Early childhood education in Chile

Early childhood education in Chile is a consolidated educational level and has legal recognition and a specialized institutional framework (^{Mineduc, 2019}), and is governed by principles and guidelines framed in a national curriculum specific to the level (Mineduc, 2016). The objective of this educational level is to provide, in conjunction with the family, quality learning through various agencies and institutions, complementing family education (^{Mineduc, 2017}). In this sense, a timely and relevant intervention by the teaching staff is essential to enhance child development, providing affective bonds and enriching experiences (^{Mineduc, 2017}).

Early childhood education in Chile is organized into three distinct levels with specific sublevels (Mineduc, 2016). The first level is the Sala Cuna, divided into Sala Cuna Menor (85 days to one year old) and Sala Cuna Mayor (1 to 2 years). The second level is the Middle Level, which is subdivided into Minor Middle (2 to 3 years) and Major Middle (3 to 4 years). The third level is the Transition Level, which ranges from 4 to 6 years of age and is divided into the First Transition Level (4 years) and Second Transition Level (5 to 6 years). In addition, there is the possibility of forming heterogeneous groups, where children from different levels are grouped, either in the nursery or in the middle and transition levels (Mineduc, 2016). Since 2013, the Second Transition Level is mandatory to enter primary education (^{Mineduc, 2017}).

In kindergarten education, educators have a 4 or 5 year-university degree and work in classroom teams with other educators, generally with technical level studies, and focus on curricular activities that can be conducted both in the classroom and outdoors, using play as a learning strategy (^{Mineduc, 2018}). The didactic material and the playful role of tangible resources are fundamental for the learning process of children, encouraging exploration and experience of the world.

Professional identity in early childhood education

Following ^{Arndt et al. (2018)} the professional identities of early childhood teachers are shaped, influenced and (re)shaped by theories, systems and political agendas. The above implies that the lived experience of gender, pay and recognition, quality assurance, student success, and nation-state construction are linked to teacher identity construction (^{Arndt et al., 2018}).

In the research by ^{Fairchild and Mikuska (2021)}, it is realized that emotional labour and professionalism are aspects of tension when generating improvements in the pedagogical work in early childhood education. Emotional work in early childhood education is defined by ^{Davis and Degotardi (2015)} as those expectations that teachers have in building relationships based on affection with young children and how these bonds are articulated in their professional identities.

According to ^{Pinzón (2016)}, women have been traditionally related to the role of caregiver, so their identity would be involved in all those situations that require a domestic, “private” space, where teaching is associated with motherhood. In this sense, ^{Dalli (2002)} showed in her study that early childhood educators in New Zealand conceived their occupation as a complement to the maternal role. According to her point of view, the knowledge base maintains a socially diffuse distinction with maternal knowledge, i.e., that which mothers rely on to care for their children. Thus, under a humanistic tradition, professionalism in early childhood education is a field under construction, with pedagogy being the backbone of its knowledge base (^{Dalli, 2008}).

In this sense, for ^{Davis and Degotardi (2015)} care is understood as a multidimensional construct inextricably linked to the practices of early childhood educators, being linked to the dominant discourses in which this practice is situated. Her research accounts for the influence of political ideology (as evidenced in curricular documents, for example) on the way care in early childhood education is perceived and put into practice. Another element that contributes to this understanding is the ethics of care, which operates based on social responsibility, in the sense of achieving the well-being of people by making moral decisions that have consequences for the future of the following generations (^{Gilligan, 1985}). This is relevant in early childhood education, where the labour force is predominantly female (99.9%, according to the Subsecretaría Educación Parvularia, 2021), replicating a social construction that exclusively associates women to care work due to a gender bias widely present in societies such as the Chilean one.

