Narratives of Teachers With Long Years of Experience: What Does It Mean to Be a Teacher in Ethiopia?

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the overall pattern of the development of the professional
identity of teachers in Ethiopia based on the lives of those teachers with long years of
experience. A narrative research design was employed to uncover the lives of these teachers
and draw implications. The participant teachers were purposely selected because they have
devoted their entire lives to and seem to enjoy the profession within unfavorable conditions of
Addis Ababa in particular and Ethiopia in general, where the rate of turnover and quit
intention has been alarmingly rising. The data from the interview were transcribed and
examined using narrative analysis. It was found that the poor understanding and
consideration of the very nature of teaching made the majority of the novice teachers lack the
desire for professional identity and distracted at the early years of their teaching career by
the schools’ micro politics, social judgments and reactions. This implies that the very nature
of the profession needs to be explicitly addressed in teacher education, induction and
continuous professional development so that prospective teachers develop the desired
professional identity.