By using narratives, the book opens up a ‘conversation’ about this important topic. Educators and leaders from a variety of settings will explore their professional experiences and the impact these have had on forming values in the professional role. By drawing on personal experience, individual authors will consider some of the challenges they have encountered as part of identity formation. The significance of organisational cultures is discussed throughout the book and explores the ways in which individual autonomy is both threatened and claimed. Issues discussed include the frequent changes imposed through government initiatives and the social perception of education professionals when compared to other professional roles.

Contributions have been drawn from teachers and leaders in schools, colleges, universities and specialist training. Chapter authors have a variety of experiences offering a multi-perspective approach. This will include strategic leadership, operational management and classroom practice, all of which offer insights of interest to educators at various points on the professional journey. The narrative approach adopted by authors provides the opportunity for readers to engage with others’ experiences, enabling personal reflection on their own professional identity. 

Chapter 1. Editors’ Introduction.- Chapter 2. Reflecting on the identity of the teaching profession:  time for some higher status?.- Chapter 3. The researcher as inter-disciplinarian: a reflection on professional identity in a specialised world.- Chapter 4. Identity and leadership in education.- Chapter 5. “Making more of a difference”: The creation of teachers’ identities as professionals who deal with disadvantage.- Chapter 6. Managing and implementing educational-technological change – a case for co-development.- Chapter 7. A Democratic View of Professional Development in HE.- Chapter 8. When to show the way, when to lead the way and when to step away – Exploring the roles and identities of Teacher Educators in Post-Compulsory Education.- Chapter 9. The invisible educators.- Chapter 10. Some thoughts and reflections on identity, teaching, and writing, and how they might affect one another.- Chapter 11. Reinterpreting the ‘professional’-isation of outdoor education in the context of higher education.- Chapter 12. Beyond “paraprofessional”: Empowering and equipping teaching assistants to develop a sense of identity.- Chapter 13. Identity in the ‘Impossible Professions’.- Chapter 14. Final Thoughts.