Role Identities in Narratives: Continuing the Story

This forum provides us with helpful resources to continue our thinking about the important issue of shifting identities for teachers in transition. As we read these accounts, both similar and different aspects attended by each of the contributors fascinated us. We were intrigued to read how they interpreted our work and related our narrative of Tanya’s transition to their own stories of transition and the literature related to identities, particularly for female scientists. Karen Phillips found that Tanya’s experiences mirrored several aspects of her own transition from chemist to university teacher, and recognized that she tells different stories in different contexts. While Tanya’s revelation of negative reactions from her former (female) colleague echoed loudly for Michael Bowen, a former field biologist, he did not perceive a difference in status between teaching and his biological work in the field. This he attributed to his family background and his work with the public. After reading Susan Kirch’s critique we wonder how gender might account for the different transitions experienced by Michael and Tanya. Collectively, the forum has helped us become more wakeful (see Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) or aware of how readers might resonate with the stories told