Who Am I? Understanding High School Computer Science Teachers' Professional Identity

Quality computer science (CS) teachers are critical for secondary computing education. In addition to increasing the number of high school (HS) CS teachers, there is a great need for supporting those teachers to grow and stay as committed, effective teachers. Recent literature on teacher education suggests that teachers' sense of commitment and (other aspects of) teaching profession is tightly linked with their teacher identity. However, the current educational system in the U.S. does not provide typical contexts for teachers to build a sense of identity as CS teachers. This study is intended to gain an initial understanding of CS teachers' perceptions about their own professional identity and potential factors that might contribute to these perceptions. Our findings indicate that current HS teachers teaching CS courses do not necessarily identify themselves as CS teachers. They have different perceptions related to CS teaching. Four kinds of factors can contribute to these perceptions: teachers' educational background and certification, CS curriculum and department hierarchy, availability of CS teacher community, and teachers' perceptions about the field of CS.