This paper focuses on how female academics in UK universities use dress to construct their professional identity. The paper draws on the current literature on dress, body and academic identity and uses a theoretical framework of Goffman's work of performance and Bourdieu's concepts of cultural capital and habitus to explore these women's attempts…

As teacher identity construction is "a complex matter of the social and individual, of discourse and practice, of reification and participation, of similarity and difference, of agency and structure, of fixity and transgression, of the singular and the multiple" (Clarke, 2009), this study explores the connection between the personal and…

Teacher professional identity has been widely investigated in second/foreign language (L2) research in the past decade. However, the identity conflicts that English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers with various teaching experiences face in their profession has been mostly neglected. Moreover, the way such conflicts shape L2 teachers' identity…

This article explores academics' appearance and gendered performativites in the neoliberal university. Institutions' demands for academics to form scholarly identities on campus and online reproduce and legitimise traditional workplace discrimination on the bases of gender, race, class, and the body in new ways. Based on data collected as part of…

Although there has been some success with programmes that aim to increase STEM involvement by women and underserved minorities, science educators continue to seek ways to promote students' interest in STEM. This study builds on social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and the theory of enclothed cognition to assess the impact of wearing lab coats on…

The paper seeks to demonstrate how societal constructions and gender policing inform male teachers' identities in the schooling context of Foundation phase teaching in South Africa. This is a phase that has been historically dominated by women and is often regarded as a 'women only' space. The study was conducted using a case study methodology and…

The purpose of this study was to critically analyse the perspectives of physical trainers and fitness instructors in relation to their body image, professional practice, and the consumer culture. Fourteen fitness professionals (8 personal trainers, 6 fitness instructors), between 28-37 years of age, volunteered to participate in the study. The…

This article makes a case for bringing in the body from the margins of research on teacher education. In doing so, it considers the personal and socio cultural issues reported by seventeen pre-service teachers (PSTs), who are part of a one-year post graduate diploma in post-primary teaching, when learning to embody and fashion teacher identity.…

In the current Canadian neo-liberal labour market work-related learning and training are considered key strategies for developing workers' economic productivity and expediting their integration to the labour market. An important aspect of such training and learning now consists of soft-skills. Yet, some scholars are ambivalent about the nature of…

Because professionalism in early childhood education and care (ECEC) is measured by standards relating to caring, men in the field are often held to expectations associated with female behaviors. This research examines the tensions arising from this encounter and explores alternative solutions which male ECEC workers around the world have…

Though researcher dilemmas are not new to the pages of "Qualitative Inquiry," we argue that the current contemporary context has both altered and intensified issues associated with conducting qualitative research within sites most affected by more recent social, political, and economic shift. Navigating such sites as researchers poses…

This essay reveals the importance of investigating mundane internal documents, particularly when considering muted rhetors, who may use such texts strategically in an attempt to subvert the status quo. It does so by examining the first and second women presidents of NCTE and their efforts to professionalize the organization and to strengthen the…

This article discusses the complexities associated with adopting a not-knowing stance in Child and Youth Care practice. By highlighting some of the challenges, it also clarifies the distinctions between practitioner lack of knowing how to proceed and an intentional, uncertain attitude when working with children, youth and families. Recommendations…

This paper reports on research from a small-scale project investigating the vocational training of students in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) in England. We draw on data from interviews with 42 students and five tutors in order to explore the students' understandings of professionalism in early years. In the paper, we discuss first, the…

In addition to imbuing students with traditional field based knowledge, faculty in colleges of business administration have increasingly been asked to instill a sense of professionalism in students. Faculty members are, at the least, expected to bring a sense of professionalism to the classroom, and it is understood that this starts with…