Bumpy moments considered as critical incidents in dialogue: professional identity of technical VET-teachers

Technology students need strong vocational education that supports both cognitive and career development in order to be adequately prepared for highly qualified jobs. The professional identity and underlying I-positions of teachers largely determine whether the quality of teach-ing meets these requirements. In an in-depth study we explored the professional identity of teachers working in technical VET. Bumpy moments as indicated by eleven teachers were dis-cussed and analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that teachers largely identified bumpy moments relating to their pedagogical content knowledge. Most teachers in the technical domain predominantly reflected an I-position as being a professional expert. We conclude that the dominant focus on pedagogical content knowledge legitimises professionalisation in favour of cognitive development and the career development of young-sters. By incorporating dialogue derived from the flower model can help teachers to better un-derstand their professional identity, determining the quality of vocational education.