I Am Out with Lanterns, Looking for Myself: Influences on Early Childhood Professional Teacher Identity Development

This dissertation study seeks to understand the stories ECE educators tell themselves about themselves and what impacts these stories. It also seeks to make visible the role that metaphor plays in ECE educators' understanding of their shifting identities. Research questions explored in this study were: What influences the stories ECE educators tell themselves about themselves? What influences shifts in ECE educator identity? What symbols and metaphors do ECE educators use to make sense of their identities? Using a phenomenological case study method, four ECE educators participating in a state university emerging leaders program were surveyed, interviewed individually, and interviewed in a focus group to collect data on how they talk about and make sense of their identities. A transformative feminist lens was employed in data analysis, with vignettes being written and shared back with the participants as part of the data collection and analysis process. Three primary findings were identified: Misalignment between participant and society's image of young children Differences between participant and society's image of ECE educators Care pedagogy is a stance ECE educators lean into, while it is devalued by society Sherman and Teemant’s (2021) agentive triangle was used as the framework to make sense of the data. It helped make visible what and who impacts the stories ECE educators tell themselves about themselves and why these stories matter. Policy and research implications are discussed.