Advancing an understanding of selves in transition: I-positions as an analytical tool

Unpacking a female language teacher's identity transformations: a perspective of multiple I-positions

The narrative inquiry investigates the construction and evolution of a female Chinese language teacher's identity across her pre-service and in-service phases. Utilising data from interviews, class observation and written reflections, the research examines how internal and external aspects shape her identity development. It specifically explores the role of third positions, meta positions, and promoter positions drawing on the dialogical self theory. The findings reaffirm that a teacher's identity is fluid and influenced by personal and professional factors. Over time, however, strong teaching beliefs and a growth mindset emerge as pivotal drivers for sustained and positive teacher development. The paper concludes by offering implications for pre-service teacher education and female teachers' continuing professional development.

Moral injury: understanding Swedish veterans who are assessed but not diagnosed with PTSD

This article is based on an interview study of 24 Swedish veterans who experienced deteriorating mental health and increased suffering without meeting the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis. With no clinical answers as to the cause of their deteriorating mental health, they have been thrown into a veteran's health limbo. The analysis was based on an inductive logic. A key finding of the analysis was a kind of deep-seated permanent moral conflict that could be conceptualized as moral injury. Such an injury can give rise to intense guilt, shame, anxiety, anger, dejection, bitterness, identity issues and more. The results section of the article details five different yet for the sample representative cases of moral injury and their implications. The notion of moral injury is linked to Mead's division of the self into an I and me, where me is the socially constructed part of the self that is charged with the morality of a group. Thus, a moral me played a key role in the development of moral injury. The conceptual apparatus illustrates a new way of understanding experiences that can create suffering and negatively impact a veteran's mental health. Future research is encouraged that examines this topic, national designs for addressing moral injury, screening for moral injury, and methods for healing included.

Evil, Constructed: A Salient Part of an Emerging Spiritual Veteran Identity

This article investigated constructions of evil among deployed Swedish veterans. Six cases were used to demonstrate common themes of these constructions: humans are capable of everything; anyone can be violated, even killed; evil and cruelty comes in many forms; coldness/cynicism; exhausting to witness suffering and pain; and existential rumination. The impact of these can affect a veteran's identity and their notions of self. However, processing encounters with evil is seen, in some Christian perspectives, as an essential prerequisite for spiritual growth, and this might be potentially important to supporting the emergence of spiritual veteran identities. A pastoral care giver or military chaplain can serve as an existential conversation partner who can assist veterans when approaching such experiences and their potential impact. This may be especially fertile in secular contexts, where pastoral wisdom and ontological approaches can be hard to find in the everyday lives of veterans.

Proculturation shaped by social representations of academic migrants from Italy to the United States

Introduction

Existing literature has highlighted the phenomenon of academic migrants leaving Italy for the United States with the hope of finding institutions that offer more opportunities for growth and recognition based on merit, as opposed to corruption, nepotism, and excessive bureaucracy. Likely, these may be the expectations of Italian academic migrants, who seem to be thriving and flourishing in their careers. This paper discusses proculturation of academic migrants from Italy to the United States, in the light of their expectations related to self-concept as well as social representations of North American university instructors from transnational families.

Methods

In this study, 173 participants volunteered to provide information in an online survey that included their demographic profile, family situation, language ability, recalled pre-migration expectations and preparations, satisfaction with life, self-perceived stress, self-rated health, free responses to questions about major successes, challenges, and goals, as well as self-identification.

Results

The results have shown that participants were indeed thriving in their careers and lives (majority scored high in satisfaction with life, health, realistic expectations and helpful per-migration preparations, while low in stress, also indicating work-related accomplishments and successes), but somewhat struggled with proculturation-related issues, frequently mentioned among major challenges.

Identifying and mapping professional identities among Swedish ambulance nurses: A multiple qualitative case study

Research on ambulance culture and identity is globally scant and nonexistent within a Swedish context. This study on Swedish ambulance nurses serves as a first step and an important entry point into this topic. The purpose was to describe professional ambulance identities among four participants who had served between several years and decades in the ambulance services. Qualitative data was obtained through initial in-depth interviews and follow-up data gathering at a later stage. The theoretical underpinnings adhered to both narrative psychology and dialogical self theory, strengthening the capacity to develop new knowledge about professional identities. The findings present four distinct types of identities among the participants. Individuality and diversity amongst the development of core identities is shown to be cultivated by the dialogue between professional and personal identities. This dialogical process began at a stage in the ambulance career when the strict demarcation line between professional and personal identities was crossed.