In the research conducted in Chile by ^{Poblete (2018)}, it is observed that the vocation of female educators turns teaching work into a transcendent occupation, where there is a generalized self-perception of having the necessary skills to “save” and “rescue” children, based on education, care and personal sacrifice. Thus, the vocational discourse legitimizes the exploitation of professionals, to the point of risking their lives, turning them into martyrs. This kind of experience is identified by ^{Fairchild and Mikuska (2021)} as a “cruel optimism” since vocation is manifested in a context in which teaching work is neither valued nor adequately rewarded. This leads educators to perceive an ambivalent recognition of the role of early childhood education and, in particular, of their work (^{Figueroa-Céspedes et al., 2022a}). This correlates with low salaries and a lack of optimal conditions for teaching performance in early childhood education (^{Arteaga et al., 2018}).

In this sense, the neoliberal discourse emphasizes competition and individualism in teaching, which is highly contradictory to the priorities of early childhood education, where close bonds and activism in favour of children are prioritized (^{Kamenarac, 2019}; ^{Osgood, 2006}). Thus, how educators reconcile the demand of the policy and account, at the same time, for overcoming the contextual conditions that affect their performance, becomes an object of interest for the educational improvement of the level. In this process emerges what ^{Kelchtermans and Vanassche (2017)} understand as micropolitical literacy, an essential skill that allows teachers to “read” situations in terms of competing interests, positions and goals in the educational institution. This skill, according to the authors, is not only limited to the local, as it is also connected to more global issues, such as power structures, discursive hegemonies, and social injustices that impact educational opportunities for children.

Professional identity and the dialogical self-theory

The construction of the professional teaching identity operates in contact with otherness, in a dialogic experience. As ^{Monereo and Pozo (2014)} point out, identity has its origin in interactions with others giving account of an interpretation of a transcendent self-entity in space and time that articulates the self and its contexts of production. Thus, the sociocultural and situated proposal of learning argues that this construction is produced by the interaction between people in the same social context or communities of practice where they develop as future professionals (^{Wenger, 2010}). Thus, in the socialization processes, experiences, historicity and situations of otherness are articulated in discursive, contextualized and learning environments (^{Navarrete-Cazales, 2015}).

A central concept introduced by Bakhtin is the notion of voice (^{Bakhtin, 2010}; ^{Wertsch, 1993}). Bakhtin emphasized that words are neither neutral nor unitary in their meaning and metaphorically pointed out that words have a “particular flavor”, being the “hallmark” of a profession, a genre, or a person. Therefore, when an utterance is strongly intoned, it can be said to be produced by a certain voice (^{Akkerman & Van Eijck, 2013}; ^{Bakhtin, 2010}). A voice can be defined as a speaking personality, which presents a particular perspective on the world as, for example, a positive or critical voice, but also a formal or maternal voice (^{Bakhtin, 2010}). Thus, the representation of ideas in the mind is not shaped by only one voice, but by a plurality of voices that dialogue with each other and originate in the social sphere, in processes of sustained communicative exchanges (^{Wertsch, 1993}).

The dialogic view of identity understands it as discontinuous and multiple, co-constructed in interaction with others and the world, from a process of elaboration of meanings. Linking the concepts of self and dialogue, Hermans’ (2014) theory of the “dialogical self” combines concepts that, traditionally, have been associated with the internal space of the individual mind with the external through relationships with others. The theory is presented as a theory of the “self”, but it addresses the notion of identity directly, with “self” referring to the self as “knower”, and “identity” to that which is known, the self.

It is at this point that dialogical self-theory (^{Hermans, 2001}, ²⁰¹⁴) extends Bakhtin’s theories to describe how the self can be understood as a dialogical self, composed of multiple I-positions in the micro-society of the human mind. The concept of I-positions links Bakhtin’s notion of voice to a person’s identity. Each I-position is driven by its own intentions, expressing a speaking personality with its specific point of view and historicity (^{Akkerman & Van Eijck, 2013}). In this way, the movements of the different positions allow the construction of a personal voice, facilitating the dialogue and, therefore, its possibility of transformation, through processes of positioning, counter-positioning and re-positioning (^{Monereo & Hermans, 2023}). Thus, interactions between voices do not necessarily reveal coherence but may denote contradictions, tensions and coalitions between them (^{Akkerman & Meijer, 2011}; ^{Hermans, 2001}; ^{Monereo & Hermans, 2023}).

