‘Social Science Teacher? Anyone Can Become’: Examining Professional Subject Identity of Social Science Teachers in India

Abstract

Teacher identity can serve as an important lens to examine the way teachers traverse the various demands made of them by policymakers and stakeholders in the school system, with their own perspectives of self and their work. Official narratives and curriculum documents lead to the construction of a public identity and what it means to be a ‘good teacher’ in a broad and generic sense. However, much less attention is paid to teachers’ biographical accounts of their professional identity, from a stance as practitioners of a specific subject, and their lived experiences, thereof. This article reports on a qualitative study undertaken as a pilot project for a doctoral dissertation, where six social science teachers from Mumbai and Bangalore, participated in three online focus group discussions. The framework used to analyse the data is Goffman’s dramaturgical theory of impression management. Findings reveal that social science teachers present their professional identity using reified expressions of competence, idealise social science as a subject, and seek validation of their status as teachers of a nonutility subject. These are discussed in the context of recently proposed educational reforms in India, with the recommendation that policymakers must take cognizance of this fragile sense of subject identity and an acute sense of disempowerment facing social science teachers, who are not averse to accountability measures per se, to enhance their standing.