Table Of ContentObserving Teacher Identities through
Video Analysis
“What a valuable contribution this volume makes. It shows teacher educators how
productive interactional awareness can be built and why it’s worth the trouble. As the
authors point out, discourse analysis is difficult and tedious work, yet key to teachers
decomposing and improving their practice. By integrating theories and methods cen-
tral to the creation of egalitarian, dialogic classrooms, without over-complicating or
over-simplifying, the authors show us how to give teachers constructive tools for their
pedagogical growth and regeneration.”—Lesley A. Rex, University of Michigan, USA
“The authors offer compelling research that can help novice and practicing teach-
ers explore their transactions with students and what these say about who they are as
teachers and who they wish to be. This book provides the tools—theories of identity
construction and video analysis techniques—to begin the deeply reflective process
of how to be better teachers to all students and particularly those in non-dominant
communities.”—Althier Lazar, Saint Joseph’s University, USA
“In their study of how preservice English teachers use identity as a lens to examine
video recordings of their teaching, Vetter and Schieble provide a valuable approach for
teacher educators to facilitate future teachers’ awareness of classroom discourse.”—
Robert Petrone, Montana State University, USA
Teaching is often seen as an identity process, with teachers constructing and enacting
their identities through daily interactions with students, parents, and colleagues. This
volume explores how conducting video analysis helps teachers gain valuable perspec-
tives on their own identities and improve classroom practice over time. This form of
interactional awareness fosters reflection and action on creating classroom conditions
that encourage equitable learning.
The volume follows preservice English teachers as they examine video records of their
practice during student teaching, and how the evidence impacts their development as lit-
eracy teachers of diverse adolescents. By applying an analytic framework to video analysis,
the authors demonstrate how novice teachers use positioning theory to transform their
own identity performance in the classroom. Education scholars, teachers, and professional
developers will greatly benefit from this unique perspective on teacher identity work.
Amy Vetter is Associate Professor of English Education at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, USA.
Melissa Schieble is Assistant Professor of English Education at Hunter
College of the City University of New York, USA.
Routledge Research in Teacher Education
The Routledge Research in Teacher Education series presents the latest
research on Teacher Education and also provides a forum to discuss the lat-
est practices and challenges in the field.
Books in the series include:
Preparing Classroom Teachers to Succeed with Second Language Learners
Lessons from a Faculty Learning Community
Edited by Thomas H. Levine, Elizabeth R. Howard, and David M. Moss
Interculturalization and Teacher Education
Theory to Practice
Cheryl A. Hunter, Donna K. Pearson and A. Renee Gutiérrez
Community Fieldwork in Teacher Education
Theory and Practice
Heidi L. Hallman and Melanie N. Burdick
Portrait of a Moral Agent Teacher
Teaching Morally and Teaching Morality
Gillian R. Rosenberg
Observing Teacher Identities Through Video Analysis
Practice and Implications
Amy Vetter and Melissa Schieble
Observing Teacher Identities
Through Video Analysis
Practice and Implications
Amy Vetter and Melissa Schieble
First published 2016
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Amy Vetter and Melissa Schieble to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vetter, Amy A., author.
Observing teacher identities through video analysis : practice and
implications / by Amy Vetter and Melissa Scheible.
pages cm. — (Routledge research in teacher education)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Observation (Educational method) 2. Teachers—Training of—
Audio-visual aids. 3. Teachers—In-service training—Audio-visual aids.
4. Video tapes in education. 5. Teaching. I. Scheible, Melissa, author.
II. Title.
LB1731.6.V48 2016
370.71'1—dc23 2015017307
ISBN: 978-1-138-83171-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73644-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
This book is dedicated to all of the extraordinary educators
who are mindful of their students’ needs and who develop their
practice based on those necessities.
We also dedicate this book to the support of our families.
In particular, we are thankful for the two babies born while
writing this book—Max and Della.
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 1
2 Identity and Positionality: A Framework for Video
Analysis of Teaching 10
3 Positions of Power 32
4 Positions of Advocacy 54
5 Positions of Facilitative Teaching 74
6 Positions of Critical and Racial Literacy 94
7 Implications for Identity Work and Video Analysis
in Teacher Education 114
Appendix A: Video Analysis Assignment 127
Bibliography 129
Index 137
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Acknowledgments
This book is the result of both formal and informal learning from colleagues
and students interested in and/or resistant to becoming more aware of their
practice. Because both Amy and Melissa come from an English background,
the study of words is a challenging and inspiring practice. Thus, at the Lit-
eracy Research Association (LRA) conference in 2010, we discussed the idea
of trying out a video assignment that asked preservice teachers to engage
in discourse analysis of classroom interaction. Since then, we have been
making sense of those analysis assignments and have grown significantly as
teacher educators because of them.
With that said, we would like to thank our preservice teachers who
allowed us to study their assignments and class discussions. We realize how
vulnerable it can be to video record and analyze your first lessons. Because
of your courage to delve into such rigorous work, we know that the readers
of this book will learn more about how to become mindful of interactions
and the ways in which they impact teacher and student identities. Because
of your dedication, we have improved our own practice and learned more
about what it means to foster the identity work of teacher candidates in a
teacher education program.
We also want to acknowledge the mentorship of our candidates’ coop-
erating teachers. Without their support and encouragement, our preservice
teachers would not have the opportunity to try on various teacher identi-
ties before diving into their full-time career. Thank you for teaching them
how to negotiate teacher identities in ways that best cultivate the reader
and writer identities of the youth they teach. Along with acknowledgment
of the cooperating teachers, we must say thanks for the patience and hon-
esty of the students within those classrooms who allowed us to record their
interactions. We cannot learn how to improve instruction without involving
students.
Thanks to our colleagues over the past several years who reminded us
to be mindful of our classroom interactions. In particular, thanks to Beth
Maloch for introducing Amy to classroom discourse and discourse analysis
during her studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Thanks to our col-
leagues at the Discourse Analysis Study Group at LRA (Melissa Wetzel,
Julie Justice, and Christine Mallozzi) who helped us analyze several of these