According to ^{Salgado and Hermans (2005)}, dialogical self-theory understands that multiplicity does not necessarily deny the existence of a unitary self and that I-positions involve a reflexive process in which other perspectives are considered. For ^{Akkerman and Van Eijck (2013)} dialogical self-theory combines modern and postmodern views on identity, as it more fully captures the concept of identity in borderline contexts, such as those raised in this research by connecting the boundary of the personal and professional world.

Critical incidents

A critical incident (CI) is understood as an unexpected event that is produced by a surprising and challenging situation (^{Del Mastro & Monereo, 2014}) where the professional and interpersonal competencies of the subjects are questioned by requiring effective and innovative responses (^{Nail et al., 2012}). Critical incidents challenge and put those who experience them in crisis, destabilizing their own professional identity (^{Monereo, 2019}).

Critical incidents configure a kind of symptom that allows understanding of teaching needs from the active reflection of such phenomena (Valdés et al., 2012). Following Adams and Rodríguez (²⁰²⁰), taking an experience as a critical incident implies making a value judgment about what we do, implying the attribution of meaning to that event.

For ^{Joshi (2018)}, CIs reveal the teacher’s underlying beliefs and motives, reflecting professional dilemmas (^{Nail et al., 2012}) and identity tensions (^{Pillen et al., 2012}). Thus, according to ^{Sisson (2016)}, CIs contribute to shaping professional identity and agency, allowing learning from these experiences to provide increasingly relevant and strategic responses.

Thus, when faced with situations described as critical incidents, the subject is in a position to elaborate and assume his/her strategic self (^{Monereo & Badía, 2011}), transforming his/her teaching identity by rearticulating the internalized voices of experience, seeking the most relevant positions to address the challenges posed (^{Hermans, 2014}; ^{Monereo, 2019}).

Methodology

The present study adopts a qualitative approach of descriptive-interpretative scope since its guideline is to understand the voices with which experienced early childhood educators position themselves in the face of episodes identified as critical incidents. This research is part of a broader doctoral research of a biographical-narrative nature (^{Riessman, 2008}), since it explores the construction of the professional identity of teachers based on the approach of the memories and stories of early childhood educators.

Information production tools

As an instrument for the production of information, a semi-structured interview of narrative orientation was first used, with a flexible and dynamic script that allows addressing the different stages of their life trajectory (^{Sarceda, 2017}). Subsequently, focused interviews were conducted in which the educators identified relevant situations, qualified as biographical traces (^{Piani, 2019}), which refer to those marks or traces that remain in the life of a person from their experiences and narratives. These narratives are condensed into a biogram to facilitate the organization of the information. The biogram is a delimited and co-constructed life story that collects “the spaces and times that, from the current perspective of the interviewee, have been shaping his life, with the current assessment of each of them” (^{Susinos & Parrilla, 2008}, p. 159), to delve into the description of each event. From these accounts of biographical traces, those transforming experiences that the participants identified as critical incidents are rescued. The interviews were conducted remotely through the Zoom platform, in two sessions of one hour each.

Results

The following is the analysis of the critical incidents detected by the educators that constitute biographical traces in the construction of their professional identity (^{Figueroa-Céspedes & Guerra, 2023}; ^{Piani, 2019}). Each one identifies a critical incident in her professional trajectory, understood as a complicated moment, difficult to manage. These incidents are temporally located in the first years of their professional trajectory (see Table 3).

