From Public-School Teaching to Division-Office Educational Administration: A Longitudinal Autoethnography

Abstract

Background and Objective: Moving from classroom teaching to system-level educational administration requires technical role learning and reconstruction of professional identity. This study examined how role expectations, professional identity, and engagement with system-level constraints changed during a transition from public-school teaching to a division-office education specialist role. Methods: A longitudinal analytic autoethnography followed the first 16 months of appointment, from August 2024 to November 2025, after nine years of public-school teaching. Data comprised contemporaneous experiential journals, bi-weekly artifact-based reflections, and monthly retrospective entries. A six-phase reflexive thematic analysis was followed by interpretation through role identity theory and complexity leadership theory. Results: Three interrelated themes were developed: navigating ambiguous and expanding role expectations; negotiating continuity between pedagogical and administrative identities; and translating classroom experience into context-sensitive responses to system-level constraints. The transition involved neither abandonment of teacher identity nor simple acquisition of administrative procedures; pedagogical commitments became resources for interpreting policy, coordination, and organizational responsibility. Conclusion: The study provides a role-specific account of division-office administration and suggests that induction and mentoring should address identity negotiation alongside technical competence. Findings are analytically transferable but bounded to one participant and one organizational setting.