initial interview and Assignation of each
Procedures/Strategies literal transcription statement to each unit of
Feelings Interview beginning of analysis (by general
each session and literal consent)
transcription
Self-in-action Professional role Registration and class Assignation of each
Procedures/Strategies observation statement to each unit of
Feelings Registration of each analysis (by general
incident and literal consent)
transcription
Performed self Professional role Final interview of each Assignation of each
Procedures/Strategies session and literal statement to each unit of
Feelings transcription analysis (by general
Interview end of the consent)
course and literal
transcriptionSer un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 243
The procedure for registration and analysis of the mentioned dimensions, followed by the
research team, was the following one:
a) All the (initial, before-after the session and final) interviews and the three audio-recorded
classes were literally transcribed.
b) Each team member independently analysed those interviews in which s/he had not
participated, assigning the different transcribed statements to one of the units of pre-defined
analysis (identity or self, on the one hand; and professional role, procedures/strategies and feelings,
on the other hand). Afterwards the assignations were discussed and, once a consensus was reached
by all the members, their final location was decided. Finally, also by consensus, a map of the
conceptual relationships between identity and self was established, a map that reflected the
cognitive representation of each studied case (in the Appendix, as an example, the concept map
corresponding to Teacher A is presented).
c) In relation to the incidents, the two researchers that had not attended the classes separately
analysed the transcriptions of the same sessions, classifying the teachers' answers into the induced
incidents (no change, change in the strategy or change in the self) and trying to identify possible
natural incidents. Afterwards, both researchers reached a consensus on their analysis to finally
present their proposal to the rest of the group and to reach a final agreement through discussion.
Subsequently, we will define the nature of these dimensions and the way in which the units
and categories within each of them were established.
First dimension. Conceptions of identity as a university teacher. We place in this dimension
the comments that are related to general aspects of the university teacher's work and, as a result, that
are not referring to a particular situation of a subject or module that was being taught or was going
to be taught. The teacher could mention the way s/he understood his/her role as a university teacher
and the experience and practices that s/he had had during the development of the profession and that
had helped him/her to build a general representation of himself/herself as a university teacher.
Specifically in our investigation this conception of identity was extracted from three
categories:
a) Self-attribution of a particular professional role. This category anwers the question: How
do I understand or interpret "to be a university teacher"?. In the scarce existing literature about the
forms that this role can adopt (e.g. Gewerc and Montero, 2000), a role as a teacher and tutor, a role
as a researcher, a role related to professional work and a possible managing role (e.g. institutional
responsibilities; management of projects) are usually identified.
Statements typifying this category would be: In fact, I consider myself a psychologist that
teaches rather than a teacher; I learned to manage groups of people when I worked as a monitor....
b) Expression of feelings related to the profession (Zembylas, 2005). This category answers
the question: How do I live or feel "to be a university teacher"?
The statements included in this category refer to emotional expectations (if a good relation
is not created from the very first days, then...); to preferences (the sessions I enjoy more are those
with a small goup, analysing cases...), to personal relations (the relations have grown cold and now
it's only –hello and good-bye), to the atmosphere and to emotional states (I feel weird in the
department), etc.
c) Assignation of particular procedures and strategies related to the way to exercise the
profession (Beijaard, Verloop and Vermunt, 2000). This category answers the question: How do I
act or behave as a university teacher?
The statements placed in this category refer to decisions, procedures and actions that are
planned, executed and/or evaluated with the aim of achieving professional objectives. For example,
statements referring to the preparation of one class session (before a class I always revise my notes
from the previous session), to the determining factors of his/her teaching (the number of students is244 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256
the main factor that determines how to give the class....), to the instructional methods (I often use
the method of cooperative work...), etc.
Second dimension. Conceptions of the self as a university teacher: the planned self. In this
dimension it is also included what the subject says but, contrary to the identity dimension, not about
"to be a university teacher" in general, but about his/her representations as a teacher directly
connected to a specific educational context, in this case the subject that the teacher will teach. In
this sense the teacher was defined bearing in mind certain well delimited contents, students, spaces,
time and resources with which s/he was going to perform and of which s/he had enough knowledge.
As in the previous dimension, the statements could refer to data, theories, beliefs or opinions
about the best professional role to adopt (it is essential that I make them realise I have some
practical experience that certifies what I say), the feelings desirable to emerge (I have to seem sure
to avoid questions about...) or the strategies that were planned to be used (I will start by modelling,
thinking loudly about the problem to make them check how an expert would solve it...) but, we
insist, placing the actions at the present time, in connection with the subject that s/he was going to
teach immediately or that was teaching (from the first session I will...; from the very first moment I
will try..., today I want to focus on..., after each session I want to analyse...).
