On being a science teacher: Identities, emotions, morals, and the dialectics of organic link

In responding to, The Science Teacher as Organic Link, I argue that there are two aspects of the author's argument that could be further developed for the connections between agency, identity, organic link, ethics, and dialectic thinking to be elucidated. First, the connection between dialectic thought and the action of organic link could be more thoroughly explicated. As a metaphor for teacher action, organic link can help us to acknowledge teachers' roles in connecting systems of dialectic thought such as science and science education and, in my response I propose a strategy for thinking in that way. I also argue that in order to explain teacher action associated with organic link there is a need to acknowledge that identity depends as much on self-evaluation as it does on self-image and experience with others. Self-evaluation involves both emotion and ethics as teachers make judgments about their roles and this has implications for their actions just as their actions have implications for their identity.