Teacher identity and resolution strategies of critical incidents in university context with high cultural diversity

This study identifies the strategies that teachers employ when faced with critical incidents (CI) in highly diverse sociocultural contexts, recognizing the weight of identity and emotions in decision-making and their effectiveness to promote changes in teaching practice. It is a qualitative study with 23 university teachers. The results indicate that the emotions produced by a CI, create a situation of imbalance, accompanied by negative emotions that hinder teachers' activity. The study states that there is a need to review the situation and to open the possibility of teachers' identity reconstruction. With respect to the strategies employed by teachers when faced with CI, these were mostly immediate and affected very specific aspects, resulting in reactive performance and a choice of ineffective strategies. Despite the poor effectiveness of their strategies, in most cases, teachers did not change their initial positions. IC deployment strategies and subsequent reflection that allow an opening to structural changes that impact on teacher identity (emotional and practical) are an exception ©2013 Fundación Infancia y Aprendizaje, ISSN: 1135-6405.