Self-Blossoming: an Approach to Understanding the Identity Construction in Some Teachers From Medellin

Abstract

This article is result of the research “Self-blossoming: An approach to understandingthe identity construction in some teachers from Medellin” which explored multiple possibilitiesfor blossoming in six teachers of public and private institutions from Medellin.The research pretended to reflect about the teacher as subject in an educational environmentthat has become more instrumentalist, forgetting one of the main aspects ofeducation: The prevalence of human. Self-blossoming is presented as a possibility torecognize teachers, their identity and their role as authors of their own biography, inthe frame of an education for transformation and self-care as path in order to understandand undertake the care of others. The research was carried out through a comprehensiveinvestigation model, with a hermeneutic- phenomenological approach, asself-blossoming is an event of plural nature lived by a single subject. The participantsin the research where six teachers of different educational institutions from Medellin,with diverse degree levels and teaching areas, chosen by a focal group. Narrativeswere the path in order to access the symbolic world and to approach the multipleways in which self-blossoming is undertaken. Therefore, we expect to comprehendthe identity configuration and the possibilities of its blossoming. The following authorswere taken into account: Katya Mandoki, Charles Taylor, Hélena Béjar, Michael Foucault,among others. Our main findings are related to identity in three basic aspects:Being a teacher to have a place in the world, identity as good aspiration and moralhorizon, and finally, identity configured in recognition relations.