Key Takeaways from the SOP Event, ‘Shaping Teacher Identity: Thriving in a Changing World’

Shaping Teacher Identity: Thriving in a Changing World

This year’s SOP Tweedaagse centred on the theme of Shaping Teacher Identity: Thriving in a Changing World. Through a series of workshops, participants were invited to explore how teacher identity is continuously formed and reformed through reflection, professional practice, collaboration, and changing educational contexts.

Janneke Waelen, Director of the VU Centre for Teaching and Learning, began with a keynote which challenged us to consider teacher identity as being more than a role, qualification, or set of competencies. Bateson and Dilts’ levels of learning and change help explain why competencies alone rarely lead to lasting transformation: sustainable changes in practice depend on deeper shifts in beliefs and identity. These emerge not only from teachers’ personal histories but also through their relationships with students and colleagues.

Across the keynote and workshops, participants reflected on what shapes them as educators, how they continue to grow throughout their careers, and how communities and institutions can support this ongoing development.

Workshops on Teacher Identity

Following the keynote, participants were able to choose from a wide range of workshops. A selection of three workshops is summarised below.

Embodiment of the Leary Model: Exploring Teacher-Student Dynamics through Movement by Sibel Telli & Karin Smit, Utrecht University

This workshop introduced participants to the Model for Interpersonal Teacher Behaviour (MITB), an adaptation of Leary’s Model specifically designed to understand teacher–student interactions. Instead of learning about the model through theory alone, participants explored positions within the MITB through role improvisation. By physically enacting different interaction styles, they experienced the impact of teacher behaviour in inviting particular student responses.

💡Key Takeaway

The workshop’s central message was simple but powerful: behaviour triggers behaviour. In other words, the way a teacher positions themselves—whether verbally or physically—shapes how students are likely to respond. Rather than discussing this principle abstractly, participants experienced it directly by stepping into different positions within the model and responding to realistic classroom situations.

This approach is grounded in the idea of embodied learning, which views learning as more than a purely cognitive process. Physical movement, sensory experience, spatial awareness, and interaction with others all contribute to understanding. By making interpersonal dynamics tangible, the workshop offered practical inspiration for helping educators explore classroom interactions, reflect on their own behavioural tendencies, and better understand how their actions influence student behaviour.

Developing a teaching identity in the workplace: the GO credential as a tool for better guidance and development by Yolanda Koevoets, VU Amsterdam 

The GO (Growth in Education) credential is a national quality mark for higher education programmes which provide strong guidance and development opportunities for new lecturers. In development since 2022, the credential recognises programmes which invest systematically in onboarding, mentoring, peer learning and professional growth. The workshop combined the broader vision behind the credential with practical experiences from Human Movement Sciences, the first programme in the Netherlands to receive the GO credential.

A significant proportion of new lecturers enter higher education with little formal preparation for teaching, learning the profession largely on the job. At the same time, national reports indicate that many early-career teachers do not receive sufficient support during this critical phase of their development. The GO credential invites programmes to shift their attention from individual teacher development to the broader educational environment in which that development takes place.

But what do effective support structures actually look like in practice?

Using the Bachelor’s programme in Human Movement Sciences as a real-life example, the workshop offered concrete insights into creating a supportive ecosystem for early-career lecturers through:

• Comprehensive onboarding programmes
• Mentoring by experienced colleagues
• Intervision around authentic teaching cases
• Classroom observations
• Buddy systems
• Structured development plans
• Protected time for professional growth

Guiding principles for educational communities

This workshop focused on a challenge many educational networks face: how to remain active beyond the enthusiasm of the first few months. A particularly interesting (evaluation) tool is the COMPASS (Community Mapping and Perception Assessment System), a gamified instrument designed to help communities assess where they are and identify opportunities for growth.

The framework encourages communities to reflect on three key questions:

1. How do we see ourselves as a community?
2. How do we work?
3. Where are we going?

The discussion prompts were carefully designed based on previous research into educational communities, including a model that identifies common features and dynamics of sustained educational communities (see below). This research highlights that thriving educational communities are built on a shared vision, opportunities for collaborative learning, and supporting infrastructures.

When Are the Next SOP Days, and How Can I Take Part?

The next SOP Day will take place in the Fall of 2026, hosted by the Open University in the Hague! If you would like to be part of the SOP-community and join us during the next SOP day(s), keep an eye out for further details regarding EHON’s future events on their website! Please note that, to register for the SOP day, a yearly EHON membership is required.