Peer group as a meeting place: Reconstructions of teachers’ self-understanding and the presence of vulnerability

• Teachers’ self-understanding is a complex process including different changes and emphases.
• Peer groups contribute to teachers’ self-understanding.
• Empirical evidence of vulnerability as a structural characteristic of teaching.

Prior research on peer groups and their potential for student teachers and teachers is still very limited. This article focuses on how a teacher’s self-understanding is reconstructed in a peer group and how vulnerability is present in this process. The data focusing on one teacher’s story is from a long-term peer group of 11 Finnish teachers. The research demonstrates how teachers’ self-understanding develops and is reconstructed throughout interactions with others. In addition, the research shows the intertwinement of teacher vulnerability with the reconstruction of self-understanding. Groups in which pre-service and in-service teachers can share personal and professional experiences create a powerful site and opportunity that can be used in teacher education.