Toward the Formation of University Faculty Identity in Colombia from the Pedagogy of Otherness: Biographical Sketches
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.30-2.21366Keywords:
higher education, identity, pedagogy of otherness, university professor, SDG 4, quality education, teacher characteristics, educational qualityAbstract
Introduction. This article presents some of the findings from the international project “University Faculty Identity and the Pedagogy of Otherness,” which explores the identity formation of university faculty members with more than twenty-five years of experience. Objective. The study aimed to identify and interpret the personal, contextual, and ethical elements that, from the perspective of the pedagogy of otherness, define the identity of university faculty, specifically in Colombia at a public university in the city of Manizales. Methodology. The research was approached from the perspective of complementarity (Murcia Peña & Jaramillo Echeverri, 2008), a holistic perspective that made it possible to listen to, perceive, and engage with a social reality in order to understand it. The study employed a qualitative design, using non-probabilistic convenience sampling to select the participants—seven professors from six schools at the University of Caldas—ensuring a diversity of disciplinary affiliations and a career spanning more than twenty-five years of teaching or retirement status. The data collection method was in-depth interviews based on biographical narratives, structured around areas such as personal biography, educational background, and academic experience. Data were processed using Atlas Ti version 9 software, and analysis was conducted using the constant comparison method derived from grounded theory. Results. It is highlighted that teaching identity constitutes an assemblage of fragments situated in diverse socio-historical contexts, such as childhood, adolescence, and academic studies. Furthermore, it is shaped by relationships with others and by individual trajectories, which are intertwined with collective memories and teaching practices. The central finding reveals that teacher identity is ethically redefined in the face of processes of bureaucratization and instrumental homogenization, with the family’s vocational example and relational responsibility emerging as ontological pillars of the university faculty. Conclusions. Teacher identity is a dynamic construct that is shaped through encounters with others, within the social and institutional context in which it is inherited, and through the individual’s capacity to respond ethically to the challenges posed by others.
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