The 4 Identities of a Teacher: Reporter, Expert, Mentor, Role Model

Unravel the multifaceted persona of a teacher, as we delve into their four key identities - Reporter, Expert, Mentor, and Role Model. Each identity, unique yet interconnected, shapes the educational journey, influencing students' growth and development in profound ways.

Everyone has become a teacher

Every teacher naturally moves through four stages or identities over time: Reporter, Expert Mentor, Role model

• There is always more knowledge to acquire, but whether you teach as a profession or as part of your career or business, every step has something precious to teach you now.

Mentor

Leadership as a teacher means turning your attention to the more holistic, subjective, tacit forms of knowledge needed to lead others

• You teach through who you are and what you do, not just what you say
• The skills and knowledge of a mentor don’t change nearly as quickly, so you can offer them to more people over a longer period of time
• Gain more leverage and more impact by building teams that embody what you know in forms that can extend your reach and outlive you

Role Model

To be a role model, you teach through your way of being in the world. People follow what you do more than what you say.

• Role models transcend time and place. People are looking to you to understand what it means to live a fulfilling, inspired life. People will sometimes put you up on a pedestal, mythologize your past, or treat your assertions as sacred doctrine. It comes with the territory. Use it wisely and humanely.

The First Identity: Reporter

You have the naivete and innocence of a beginner

• Your credibility comes from your lack of experience
• Treat learning as a subject in itself, not an initial step to becoming an expert
• Reporting can bring you the attention, respect, and resources you need to get to the later stages

The Second Identity: Expert

You will acquire enough knowledge and experience that you will inevitably begin to develop your own taste and form your own opinions about your subject.

• At this second stage, your source of credibility switches from your impartiality to your partiality. You no longer offer all the ways someone could approach your field; you begin to recommend what you think are the best ways, based on the experience you’ve accumulated immersing yourself in the details.

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