Becoming a teacher is more complex than acquiring knowledge and skills. Teaching is an interpersonal vocation, where one must relate with students while helping them understand and apply the material. Since the 1980s, educational researchers have been exploring teacher identity, a philosophical and psychological construct to help teachers make sense of their roles. This study explored how teacher identity might be useful for volunteer teachers in the church.
Teacher identity is an ongoing, dynamic process where the teacher in conjunction with individual personality and teaching and social contexts makes sense of his or her teaching. Notable researchers include Alsup (2006) and Danielewicz (2001). Researchers have debated whether teacher identity is fixed or fluid, formed individually or as part of a group (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). Overall, this study seems to indicate that teacher identity should be stable, but not static, and that both individual contexts and social contexts are important. Critical reflection, inspired by Dewey (1910) and Schön (1983), is the main strategy used to foster teacher identity development.
Teacher identity holds promise for Christian educators to facilitate deep reflection on what it means to be a teacher in the body of Christ. Being a teacher in the church involves a relationship with Jesus Christ and His body, and a call to help the members of the body grow in Christian maturity. However, teacher identity needs to be grounded in a Christian worldview by recognizing the place of truth, the reality of the soul, and the Scriptures as authoritative. Thus, a model for Christ-based teacher identity was proposed to help teachers understand their role in the church. The central, essential core is the person's relationship with Jesus Christ and His body. The framing concept is the call to teach in the body of Christ with confirmation from the body of Christ. Within the model, four major categories interact in the formation and continual refinement of a Christ-based teacher identity: growth in faith, growth in stewardship of gifting, growth in experience of teaching, and uniqueness of the teacher. Building on the model, curricular suggestions were also made for congregations.