ABSTRACT
The chapter investigates the relationships between teaching knowledge of qualified teachers with occupational experiences and their professional identities via their symbolic representative articulations. Occupational experiences are experiences that relate to non-pedagogic practices. These include professional practices in work-related areas such as dance, dental hygiene, health education, information technology (IT) and radio production. It utilises a relational approach to understanding and identifying perspectives of teaching knowledge from three sources: pedagogic, life and occupational experiences, and how these forms of knowledge may affect teachers’ view of their professional selves. This empirical-based investigation was undertaken because of the paucity of research in the possible relationships between teaching knowledge and professional identities as previous studies on teachers’ know-how were centred mainly on teaching activities and appeared unconnected to teachers’ identities. The findings of the study include a revision of teachers’ professional knowledge; an identification of three professional knowledge sources relating to pedagogy, life experiences and occupation; and the identification of three professional identities of multi-identities, double life and hybrid. This study has implications for teaching professionals (in areas such as clinical practices, accountancy and architecture) from national and international perspectives.