Third dimension. Analysis of the self during the class sessions: the self-in-action. Here we
tried to analyse how the teacher adjusted his/her identity during the classes, through one self, and in
particular how s/he adjusted or modified this self facing some incidents that were induced by the
researchers or that could spontaneously take place during the sessions. To be more exact what
teaching role or function the teacher adopted, what emotional state s/he performed or was activated,
and what strategies s/he used to face (or stay away from) the incidents that happened. We have
analysed four incidents, that we characterise in the following table.
TABLE II
Critical incidents chosen for the investigation
Incident Cause Description
Induced Question with regard to false data A question about a non-existent
author is asked.
Induced Reiterative question A question related to a content
already explained is asked.
Induced Complex question A question that implies a high
level of deepening in the content is
asked.
Natural From the interaction teacher- Problematic or conflictive
students situations that emerge in an
unexpected way and that unsettle
the teacher.
We remind the reader that on this occasion the data analysed came from the literal
transcription of the audio recordings of the class and from the participant observation.
Fourth dimension. Representation and assessment of the self, once the session finished: the
performed self. Again this last dimension is extracted from what the subject says, but now with
regard to his/her representation and assessment of what has happened during the session and, inSer un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 245
particular, of what s/he has thought, felt or done in relation to the induced incident.
Particularly, the statements that were analysed came from two situations of registration: a
brief interview when each session finished and a final interview, at the end of the whole subject in
which, after explaining the suggested experimental situation (the fact that some students asked three
questions induced by the research team), the way in which the teacher conceptualized his/her role,
felt and performed to face the incident was stressed. Exactly, three types of questions were asked to
the teacher: a) of comparison between what was planned and what was finally done in class; b) of
interpretation of what was done in class; and c) of questioning about the perception of the induced
CI (identification of what was or what was not an incident for the teacher, interpretation of the
nature of each incident and of the degree of conscience concerning his/her performance facing each
indicent). Next we will present the results obtained.
Results
We will arrange the results obtained in relation to the three objectives pursued.
Regarding the first objective, we remind the reader that it was about identifying the contents
that the university teachers state when they have to define their identity and their selfs in relation to
their teaching role, the procedures/stratetgies that they use or the feelings that they express.
As we can see in Tables III and IV, the teachers pointed out different "contents" when they
defined their identity as university teachers. Whereas Subject A mentioned declarative or conceptual
contents highly connected to certain readings very carefully chosen in relation to the subjects
treated, for Subject B the "contents" referred to experiences valued according to their degree of
authenticity.
On the other hand, for the first teacher the mentioned content as the basis of his/her
pedagogy was his research, while for the second teacher it was the advice. In each case their
professional identity was coherent with the role they play, besides the teaching one: in the case of A
the role of researcher and the one of advising professional in the case of B.
Finally, we should underline that both teachers stated that they knew their own limitations or
weak points; A admitted that these restrictions made him/her feel uncomfortable, but B said that
s/he accepted them since they allowed him/her to keep improving.
As for the second objective, we tried to show relationships, coherences and/or
inconsistencies between Identity and self, at its different moments: planned self, and performed self.
The results obtained (see Tables V and VI) show some incoherences between Identity and
Self. For instance, Teacher A claimed that participation was the basis of his/her pedagogy, but when
s/he reflected on his/her activities in class s/he realised that this participation was reduced to
teacher-student dialogue built from questions asked by some students, without being a dialogue
among the students themselves or other ways of participation. Besides, the so-called research that
s/he said s/he was promoting took place through research reports that were not always the most
appropriate with regard to the contents s/he wanted to reinforce. The students were not doing their
own research projects, although they were studying a post-graduate course.
In the case of teacher B, less inconsistencies appear, in spite of the fact that his/her intention
of attaining deep learning was difficult to achieve when presentation of cases without sufficient
time to analyse was preferably resorted to. Likewise, the acknowledgement of his/her own
weaknesses as a speaker is contradicted with classes in which the teacher tends to direct the
dialogue, finally making it a monologue.246 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256
TABLE III
Teacher A. Contents in relation to identity and self
Stated content Features
Participation Role: participative model, learning condition, to
create tension in dialogue.