Thank You for Hearing My Voice - Listening to Women Combat Veterans in the United States and Israeli Militaries

The military service of combat soldiers may pose many threats to their well being and often take a toll on body and mind, influencing the physical and emotional make-up of combatants and veterans. The current study aims to enhance our knowledge about the combat experiences and the challenges that female soldiers face both during and after their service. The study is based on qualitative methods and narrative analysis of in-depth semi-structured personal interviews with twenty military veterans. It aims to analyze the narratives of American and Israeli female combat soldiers regarding their military service, with emphasis on the soldiers' descriptions, in their own words, about their difficulties, challenges, coping and successes during their service and transition to civilian life. A recurring theme in the interviews with the veterans of both militaries was the need to be heard and the fact that societies, therapists, and military institutions do not always truly listen to female veterans' experiences and are not really interested in what actually ails them. Our research suggests that conventional methods used in research relating to veterans might at times be inadequate, because the inherent categorization might abstract, pathologize, and fragment a wide array of soldiers' modes of post-combat being. Moreover, female veterans' voices will not be fully heard unless we allow them to be active participants in generating knowledge about themselves.

I-position as a tool to advance the understanding of pastors and deacons who navigate contrasting identities as chaplains: a narrative analysis

Chaplaincy services form a vital complement for secular societal institutions which must accommodate spiritual needs, including but not limited to, hospitals, armed forces, and prisons. Yet cultures within societal institutions and churches or faith organizations are fundamentally different. The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual, methodological and occupational discussion around Swedish pastors and deacons serving as specialised chaplains in societal contexts. A narrative analysis coupled with the concept of an I-position (from the framework of Dialogical Self Theory) are presented as a useful methodology for advancing the understanding of pastors and deacons who navigate culturally contrasting identities as chaplains. The article draws from two recent studies and illustrates the methodology through case study examples of both hospital and military chaplains. This approach may be relevant to any chaplain who traverses culturally contrasting terrain and may encounter identity change or challenge. Future research is recommended regarding gender aspects related to male/female dominated socital institutions and representatives from other faith traditions involved in chaplaincy services.

Advancing an understanding of the body amid transition from a military life

In this article, we explore the process of transitions from a military life to a civilian life. Making use of the concepts offered by Dialogical Self Theory, we explore how individuals negotiate the acquisition of new, civilian identities by integrating different, sometimes conflicting, cultural I-positions. Moreover, in this article, we explore how this narrative process is reflected through embodied processes of becoming civilian. We do so by presenting an in-depth analysis of two case studies: that of former Lieutenant Peter, who fully transitions to civilian life, and of Sergeant Emma, who opts for a hybrid outcome, combining a civilian job with working as an instructor in the military. We will argue that the narrative and embodied process of transition are intertwined in self-identity work, and that attention to the specifics of this entanglement can be useful for professionals who counsel military personnel who transition to civilian life.

Leaving Military Service with a Military Body: Insights for Pastoral Care and Counseling

The significance of the body has emerged as a vital yet neglected element in the transition from military to civilian life. The recognition of a military body enhances the understanding of potential pastoral and counseling needs among veterans beyond the mind and the soul. This article attempts to contribute to further knowledge about this topic, drawing from both theory and empirical research, in an effort to provide insights for pastoral care and counseling.

To Understand and Support Contemporary Veterans Utilizing Biblical Combat Veteran Types

This article continues to build on the biblical combat veteran types (BCVTs) which were recently presented as a tool to describe and understand biblical combat veterans through the lenses of post-traumatic stress disorder and moral injury. The purpose of this article is to connect the BCVTs with real-life cases so as to show the potential usefulness of the biblical types. This article further develops a model for pastoral care which integrates this tool.

Making dialogue with an existential voice in transition from military to civilian life

Dialogical Self Theory has contributed to the endeavors to map and grid self-identity work in transition from military to civilian life throughout an empirical and longitudinal research project which focuses on existential dimensions. This article is based on a case study from this project and centers upon Sergeant Jonas, who, upon his return from deployment in Afghanistan, struggled with his transition as a new existential position was vocalized throughout the following annual interviews. This voice narrated feelings of meaninglessness, emptiness, and of having been deceived. In turn, this existential voice required an answer to a question which apparently had no answer. The meaning-making eventually evolved into an acceptance which enabled Jonas to proceed with his life. Dialogical processes between positions are important in order to go on with life amid existential concerns in the aftermath of military service since dialogicality of the self opens up a complex of dynamics of meaning-making processes, negotiations, and transformations. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the Personal Position Repertoire could potentially be strengthened by the addition of an internal existential position to its standard repertoire, at least when working with military personnel and/or veterans.