ABSTRACT
Over time, teachers are likely to face many challenges in building and sustaining their identities as effective and committed professionals, classroom practitioners and members of their school communities. The first part of this chapter will, therefore, examine associations between teachers’ sense of identity in the different settings in which they work and the positive and negative influences in these which may challenge their capacities to be resilient over a career span. The second part will focus upon the inner landscape of the teaching self and identify the contributions of educational values and moral purposes to the capacity to be resilient. Within this, and drawing upon considerable empirical data internationally, we will discuss how a strong calling to teach may add to teachers’ capacities to sustain their motivation, commitment and effectiveness in a variety of school and personally and professionally challenging contexts. We will show that teachers’ intrinsic motivation and emotional commitment to provide the best service for their students is associated with their sense of identity; and that it is teachers’ inner vocational drive which helps them to find strength and power to be and to remain intellectually and professionally committed and resilient.