Procedure: readings, questions to the group,
regulation through gestures and position.
Feelings: discomfort when this "tension" is not
produced.
Time management Role: flexibility.
Procedure: difficulties, adjustments.
Feelings: discomfort when it affects presentations.
Contents/Readings Role: conceptual contents.
Procedure: reading adjustment to focus on contents.
Feelings: confidence in the adjustments.
Degree Role: more directive.
Procedure: theatricality.
Feelings: confidence in the adjustments.
Postgraduate study Role: more guided.
Procedure: spontaneity.
Feelings: comfort.
Research Role: priority.
Procedure: basis of his/her methodology.
Feelings: confidence in class; anxiety personal
promotion.
TABLE IV
Teacher B. Contents in relation to identity and self
Stated content Features
Welfare Role: to make students feel alright.
Procedure: freedom of speech.
Feelings: sensitivity and worry.
Weak points Role: acceptance and opportunity.
Procedure: to express one's own limitations.
Feelings: fluency.
Learning Role: depth.
Procedures: open activities.
Feelings: desire to create learnings.
Contents Role: experiential contents.
Procedure: teaching based on authentic practice.
Feelings: confidence.
Planning Role: flexibility.
Procedure: lesson plans for every single session.
Feelings: calmness.
Advising Role: priority.
Procedure: basis of his/her methodology.
Feelings: confidence in class; anxiety toward
secondary school and university teachers.Ser un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 247
TABLE V
Teacher A. Coherence between identity and self
Stated content Features
Participation Identity: basis pedagogical model.
Planned self: preparation presentations and forum.
Performed self: teacher-student interaction,
questions-answers.
Time management Identity: according to depth.
Planned self: organization in relation to subjects.
Performed self: difficulty in adjusting.
Contents/Readings Identity: conceptual framework.
Planned self: chosen readings.
Performed self: some inappropriate.
Degree Identity: control.
Planned self: it avoids presentations.
Performed self: positive assessment.
Postgraduate study Identity: investigation.
Planned self: student presentations.
Performed self: positive assessment.
Research Identity: research.
Planned self: reading preparation and examples
based on research.
Performed self: positive assessment.
*In boldface and underlined those aspects that show some incongruities.
TABLE VI
Teacher B. Coherence between identity and self
Stated content Features
Welfare Identity: basis pedagogical model.
Planned self: open activities.
Performed self: positive assessment.
Weak points Identity: acceptance.
Planned self: activities connected to the working
world and not based on lecture presentation.
Performed self: expression of weaknesses.
Learning Identity: depth.
Planned self: reflexive activities.
Performed self: positive assessment.
Contents Identity: contents coming from professional practice.
Planned self: case analysis.
Performed self: positive assessment.
Planning Identity: control.
Planned self: flexibility.
Performed self: control.
Advising Identity: professional.
Planned self: problematic activities.
Performed self: positive assessment.248 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256
In relation to the third objective, we remind the reader that we tried to explore if when facing
induced or natural critical incidents, teachers activate a change of strategy or of self.
In connection with Teacher A
The induced or natural incidents that we want to underline for this analysis created different
performances in Teacher A that allow us to claim, as Table VII presents, the conscious decision to
activate procedures and feelings ad hoc to face a complex question that threatens an important
aspect of the basic concepts of the course. Therefore, in this case the teacher used a strategy since
s/he gave an adjusted answer that allowed him/her to save the situation, recognising his/her own
weaknesses, but reconstructing them from the theory itself. Nevertheless, a change of self was not
produced, since s/he kept his/her version of postgraduate teacher, especially since s/he was capable
of solving the conflict thanks to the soundness of his/her theoretical consistency.
On the contrary, concerning the natural incident, caused by lack of participation expected
from the students, the answer given by the teacher was not adjusted to the context, since s/he did not
take a conscious decision that reverted the situation, exactly the contrary, since the appropriate
methodological tools were not activated, the conflict was solved artificially when a student asked a
question of small interest and the teacher made good use of it to develop a monologue until the end
of the class. Therefore, the teacher activated an automatic self (and, as a result, not strategic) that
did not allow a functional adjustment to the context, since it attacked the essential basis of his/her
pedagogy: the students' paticipation.
TABLE VII
Performance of Teacher A when facing an induced incident (complex question)
Complex question "In the text we read a contradiction exists..."
Self-in-action Return: "Anything to say?.... it's an important
intervention"...
Irony: "....we should blame the author, unluckily, I
am the author...."
