Finding connections in social identity and post-structuralist perspectives

One of the interesting challenges in the recent edited book on Self and Social Identity  in Educational contexts was the final chapter: The social construction of teachers’ identities: finding connections in social identity and post-structuralist perspectives by Emma Rich, Kenneth I. Mavor and Louisa Webb. 

what we tried to do in this chapter was find some common ground between these approaches

Educational research involves a rich heritage of methodological perspectives including a more sociological social psychology (such as symbolic interactionism) and Foucauldian post-structuralist approaches.  In a collaboration across the potential gulf of method, what we tried to do in this chapter was find some common ground between these approaches and the social identity / self-categorisation approach, exploring the case of teacher identities as the case study for exploration.

The chapter also included a personal element because the conversations that started the exploration of they dialogue across traditions was started by Ken Mavor and his sister Louisa (Webb) before her death from Cancer in 2011.  The chapter started with those discussions and then progressed as a collaboration between Ken Mavor and Emma Rich, a close friend and colleague of Louisa Webb. With that history the chapter could be no more than a start to dialogue, but we hope that it gives researchers a glimpse of common ground across the chasm that often separates researchers in different traditions.