Teacher Professional Identity: Perceived Key Factors at a Portuguese Distance Education Institution

Abstract

This article investigates key perceived factors in the construction of teachers’ professional identity in distance education (DE) within the Portuguese university context. The expansion of DE has transformed pedagogical practices and processes of professional identity construction, making it essential to understand the factors associated with online teaching identity development in order to inform training and professional development policies. Using an exploratory descriptive study with a sequential mixed-methods design conducted at a Portuguese public university specialising in DE (Universidade Aberta, UAb), qualitative data were collected through a focus group with seven teachers, and quantitative data through a questionnaire administered to 57 teachers (38 professors and 19 tutors). Five subfactors emerged as the most highly valued dimensions associated with professional identity construction: openness to change (M = 4.61), knowledge of DE specificity (M = 4.60), motivation and satisfaction with professional development (M = 4.58), accumulated experience (M = 4.56), and spirit of collaboration in teams (M = 4.56). Four of the five belong to the professional dimension, with openness to change more highly valued by tutors, although this difference did not reach conventional statistical significance (p = 0.094). Findings suggest that participants perceive teacher professional identity in DE as strongly anchored in specific professional competencies and attitudes, pointing to differentiated professional development and induction practices for professors and tutors within this single-institution case. The study also constitutes a pre-generative AI empirical baseline for future longitudinal and comparative research examining how successive technological transformations may reshape teacher professional identity in distance higher education.