Building professional identity during pre-service teacher education

Abstract

This article explores how university learning and the period of school placement can contribute to identity development understood as a dynamic and evolving process. From this perspective, we understand the teacher’s professional identity as an ongoing process of interpretation and re-interpretation of experiences that are shaped in professional spaces of relationship with others, where each person makes different processes of identification, representations, and attributions, creating a spiral of continuous construction or reconstruction. It is thus a phenomenon of social interaction. Data collection involved eight students, their school tutors, and university teachers within the framework of 4th-year school placements. Data analysis was organised around three dimensions of the research project: the teacher him/herself, the bond between students and the educational community, and the relationship between the school and the university. The results highlighted the need to improve the practicum, especially at the university level. Both school and university tutors are crucial in promoting and guiding dialogical processes of knowledge construction with oneself, others, and the world. However, the university has an added responsibility in this key relational process; university tutors must improve their role as mediators between students and school tutors to contribute to the development of the teaching identity in a complex and dynamic way.

Perceptions of the Teaching Profession and Motivation to Teach among Slovenian University Students

“…The core professional identity derived from one's school experiences and motivation to teach should be further shaped and reflected through high-quality experiences in teacher education and school practice in the subsequent academic career. The quality of interactions with school and university tutors is a crucial factor in prospective students' formative process (Torres-Cladera et al, 2021). In practice, it is important to select school mentors who can serve as supportive partners in developing student teachers' core beliefs about good teaching and who do not confine teacher candidates to their 'tried and tested' teaching methods (Butler, 2021).…”

“…A prospective teacher's professional identity takes shape before their academic career begins. The initial professional identity is influenced not only by personal factors but also by the broader social context that the young person observes and reflects on, for example, impressions of how the teaching profession is valued in society or the attitudes of significant others (e.g., parents, peers, teachers) towards the teaching profession (Torres- Cladera et al, 2021). Before deciding to become a teacher, young people have years of experience as students, including their interest in academic subjects, their academic performance, their interactions with teachers, and their experiences with classroom and school dynamics during their education.…”

Delving into Indonesian EFL Pre-Service Teachers’ Professional Identity Configuration in Teaching Practicum

“…In this regard, the formation of EFL PSTs' identities was shaped by the local discourse of the school, in which a shared understanding of valuebased professionalism and a collective image of being teachers were instilled in the student teachers' minds (Li, 2019Pennington & Richards, 2016). Therefore, the school's institutional and sociocultural contexts played a critical role in shaping the PSTs' configuration of their professional selves in the teaching practicum (Arvaja & Sarja, 2021;Horvath et al, 2018;Torres-Cladera et al, 2021;Zhu et al, 2020).…”

“…The schools where the students practice teaching provide the social and cultural contexts for engaging in teaching communities of practice, allowing them to negotiate and re-negotiate their teacher identity (Arvaja & Sarja, 2021;Horvath et al, 2018;Nue & Manara, 2022;Torres-Cladera et al, 2021;Zhu et al, 2020). While teaching at schools, PSTs engage in the teaching community, interact with the community members, and use the resources available.…”

Construction of Teacher Professional Identity through Initial Training

“…In this context, the tension between the concept of the ideal teacher and the real teacher in the daily activities of the classroom and the educational spaces of the school comes up. In other words, tension occurs in the educational action, which is situated in the practice itself [11]. This tension is further exacerbated at the beginning of the professional exercise asof beginner teachers.…”