Table 3 Critical incidents reported 

Educator	Critical incident	Brief description	Professional stage
Francia	In the middle of the sea with Lucas	A second transition level child (5 to 6 years old) does not want to enter the classroom, France tries to calm him down and the child hits her and leaves her bleeding.	Second year of professional trajectory
Ivana	The bottle of bleach	A child of lower transition level (4 to 5 years old) takes a sip of bleach, which a person from the cleaning team left forgotten in the room. Ivana was supposed to take over at that level, as the educator in charge was not available.	First year of exercise
María	First disappointing professional experience	Shouting argument with the director of the kindergarten where she worked. The reason was the lack of minimum conditions for the functioning of the kindergarten.	First year in exercise
Romina	Conflicts of newcomer	Discussion with the director of the kindergarten, in the context of Romina’s entry to the institution and the dynamics created by the director and kindergarten education assistants.	Third year of professional exercise

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

In general terms, in the four situations analyzed, a rupture in the care system is observed in which the physical and/or psychological integrity of members of the educational community is put on risk, especially that of children and educators. The main domain of the situation is linked to the area of labour relations and how the educational institution provides a safe environment, and how the educators position themselves in the face of this requirement.

A cleaning person left a bottle of bleach, and a child drank a little bit. This was in a private kindergarten in Providencia. There were many children and few staff, so we had to make adjustments to cover that level and the risk is that this type of situation happens. (Ivana).

These situations lead educators to experience emotions of frustration and guilt, as they are unable to control contingencies or act promptly, as well as anger in the face of situations that are seen as unfair.

The frustration of not having the tools to be able to help the child prevails in me. I felt alone in the world, abandoned, without support in the case. (Francia).

I felt anger because I saw people being mistreated. (Maria).

In all cases, the educators position themselves against the institutional framework, be it the kindergarten or the school, or the figure of the school’s management. In this case, it is relevant to mention that the four situations occurred in the early stages of the professional life of the four participating educators, either in the first experience at work (Ivana and María) or in the second work experience (Romina and Francia). The above gives rise to tension between the identity of an educator in training and a professional educator.

Because I felt that things were not as I expected them to be, as if what I wanted to do did not work out, or because they were not interested either, that is, it is not that I did not want to do things, but that they did not have, they did not have the material resources, so I got frustrated because I had ideas that I could not carry out. (María).

The above implies that one of the main voices in these narratives is that of a beginner educator, inexperienced and still in the process of learning the keys involved in the relationship with work. In addition, the notion of a righteous self emerges, which implies a critique of the institution oriented by the principle of care and welfare of children, establishing limits in social interaction. The professional, external voice appears, a trace of their university learning and of what they have experienced in practical teaching situations, showing the need to act in a pedagogical sense. The trade union voice also emerges, which operates as an identification with the problems experienced by education workers, from a perspective of claiming labour rights. In addition, there is the external institutional position, which is represented by the vision of the kindergarten or school as a space for education and care, marked by an emphasis on safeguarding rights (see Table 4).

Tabla 4 Detected voices in the critical incidents 

Detected Voices	Position	Examples
I as a beginner	Internal	It was my first experience . . . (María) The frustration of not having the tools to be able to help Lucas prevails in me. . . . (Francia)
I as someone fair	Internal	. . . if they had no materials, we have nothing to do (María) It got to a point where it was uncomfortable to even see the people with whom this situation was happening (Romina)
I as a professional	External	. . . it allows me to realize certain rules to follow (Ivana) . . . to specialize in certain tools that one could acquire and that could help me (Francia)
I as a trade unionist	External	If we would unite... if no one would accept to be paid like this.... (María) This situation led me to learn not to accept being blamed for things you are not responsible for (Ivana)
Educational Institution	Outer	There were many children and few staff. We had to make adjustments to cover the group. (Ivana) …Maybe I expected the principal, being the principal, had to come and talk to me... (Romina)

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Going deeper into the polyphonic relationship of the voices present in the narration of the critical incidents, the internal voice of I as a beginner connects with insecurities and lack of knowledge in the situations experienced. This situation shows a self that is permeable to the inferiorization signals transferred by the environment, in this case, represented by the role of the institutionality.

