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"The construction of identities uses building materials from history, from geography, from biology, from productive and reproductive institutions, from collective memory and from personal fantasies, from power apparatuses and religious revelations. But individuals, social groups, and societies process all these materials, and rearrange their meaning, according to social determinations and cultural projects that are rooted in their social structure, and in their space/time framework."

Castells, M. 1997. The power of identity. Oxford: Blackwell.



Welcome to my blog Constructing  Teacher Identity. Here you will be able to read about my new journey into learning how to teach. I will try and reflect on the process of learning about education, pedagogy as well as the act of teaching itself.

When I first started my studies at the university of Jyväskylä many, many years ago, I was determined never to become a teacher. Why is it that I remember that vow so well right now? First lesson learned; never say never.

The greatest impetus and inspiration for my newly found desire to become a teacher comes from teenagers, more specifically IB students at the Sotkamo High School. I have gotten to know many of them now in my current job of international relations coordinator and have realized how gratifying it can be to acces those young minds through teaching. Call me naive or an incurable romantic, I just may want to make a difference through constructing my teacher identity.


I am priviliged in being able to take part in the vocational teacher education in Oulu. I am equally privileged in being able to call myself a member of our very competent iVet 2013 group Dewey!

This is the first task given to the Deweys; What is TLA?

Group Dewey Task:

Teaching activities -> learning activities (TLA)

Define TLA :
University of Hong Kong Office of Education Development and Gateway Education definition is:
"These are simply any activity which stimulates, encourages or facilitates learning of one or more intended learning outcomes. The emphasis is on the word activity and it is important to ensure that the TLA is appropriate for the intended learning outcome and any subsequent assessment tasks-see Constructive Alignment section. Therefore, TLA's should be specifically aimed at activating the action verbs used in the ILO's. They can be as diverse as lectures, field trips, role play, internships, exchanges, discussions etc. The only limits are your imagination and creativity!"

Opetus- ja oppimisteko (TLA in Finnish)

Jyväskylän yliopisto, Koppa:
Karjalainen, A. 1997