The Effect of Professional Identity on Increasing Teaching Motivation for Mathematics Teachers

Introduction

The professional identity of the mathematics teacher is immensely important, as it impacts their ability to motivate students to learn and make progress in Mathematics. With a strong sense of self-identity and self-efficacy, educators can be empowered to create a learning experience built on engaging activities and purposeful curriculum that encourage students to develop their knowledge and skills.

Professional identity is one of the key elements in developing teaching performance, considering that literature indicates that the teacher’s beliefs have an impact on his teaching performance and student achievement. The teacher's professional identity is significant as it is a focal point for the beliefs, values, ​​and practices that guide teachers' participation, commitment, and actions inside and outside the classroom. The teacher’s professional identity is related to his desire to integrate innovations in teaching, growth, and development in a changing professional environment. The professional identity is the corner stone of the teaching profession as it provides teachers with a framework that includes building their ideas, perceptions, and visions of (how to be), (how to work and perform) and (how to understand) their tasks and their position in the society (Jiang et al, 2021; Lynch, D., et al., 2020; Willis, R, et al., 2021).

Professional identity is described as a teacher's view of himself as an expert of the academic subject content, an expert in teaching, and an educational expert. It is also the teacher's sense of himself through the roles he plays inside and outside the school, and through the knowledge, skills, and educational competencies he acquires in addition to his commitment to the values and ethics of his profession. Additionally, it’s how an individual becomes a mathematics teacher and belongs to the teaching profession. It also includes career growth paths. The teacher’s professional identity is a continuous process of integration between the personal and professional aspects for becoming and continuing to be a teacher. The formation of professional identity is influenced by some factors, such as: teaching context, environment, and experience, as well as the teacher's CV (Lynch, D., et al., 2020; Willis, R, et al., 2021; Yeigh, T., et al., 2022).

Some teachers’ professional organizations issued professional standard documents that support the efforts of the teacher’s professionalism, help him be professional and able to fulfill his profession cognitively, skillfully, and emotionally, in addition to making him an outstanding professional. In general, these efforts support forming and developing the mathematics teacher’ professional identity.

Therefore, it is important to pursue studying the concept professional identity for its impact on the teacher’s work, and to link the clarity of the teacher’s professional identity and his desire to leave or continue in the teaching profession, Moreover, the teacher’s understanding of his professional identity may help in predicting his willingness to leave the teaching profession through the inverse relationship between them, and that there is a positive relationship between the clarity of the teacher’s professional identity and his desire to support educational reform; teachers who have a clear professional identity have a clear desire to contribute to areas of educational reform. In addition, the professional identity builds an atmosphere of cooperation and harmony between the teachers in schools, and a good awareness of the teacher’s professional identity that contributes to the student learning process through the teacher’s knowledge of the roles required in facilitating and supporting students’ learning (Lynch, D., et al., 2020; Willis, R, et al., 2021).