Wuh-Kwei Hour
Huey-Woan Wang
Grassroots Teachers’ Association
This article is to explore educational workers’ empirical experience. The experiences of the development of Grassroots Teachers’ Association are described, and the process of women teachers’ collective identity is explained. The significance of Grassroots Teachers’ Association consists not in elitism or individualism, rather it is found in the consciousness and action of “women” “teachers,” who formed the collective progress and a challenge on the traditional system. Through the story-telling of a teacher who at first alienated from other, and then gradually owned back her role of a teacher, made contact with other teachers, and finally shaped collective identity among different teachers, this article clearly depicts the development of the teachers’ organization. The teachers’ collective identity can only be formed through the awakening of women consciousness, group assistance and action research methodology, restoration of teachers’ professional autonomy, contact with other teachers, respect in each other, and promotion of the implementation capability of action research. The present article offers a new perspective of “collective teachers” instead of the traditional idea of “individual teacher” on the issues of teachers’ dilemma and identification.
Keywords: women teacher, collective identity, educational praxis