This chapter elaborates the two central features that shape and
cultivate the work of teachers. It highlights the importance of
understanding teaching both as a role behavior and as an expression of
an individual teacher’s abilities and personality. Teachers act within
the borders of their role, and simultaneously, they need to find ways to
express their subjectivity and personal qualities in their teaching.
The chapter employs the concept of authenticity to reveal and elaborate
the connections between role and personal demands in teaching, as
authenticity always occurs within its social and institutional contexts.
It presupposes that what teachers do should match not only to what they
believe but should also be consistent with the institutional demands,
structures, and constraints of their work. The chapter presents a model
to analyze the spaces where teachers do their professional work as well
as identify and understand multiple structures, tensions and resources
related to it.