Her main fields of expertise are teacher education, inclusive and multicultural education. She was one of the creators of the Master programme for subject teachers, initiated through the Tempus MASTS Project, and a teaching assistant at several University courses for both pre-service and in-service teachers. Milica Marušić is a psychologist with PhD in Adult Education, engaged as a Research Associate at the Institute for Educational Research in Serbia. Her main fields of expertise are teacher education, scientific literacy and education for sustainable development. During doctoral studies she was granted a scholarship by the Greek Ministry of Education for conducting a comparative study of teacher education and professional development in Serbia and Greece. She was national coordinator for TIMSS 2015 for Serbia.

the way people tell stories (Sarbin, 1986), and that one learns how any story, including the story about oneself, should be told through social interactions and exposure to culturally permissible narratives (in films, cartoons, books, etc.).Given that stories have an inherent structure and predefined theme/morale, this process enables individuals to frame their experiences -to structure their flow and

The paper offers an analytical framework for conceptualization and research of the structure and dynamics of the agonistic self, relying on Hermans’ dialogical self theory and Foucault’s analytics of power. In a multiple-case study, 9 teachers participated in a two-phase Agonistic Self Interview. A deductive-inductive thematic analysis of the data yielded an analytical framework comprising 4 categories: Functions of Voices, Power Relations (with two sub-categories: Forms of Exercising Power and Practices for Exercising Power and Resistance), Types of Relations Between Voices, and Institutional Context. The paper offers the analytical concept of a strategic situation along with novel methodological tools for the research and analysis of the self as embedded in interpersonal relationships and sociocultural and institutional context. The psychological relevance of the findings is discussed in terms of relations between dominance and maintaining plurality within the self and relations between the stability and social contextualization of the self.

In this paper, we present an exploratory study on tensions in teacher professional identity based on the Model of Agonistic Self. The sample comprised nine class and subject teachers employed at two primary schools in Belgrade. The research was conceived as a multiple-case study in which thematic analysis was used as an auxiliary method for analyzing the data obtained via a semi-structured interview. The criterion for the selection of tense situations was the presence of one of the four types of tense relations in the agonistic self: acceptance with critique, productive tension, acute conflict, and permanent conflict. These relations were interpreted as different forms of psychosocial dynamics and ways of resolving psychological tension among participants. Subsequently, we thematically categorized the selected situations. We identified nine themes in relation to which our participants had professional dilemmas. Our findings indicate that the same professional dilemma within a teacher?s self can manifest itself in different kinds of tense relations. This suggests that it is not sufficient to direct research attention towards the content of the narratives about professional dilemmas, but that it is also necessary to explore different mechanisms of psychosocial dynamics through which these tensions develop and get resolved. This perspective on teachers? professional dilemmas represents a contribution to the creation of new models and the refinement of existing models of teacher professional development.

Building on the Dialogical Self Theory (DST) and the Model of Agonistic Self (MAS), this paper introduces the Model of Agonistic Self Methodology (MAS-M). This methodological approach employs constellations as the interpretative framework for the qualitative analysis of data on the selfin-context. Constellations are defined as wider patterns of interactions between voices of the self-incontext, which follow specific and repetitive scenarios. In order to develop MAS-M, reflexive thematic analysis was performed on individual reports written after interviewing nine elementary school teachers. The data gathering procedure involved a two-stage interview process employing the previously developed Agonistic Self Interview (ASI), which was introduced into the standard MAS-M procedure. We identified six constellations, whose structure and dynamics we described at the formal level: the King and His Kingdom constellation, Crisis Intervention, Defense of Purpose, Value Conflict, Temporary Inclusion of Sidelined Perspectives, and Reflection. In this paper, we discuss the psychological function of each of the identified constellations, along with the possibility of their application as a practical, diagnostic, and research framework.