Maybe I put up with many things because I said no, as I am an educator, I can’t, I don’t know, respond badly, for example, or say that this is like this or that, so... or I got very tangled up in words, not wanting to hurt the other person. (Romina).

On the other hand, the internal position of the I as someone fair articulates the needs of children with their own experiences of establishing limits in interactions, when observing situations that affect their sense of fairness. This approach based on social justice generates emotions of discomfort when the purposes of early childhood education are not achieved.

I was left with the feeling that I had not been able to help him, I was left with that feeling. (Francia).

I felt hopelessness, I thought that these bad practices and mistreatment were a generality in the kindergartens. (María).

In this way, the professional voice emerges from the externality, positioning itself through the recognition of those constitutive elements of the ethos of the early childhood educator, from an agential, responsible and active perspective. This position is in alliance with the institutional external voice, in charge of ensuring the correct functioning of the educational unit and, simultaneously, in opposition to abusive and mistreating behaviours towards the educators.

This experience was important for me since it allowed me to become aware of certain rules to follow, regardless of whether I am in charge or not .... I also learned the responsibilities of each position. (Ivana).

I learned to strengthen myself, to feel confident in the person I am, in what I know, in what I can do, and to take a stand from there and not let them take me away, I think that was the main thing. (María).

In this confrontation of positions, emerges, in coalition with the I as a professional, the voice of I as a trade unionist, marked by experiences before the university (for example, experiences of political socialization).

At that time when I was leaving, I said: -But how can we accept something like this, to be paid in this way? If we were united... nobody would accept to be paid like that, but that is complex, and I believe that the educator is one of the unions that has never been very united. (María).

. . . they had the same look of my father as a union leader, as well as social, they helped people, but basically, they accompanied their colleagues a lot. (Ivana).

This narrative construction shows a struggle for recognition on the part of women educators, which is a transversal aspect of the experiences reported. Thus, the coalition between the professional and union voices is associated with the position of the head as the visible face of the institutionality (Ivana, Romina and Marcela) or with colleagues from the special needs team (Francia). In all four cases, this relationship with the institutional framework generates dilemmas since the educators understand the professional purpose of the practice of care but establish work limits in situations of mistreatment or abandonment by their hierarchical superior or other colleagues. Francia, for example, experiences resignation due to a lack of collaboration in the face of a situation of risk. This reveals a decrease in her agency, in contrast to her professional self, being left without the capacity to solve or confront the challenging scenario posed by a child who presented behaviors that put the classroom community at risk.

I wanted that, at that moment, as I did for me, at that moment, there was a psychologist, social worker, special educator, neurologist and everything, to be able to help him. (Francia).

Finally, the outer position visualizes institutionalism as an organization that safeguards rights and is oriented to develop pedagogical and care processes in early childhood. The narratives as this institutional voice are coordinated with the voice I as someone fair, which is associated with the otherness of childhood, considering it as a stage of life that requires adequate environments and, therefore, of efforts to protect its integrity and right to education.

The first experience was when I entered a room where there were no materials for the children, there were only a few, there were children who were biting, and of course, if they had no materials, there was nothing to do. (María).

They had an organization that they had decided on, and I, of course, came to change the issue of planning, to see the issue of downtime, and how to renew procedures that were not being conducted as they should be... It was nothing beyond what was requested, but, of course, inside there the rumours were getting bigger and bigger, and that was what we later clarified with the director. It was nothing more than what was requested, but, of course, the rumours were growing a little more and that was what we later clarified with the director. (Romina).

Source: Authors’ elaboration.

