4.2.2. Changes in understanding of professionalism
In particular we were interested if, through teachers' involvement
in the project, their understanding of professionalism had
changed. The results of our study indicate that teachers' concepts
did not change so much, but that they primarily became more
aware and conscious of their own professionalism. Even inviting
the teachers to compare their word webs during the interviews
confirmed that their concepts hardly changed. However becoming
more conscious was in particular mentioned by the participating
secondary school teachers. In their explanation of what precisely
they had become more aware of it appeared that they had started to
connect the dimensions of professionalism to their CE teaching
practice, for example their role as CE teacher: “I've become more
conscious of my own role, being an example for my students, and I
realize I've started to pay more attention to it during my teaching”
(secondary education teacher of social studies). Teachers emphasized
they started to reflect on their roles and what teaching CE
demands of their professionalism: “I started to reflect on and
evaluate more what I'm doing, like I did this and this, but does it
help/contribute?” (secondary education teacher of history). “I've