Voice and participation. Mobilising teacher identities through collaborative research

This study examines how teacher identities are mobilised through participation in a sustained collaborative project between teachers and educational researchers in Mexico. Drawing on a dialogical approach to identity, we conducted a longitudinal study over two and a half years with three teachers working in different educational and sociocultural contexts. Data comprised semi-structured interviews and a recorded face-to-face deliberative session, analysed across three stages of collaboration: co-situation, co-working and co-production. Findings show that teachers’ motivations and participation were closely connected to their professional trajectories, school contexts and commitments to students. As collaboration developed, recognition of teachers’ voices created opportunities for different I-positions to be expressed, recognised and negotiated. Rather than indicating a transition from one professional identity to another, the findings show how particular I-positions became salient through participation and collective decision-making. The study highlights identity mobilisation as a relevant dimension of sustained teacher–researcher collaboration in teacher education.