Professional identities and literacy practices in a specialized educational care (sec) center

Abstract

This study aims to understand how professional identities in a SEC Center for disabled students are constructed in the context of the professional relationships between educators and therapeutic groups. Understanding that these relationships are influenced by literacy practices relating to the several professional areas represented in the institution and by literacy events (HEATH, 1983; BARTON, 2009) and considering that literacy practices are deeply related to the identities of the people who practice them, I work here with Gee’s approach (2000 – 2001, 2003) that features four types of identities that are complex and meaningfully interrelated in the various everyday contexts people face. The data derived from my ongoing ethnographic research. Data analysis suggests that professional identities constructed in the SEC Center are different for educators and members of the therapeutic groups. This difference shows an asymmetry in the relationship between the professionals there - which ultimately affect, negatively, attendance.