På uppdrag av professionen : skildringar av förstelärares narrativa identiteter

Narrative identity refers to the interconnected web of stories forged by individuals to explain life. These stories are permeated with values and work as resources for the self during role transitions, in a constant flux of construction and revision. By analyzing the accounts of acting *förstelärare this study explores how a professional self is negotiated within a hero’s relational setting, this in order to challenge stereotypes and contradictions in teacher identities. In 2013 the Swedish Government introduced a career reform aimed to attract, and promote the conservation of, high-performing teachers in schools, and thus was the category *förstelärare (’first teacher’) introduced. Drawing on socio-constructive and pragmatic theories of identity, this paper aims to highlight nine individual *first teachers’ representations of experience as a means to consider and reflect upon the complexity of the teaching profession in a late modern society. Ultimately the qualitative analysis identifies the ways *first teachers subconsciously use the hero’s narrative as a tool to discursively negotiate a professional identity