When
and I decided to change the name of our podcast a year into our work we called it a rebrand. It was a lot! We talked to listeners, put out polls on social media, texted about it late at night. In the end we made the shift to what has now become the …and we grew because of that process.This past week the university I teach at sent out a big announcement. Doing something akin to what we did with the podcast, they gave themselves an institutional glow up and tah dah! A new logo. Not a full rebrand but definitely a big change. They call it a new “visual identity.”
Now I love a good visual metaphor (and honestly I think the logo change is a good one). But self-reflective Natalie also acknowledges feeling something like jealousy here…because summer is over, school is back in session (both literally and figuratively) and yet I’m not feeling much in the way of internal clarity when I look in the mirror these days. Personal growth isn’t always pretty. If rebranding has worked out for the podcast and now the university, what about me? My goal for this Fall season: claim a new visual identity and lean in. Hard.
When I left public education after 20 years I figured it was time to build myself a professional website. I needed to establish a new me beyond the classroom. But how to bring her about in the eyes of others when my identity as a teacher was so strong? All encompassing really. And a quick google scholar search for what defines a “teacher identity” shows I wasn’t alone in this quandary. The challenges baked into a “teacher identity” are real.
[It] is socially constructed, dynamic and hybrid…is shaped by discourse, narrative and emotions, and influenced by social and organisational contexts.
As a long time teacher of English Literature I believe language has the potential to both open and close doors. As such I see a few options in the wording of this definition. I can feel constrained by it; its very existence suggests that my identity is inherently tied to a single career path (and this is the reality for so many of us in caregiving occupations). BUT I can also reframe opportunities built right into the definitional terms:
socially constructed
hybrid
shaped by narrative and emotion
influenced by social contexts
Am I not all of these things as mother? Sister? Business partner? Wife? Daughter? Writer? As Whitman would say: “I contain multitudes.” That perspective, asked as a question more than a statement of fact, feels nicely open-ended. And thus hopeful. I mean who isn’t socially constructed, shaped by narrative and emotion?
Marketing experts say there is a big difference between brand and visual identity. Brand identity refers to more “internal aspects” such as mission, voice and personality. Visual identity, as the term suggests, refers to what is seen from the outside looking in such as logo designs, brand colors and typography. Together they create a complete — and unique — identity.
Celebrating who we are in the midst of change, not just who we are as a result of the rebrand, isn’t an instinctive or easy process. It will take more than a few social media check-ins and some late night conversations for the picture to come into focus. But here’s hoping for some clarity to emerge from the questions. Maybe a visual identity will come together for me this season — and what about you? Maybe we’ll all get some answers come Winter.
A teaching and learning rebrand beyond the classroom. Let’s call it growth.