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Identity in further education (FE) is complex and marked by shifting expectations, yet teacher identity remains under-researched (Steadman, 2023). Existing literature highlights the contested, relational and evolving nature of dual FE professional identities and shows the impact of policy (Orr & Simmons, 2010), these accounts foreground the need for tools that help teachers negotiate flux rather than seek closure. Much research remains theoretical (McGowan, 2021), autoethnographically and practitioner research led (Simmons & Thompson, 2007), and from sociological perspectives (Orr & Simmons, 2010). Few studies, however, offer practical frameworks for reflection. In response, this blog post explores how colour can act as a conceptual framework in identity studies, drawing on an aspect of my tool, the Likert Scale for Dual Identities (LSfDI) (Cairns, 2025).

The LSfDI aligns with calls for imaginative methodologies, enabling teachers to visualise and reflect upon their professional identities. By integrating visual, affective and conceptual dimensions, the tool bridges theory and lived experience, extending reflective practice into an embodied and creative space that deepens self-awareness.

‘FE teachers frequently negotiate dual professional identities, yet professional identity work in FE is often framed in abstract, text-based or policy-driven terms.’

FE teachers frequently negotiate dual professional identities (Steadman, 2023), yet professional identity work in FE is often framed in abstract, text-based or policy-driven terms. Tools that enable teachers to see their identities are rare. However, the LSfDI offers a framework that combines quantitative scaling with visual and affective dimensions (figure 1). Within the tool, colour becomes a way of anchoring reflection on professional identity with an everyday sensory experience, giving form to tensions and aspirations that might otherwise remain tacit (Cairns, 2025). In positioning colour as integral to identity reflection, this work contributes a novel approach to identity studies.

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In my research, FE teachers selected colours that represented their dual identities within interviews. Participants were asked to select colours which, ‘you associate with each of your professional identities.’ Participants were presented with six colours (red, blue, yellow, orange, green and purple) (Cairns, 2025). However, participants were not limited to these. Participants were also presented with common understandings of each, this prompted deep reflection, often producing insights more immediate than text-based tools. One participant described her teacher identity as ‘orange-yellow,’ signalling optimism and enthusiasm: ‘I don’t think teaching is always happiness, but I think it is always enthusiasm’ (Cairns, 2025) (figure 2). Another participant associated hers with green, reflecting growth.

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These accounts illustrate the interpretive openness of colour, allowing teachers to bring personal meanings into dialogue with their professional identity. Teachers reported that combining colour with descriptive terms made abstract concepts more concrete. One participant stated, ‘I … like those colours, but your text [description] seems to summarise what I was thinking.’ Importantly, the exercise highlighted identity as dynamic, with several participants noting their colour choices might shift over time. In this way, colour-based reflection facilitated both immediacy and longitudinal self-awareness, helping teachers visualise flux as part of identity, rather than as a problem.

Colour-based tools could provide a simple yet powerful means of professional reflection, encouraging teachers to externalise identity (figure 3). Colour grounds reflection, making it more tangible and inclusive, and the method also challenges entrenched ways of thinking about identity by foregrounding creativity. Colour schemes enable teachers to embrace personal interpretation, and this resonates with calls for more imaginative approaches to identity work.

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The LSfDI framework and its use of colour operate in tandem to make identity work both structured and imaginative. The framework provides the scaffold, a systematic means of mapping dual professional identities, while colour introduces a creative and affective dimension that translates abstract identity constructs into lived, visual experience. The scale enables teachers to locate themselves within professional continua, and the colours allow them to express nuance. In uniting these elements, the LSfDI transforms reflection from linear into an interpretive process, positioning creativity as integral to identity work.

I encourage readers to consider: what colour represents your professional identities today? And how might attending to colour and creativity help us reimagine identity?

References

Cairns, A. (2025). Exploring your further education teacher identity. Routledge.

McGowan, A. (2021). The professional identity of the further education teacher in the UK (Ed.D thesis, Kingston University).

Orr, K., & Simmons, R. (2010). Dual identities: The in-service teacher trainee experience in the English further education sector. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 62(1), 75–88.

Simmons, R., & Thompson, R. (2007). Education and training for the low skilled: Disempowered workers, vulnerable adults and empowering change. Trentham Books.

Steadman, S. (2023). Identity: Keywords in teacher education. Bloomsbury.