ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on teachers’ identities as crucial in their implementation of Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE). It brings together a range of literature to describe identities as central, multiple, layered, fluid, contextual and constructed in narratives. It builds on earlier research that positions strong environmental identities as instrumental in teachers’ decision-making for ESE uptake. The aim of this study was to explore how early career teachers negotiated and constructed their identities during their first year as teachers post their graduation from university. This chapter provides an understanding of identity as a theoretical framework exploring the personal, professional and environmental aspects of any individuals’ identity. It then postulates a new concept of ‘confluence’ that allows for the merging of individual identities into a stronger identity while still retaining the key aspects of each individual identity. This provides a theoretical and conceptual basis for understanding early career teachers’ experiences while implementing ESE in their new organisational settings.