Figure 1 Personal position repertoire of the case 

By way of summary, the Personal position repertoire (Figure 1) shows coalition relationships between the I as a beginner and I as someone fair, within the framework of a perspective focused on justice, care and access to education for children. The union voice is allied with the I as someone fair (internal) and I as a professional (external) positions, while it opposes the I as a beginner position due to the perception of insecurity and personal procrastination assumed at the beginning of the professional career, in contrast to the progressive adoption of a notion of justice and human value that incorporates them as valid agents in its discourse. At the same time, the outer institutional position is simultaneously in conflict and coalition with the I as a trade unionist and the I as a professional positions, showing an alliance with the principles of care for children, but demanding recognition and valuation as workers.

Discussion and conclusions

In the four critical incidents identified by the educators, situations are collected in the context of entry into the labour field in which the educators show a still fragile identity, permeable to the inferiorization signals transferred by the environment, in this case, represented by the voices of the institutionality, director or support teams. In this sense, from the analysis developed from the Dialogical Self-theory (^{Hermans, 2014}) we manage to configure various positions of the self that are found in a given work context and interact with each other (^{Akkerman & Meijer, 2011}).

The voices of I as a beginner and I as someone fair, place a focus on the personal dimension, which is balanced with I as a professional and I as a trade unionist positions, predominantly used by the educators to understand the incidents reported. These voices manifest themselves as structuring, since they organize the other positions, seeking to keep the self-integrated and oriented to active agency. According to the analysis conducted, the professional voice would contribute to establishing dialogic counterpoints in the pedagogical practice, by facilitating the construction of strategies with an adequate level of agency and from a formative perspective, giving rise to identification processes with those constitutive elements of the ethos of early childhood education. In this sense, articulation is observed between identification processes with the professional role and identification processes in terms of the particular experience of each educator (^{Gohier et al., 2001}). The above shows that the subjectivities and life worlds of the educators, associated with experiences in their family or community contexts, make them deploy positions that account for an ethic of care (^{Gilligan, 1985}) and social justice (^{Kamenarac, 2019}).

The incidents analyzed are associated with a rupture in the care system where the physical and/or psychological integrity of members of the educational community, especially children and educators, is put on risk. The ethics of care (^{Gilligan, 1985}) provides a valuable framework for comprehending the development of the professional voice. This framework encompasses a social responsibility that prioritizes the well-being of children and their communities, reflecting the interests of future generations. It advocates for embracing differences and practicing benevolence as foundational elements of social connections and ethical judgment. This expectation is aligned with the conceptualization of the role as advocate activists (^{Kamenarac, 2019}) revealed by educators in their narratives, from the desire to preserve good conditions for learning and development of childhoods. In this narrative process, educators reflect on their subjective experiences, assuming their responsibility as teachers (^{Moloney et al., 2019}; ^{Scherr & Johnson, 2017}), at the same time, they exercise a position of resistance to the oppression they face in their institutions (^{Sisson, 2016}).

The main domain of the situation is linked to the field of labour relations and how the educational institution is arranged to provide a safe environment, and how educators position themselves in the face of this requirement. From this place emerges the union voice, with a political and vindicative vision (^{Kamenarac, 2019}; ^{Osgood, 2006}), based on the principle of nonviolence (^{Gilligan, 1985}). The potential of the union voice as a tool to overcome the notion of abnegation and sacrifice as a vocational source is rescued, moving towards an approach of recognition and labour justice of the work of female educators (^{Poblete, 2018}). Following ^{Monereo and Hermans (2023)}, this voice assumes a “We-Position” by representing a collective position expressed in a choral voice used by the educators.

