ABSTRACT
Teachers’ professional identities matter. Unsurprisingly, the onset and spread of COVID-19 impacted how teachers constructed their ideas of ‘how to be’, ‘how to understand’ and how to enact their work. This chapter begins by considering how self-efficacy and agency shaped these teachers’ identities. It then examines the emotional nature of teachers’ work during the pandemic, recognising how emotions influenced the way teachers understood their role. Finally, it considers how teachers’ feelings towards and experiences with pupils they considered to be ‘disadvantaged’ played a significant part in the formation of their professional identities. Teacher self-efficacy requires a belief that one can positively influence pupil outcomes which then shapes the actions teachers do or do not choose to take, the amount of effort and time they invest in their chosen actions and, depending on whether they achieve their desired outcomes, their sense of achievement. Professional identities are permeated, as much teaching is, by emotions.