Performed self Important, with a meaning, weak point:
"I think it was very important; it made sense".
"It was a question that really touched a weak point".
"....when there is an unexpected question things go
well if you can build an answer according to your
theoretical position".
Role Procedure Feeling
There is no change Conscience Conscience
A change of strategy (not of self) is produced
In connection with Teacher B
The induced incidents (see example in Table IX) did not create on the part of Teacher B any
type of unsettling or any professional or academic questioning sufficient enough to result in a
change of strategy, and still less of self. Nevertheless, and as in case A, it was a natural incident (see
Table X) that influenced the use of a strategy (recognition of his/her mistake), which solved the
questioning from a student.Ser un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 249
TABLE VIII
Performance of Teacher A when facing a natural incident (lack of participation)
Natural incident Both students present to another teacher and subject
at the corresponding time. Afterwards, the teacher
asks questions, but no-one answers.
Self-in-action Direct questions, delayed answers:
"Any question for your classmates?"
"Does anyone have something to say?"
"You are so silent!"
"Does no-one have any question?
Performed self Uncomfortable, poor:
"Yes, that transitory hour... it was the less interesting
moment.
It was not a thing in which I felt terribly bad... it was
very poor."
Role Procedure Feeling
There is a change No conscience Conscience
A change of strategy is produced
The analysis done by the teacher after the course showed, from the final interview, that from
his/her point of view the elements introduced were not exactly incidents, but isolated episodes that
implied simple mistakes, of no importance, if the worst came to the worst.
TABLE IX
Performance of Teacher B when facing an induced incident (reiterative question)
Reiterative question "Is there any method to reflect on teachers training?"
Self-in-action Naturalness: "Last week, do you remember that this
appeared? (s/he reminded the students of what was
explained).
Performed self Surprised: "Was this intended to be an incident?
Role Procedure Feeling
There is no change Conscience Conscience
No change is produced
Finally, it is necessary to mention that for both teachers what they thought, said and did was
constantly tinged with feelings. In this sense, for Teacher A the incidents with a major capacity of
impact would be those that highlight his/her lack of theoretical knowledge. Nevertheless, Teacher B
would face in a more critically way incidents that consist in hostile interactions and that put the
class welfare at risk.250 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256
TABLE X
Performance of Teacher B when facing a natural incident (questioning of what is taught)
Question that makes him/her feel questioned "Since the activity was suggested I have a doubt... I
regarding his/her teaching think that the request is not well formulated..."
Self-in-action Return: "Why?" "Does anyone know why we do
this as the training objective?" (The students whisper
things and one makes a comment and everyone
laughs).
Justification: No doubt... it has to do with the
request, it has to do with the request... The directive
team hopes... hopes that this training helps to make
the school and the neighbourhood close to each
other. This is why to do this type of analysis is
important (the student says OK but not very
convinced).
New justification: OK? This is why when your
classmate... isn't it? (Let's see... I like these things to
appear because, if not, it seems we do things but we
do not know why we do these things)... When your
classmate said... "Would it not be necessary to say in
all these levels which are implied...?" Of course, we
said "here it should be done but in this request it is
difficult because the request is very extense, the
request is very open". Here it is, isn't it? So what we
are doing is "Let's see, in this request when what is
intended is to open the centre to the community,
what is implied?
To recognise that s/he is wrong after a student
argumentation: OK, now I undestand you! So what
is not well explained is the use of the term objective
(...). What we are saying is: let's see... the training
¿what type of things does it have to cover? (...) It is
like aims of the training, purposes of the training...
Performed self Naturalness: "Nothing happens if we make a
mistake"
Role Procedure Feeling
There is no change Conscience Unconsciousness
Change of strategy (not of self)
Conclusions
As a general conclusion, from the data that this research provides, we may admit, as the title
of this work states, that when facing particular conflicts changing the teaching strategy is not
enough; a more radical and deep change is needed, a change that would affect one aspect of the
teacher's professional identity. Next, we will give reasons for this general reflection based on the
objectives that the present study considered.
Regarding the first objective, related to the contents that frequently appear in the discourse
of the analysed teachers and that, subsequently, articulate to a great extent their identities as
university teachers as well as their more contextualised performances (selfs) we would state,
according to frequency, in relation to Teacher A: participation, time management, disciplinarySer un docente estratégico / C. Monereo et al. 251
content and the chosen readings, the distinction between an undergraduate and a postgraduate
course and research. As for Teacher B, we would verify: welfare, recognition of weak points, the
learning, the contents, planning and advice. Both of them define in a consistent way a role of
researcher and a professional advising role, respectively.