The critical incidents analyzed constitute biographical traces in the educators’ trajectory (^{Figueroa-Céspedes & Guerra, 2023}; ^{Piani, 2019}), evidencing how they address a sense of helplessness in the face of collective pressure norms (internalized and represented by the other involved in the dispute), especially when considering the well-being of children (^{Melasalmi & Husu, 2018}). Indeed, the emotions experienced are associated with frustration and guilt, giving rise to identity tensions (^{Pillen et al., 2012}) linked to the transition between undergraduate students and education professionals, with a rupture of the idealized vision of being a teacher. In addition, a frustrated expectation is observed around the educational institution as a space of care and human development, in contrast to what they observe in these incidents. These tensions allow us to reflect on the conditions of teaching work (^{Arteaga et al., 2018}), and the adoption of a sacrificial (^{Poblete, 2018}), maternal (^{Dalli, 2008}), and happy (^{Muñoz-Zamora et al., 2022}) identity, and the experience of cruel optimism (^{Fairchild and Mikuska, 2021}) as representations of work at the early childhood education level. From the analysis of the educators’ accounts, it is considered necessary to address the first work experiences from a formative perspective, given that they result in relevant moments in the construction of the teaching identity of early childhood educators (^{Robinson et al., 2018}).

Thus, the institutional level emerged, and the educators established a position. This situation reflects the struggle for recognition faced by educators as a transversal element of their identity construction (^{Figueroa-Céspedes et al., 2022a}; ^{Poblete, 2018}), retrospectively understanding the professional purpose of the practice of care and establishing, in parallel, labour limits in the face of mistreatment or abandonment by their hierarchical superior or the rest of the team. In this sense, the need arises to address micropolitical literacy processes (^{Kelchtermans & Vanassche, 2017}; ^{Silva-Peña et al., 2019}) that allow educators to understand power dynamics and their relationship with institutional life from a practical perspective.

According to what has been reviewed, the analysis of the voices that participate in the construction of identity allows for identifying challenges for the initial training and continuous professional development of early childhood educators, while orienting new ways of conducting such processes (^{Akkerman & Meijer, 2011}). For example, a relevant aspect to consider is the low connection with academic voices such as influential authors and teachers, observed in the present study. This issue can be linked to the preponderance of discourses based on personal experience (^{Badia & Becerril, 2016}; ^{Lara et al., 2020}) or common sense (^{Pessoa et al., 2017}). This is related to the findings of ^{Alliaud (2002}, ²⁰¹⁷) regarding the limitations of teacher training to re-signify the knowledge constructed in school biography and the relevance of integrating experience and formalized knowledge in the construction of pedagogical knowledge.

Thus, the analysis conducted from the dialogical self-theory (^{Hermans, 2014}) highlights the need to incorporate in teacher training and professional development a view of identity construction. This should be done from the incorporation of narrative and critical methodologies, which allow examining how personal experience and teacher training are intertwined, generating a link between the intrapsychological and interpsychological levels of this analysis of the educators’ self. Therefore, training based on contextualized and evidence-based inquiry practices (^{Lara et al., 2020}), reflective and communitarian analysis devices of practices should be promoted, in order to build relevant pedagogical knowledge (^{Alliaud, 2017}; ^{Figueroa-Céspedes & Guerra, 2023}; ^{Guevara, 2019}) and to facilitate the personal and collective agency of pedagogical teams (^{Melasalmi & Husu, 2018}). In addition, action research-inspired pedagogical work needs to be revitalized as a resource to address the gap between theory and practice (^{Guerra & Figueroa-Céspedes, 2018}).

In conclusion, the analysis of personal positions reveals itself as a useful method to explore the tensions that educators experience within educational institutions, which in turn provides tools to understand institutional micropolitics and its impact on the transformation of teaching practices. Future research could focus on the analysis of educators in training and beginning educators, to understand the dynamism of identity construction during this crucial stage of their training and professional development.

Furthermore, it is essential to assume the challenge posed by ^{Santamaría et al. (2013)} to articulate the “micro” dimension linked to experience and voices with the “macro” dimension, associated with production contexts, cultures and policies. This integration makes it possible to reach a situated perspective on the experiences of educators in their professional development, allowing for a more holistic understanding of their work. It should be noted that, although qualitative research delves into the complexity of the phenomena under study, it presents limitations in terms of the generalization of its results, a situation that can be counteracted by using mixed models and expanding the work samples in future studies.