Un voyage initiatique au Kenya : De l’expérience personnelle au renouvellement de ma pratique d’accompagnateur

Abstract

This qualitative narrative research seeks to explore the impact of my experience as co-director of an international field experience project in rural schools in Kenya, on my professional identity. The purpose of this study is to understand how my experience as supervisor of Education students, completing a teaching practicum in the Massai Mara in Kenya, has shaped my ever-evolving professional identity. As I reflected on the powerful moments, experienced during three field experience projects in Kenya, identified as 'stories to live by' (Connelly and Clandinin, 2000), it became clear my 'teacher identity' had shifted. As I analyzed the 'stories', the phenomenon of cross-cultural education, the power of creating communities of 'otherness' and the power of experience emerged. It is my hope that those reading this study will be encouraged, either to begin or to continue to think about how their 'own stories' are shaping their professional identity. I want to continue my journey in the field of professional identity, pursuing opportunities to dialogue about the issues I have come to believe are fundamental to the professional well - being of educators.