As for the second objective related to the coherence between identity and self, from what is
stated by the teachers of the study, we may conclude that in the case of Teacher A a high degree of
coherence exists concerning the relevance of disciplinary content and the readings chosen, the clear
distinction between the features of an undergraduate and a postgraduate course and research as an
activity that creates knowledge. Nonetheless, this coherence is undermined in relation to the
categories of: participation (whereas as for identity, this is the main key of the psychoeducative
model that the teacher defends, regarding self, and in a face-to-face situation, it is understood only
as the facilitation of the teacher-student dialogue, not of student-student; on the other hand it is
expected to be produced quite spontaneously without articulating special mechanisms to make it
happen), time management (in identity the difficulty in managing the time in very long sessions is
admitted, but in self hourly planning sufficiently adjusted is not prepared, with alternatives in case
of exceeding the assigned times, and a different time according to the degree of deepening intended
to be achieved with every topic is not stipulated; readings (some are not very appropriate for the
content intended to be treated) and research (if the objective is to promote the students' abilities to
research, the methodology does not favour it since it does not let the students have the initiative). In
the case of Teacher B a high degree of coherence in most of the analysed categories exist.
Nevertheless, certain dissonance regarding some aspects is detected: s/he says that s/he tries to
make all the students feel alright with his/her performance, but privileges his/her attention to a small
sector; s/he is convinced that s/he guides the dialogue during the sessions and, in this way, hides
that s/he is not a good speaker, but spends most of the time talking; s/he insists that learning takes
place when it "leaves its mark", but the fact that on occasions s/he loses the thread of his/her
presentation makes reflection difficult to take place, assuming too quickly that everyone understood
the explanation at the desired level of depth.
Regarding the third objective in relation to whether, thanks to the presence of CI, a change
of strategy is produced or, even of self, it is necessary to distinguish between two CI of different
nature. As for the incident induced by the researchers, in Teacher A a strategic performance was
really produced (we remind the reader: to return the question to the students and satirize the
authorship of the text questioned) since the teacher shows a conscious and adjusted decision-
making; nevertheless, s/he did not need to modify his/her self and we cannot see a change of role or
an emotional change.
On the contrary, in relation to the natural incident that took place, related to the lack of
students participation during a delayed space of time, and despite the insistent questions and
requests from the teacher, we could observe an automated reaction, not very conscious and, partly,
contrary to the teacher's convictions: to make the students participate all the time. We remind the
reader that in this case the teacher made good use of the question asked by a student to
unnecessarily extend the answer. Here we could talk about the appearance of an automated self.
Concerning Teacher B, the induced incidents did not create any type of answer different in
the analysed dimensions since, as we have mentioned, s/he never recognised that these situations
were unsettling for him/her (that is to say, real incidents). Nonetheless, it was a natural incident, the
questioning of a student, that obliged the teacher to take a strategic decision, with no apparent
effects on his/her self.
It seems obvious that, thinking about future research, with the object of assuring to a large
extent that the CI work as CI, these should be designed from the teachers' personal worries, detected
during the initial interview. We also think that it would be convenient to know the students'
peception in relation to the CI with the aim of comparing their point of view with that of their252 Cultura y Educación, 2009, 21 (3), pp. 237-256
teacher and verify if what is unsettling for the lecturer is also unsettling for his/her students and if
the students consider that the teacher solved adequately the conflict. On the othe hand, it would be
particularly interesting to study novel teachers and teachers that, either because they are going to
initiate an innovation in their classes or because they usually have difficulty in interacting with the
students, anticipate the appearance of CI. Despite these objections, and in general terms, we
consider that the use of –natural and induced– CI, both as a delimitation of the changes of selfs that
could be produced during a particular teaching performance and as devices to elicit visible changes
in the teacher's behaviour, has great potential importance both in the research of the relationships
between identity and self, and the design of a more useful, realist and effective teachers training.
Notes
1 The group IdentitEs is part of the research team recognised by Generalitat de Catalunya SINTE (www.sinte.es)
2 We have chosen the English denomination “self”, instead of the Spanish “yo” to avoid the intense semantic and conative charge that
this notion has had throughout the history of Psychology.
3 For a complete revision of the term, Butterfield, Borgen, Amundson and Maglio (2005) may be consulted.
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