The role of formal and informal theory in the training of student teachers

In the mid‐1990s, primary teacher education is searching for an accepted theoretical underpinning of its activity and rubric for the preparation of the next generation of teachers. This paper cites four such theoretical foundations. The first three arise from formal theory and political considerations and are labelled ideological neutrality, modern progressivism and a fusion between symbolic interactionism and social constructivism. The fourth however represents a paradigm shift. This model seeks to validate informal theory generated during the practical teaching experiences of serving teachers and in particular the interaction between student teachers and teacher mentors. It proposes an adaptation of Rowland's (1987) model of teacher‐pupil interaction to the context of student teacher professional development.     

Teacher investment in learner identity

From a sociocultural perspective, teacher identity is constructed in relation to others, including other teachers and students. Drawing on positioning theory and the concept of investment, this study analyzed the case of a secondary English teacher who negotiated his teacher identity in relation to English language learners (ELLs). Findings indicated that the teacher made an investment in ELLs' identity by positioning them as like any other student. The desired return on the teacher's investment was a strengthened self-positioning as a natural and highly competent teacher. The implications of teacher investment in learner identity for teacher practice, learner identity construction, and teacher education are discussed.     

Assessing the professional identity of primary student teachers: Design and validation of the Teacher Identity Measurement Scale

This study aimed to design and validate the Teacher Identity Measurement Scale (TIMS) for assessing primary student teachers’ professional identity. Based on identity theory and a systematic review into quantitative instruments of teacher identity, teacher identity was decomposed in four first-order constructs: motivation, self-image, self-efficacy, and task perception. This resulted in a measurement scale consisting of 46 items. The factorial design was examined by administering the TIMS to first- and second-year primary student teachers. In phase 1, involving 17 students, qualitative scale development methods were used to assess the construct validity. In phase 2, its second-order factor structure was tested and confirmed among a sample of 211 students. In phase 3, this structure was cross-validated among a new sample of 419 students. The instrument may contribute to understanding primary student teacher’s professional development and can be used as a tool to support the process of developing a professional teacher identity.     

High school identity climate and student identity development

This research investigated whether schools characterized by high school students as being rich in identity promoting features contribute to student identity development. A theoretical model posited that student perceptions of teachers as caring role models and their school as cultivating the whole student will foster student exploration and confidence about future identity development. Hypothesized mediators of these effects were student perceptions of a positive social climate, of experiencing meaningful studies and of affirmation of their agency and exploration. Participants were 2787 male and female students from the Jewish public-religious sector in Israel in 152 classes of 25 high schools. Results indicated that (a) schools with identity promoting features contribute to student identity development, (b) teachers as role models is a more potent variable than teacher caring in predicting student identity development and (c) experiencing meaningful studies is an especially important contributor to student exploration and identity confidence.     

Centrality of enactive experiences,framing, and motivation to student teachers’ emerging professional identity

Professional identity has emerged as a common theme in teacher development research, and the student-teaching practicum is often identified as foundational to identity development. In the context of the student-teaching practicum, interactions with cooperating teachers and pupils are believed to comprise the press for professional identity development, though theory-based explanations are often neglected in the literature, and findings are not always consistent. To address this issue, we used grounded theory to articulate a model explaining the relations among three constructs important to the process of identity development of student teachers (n = 14). Our findings are organized around a model that highlights the phenomenon of “negotiating who I am as a teacher,” which helps us describe differences between student teachers who changed identity vs. those that did not, and psychological and contextual reasons for renegotiation of identity. Discussion focuses on comparisons with previous models and possible implications for teacher education.     

Troubling identities: teacher education students' constructions of class and ethnicity

Working with diverse student populations productively depends on teachers and teacher educators recognizing and valuing difference. Too often, in teacher education programs, when markers of identity such as gender, ethnicity, ‘race’, or social class are examined, the focus is on developing student teachers' understandings of how these discourses shape learner identities and rarely on how these also shape teachers' identities. This article reports on a research project that explored how student teachers understand ethnicity and socio‐economic status. In a preliminary stage of the research, we asked eight Year 3 teacher education students who had attended mainly Anglo‐Australian, middle class schools as students and as student teachers, to explore their own ethnic and classed identities. The complexities of identity are foregrounded in both the assumptions we made in selecting particular students for the project and in the ways they constructed their own identities around ethnicity and social class. In this article we draw on these findings to interrogate how categories of identity are fluid, shifting and ongoing processes of negotiation, troubling and complex. We also consider the implications for teacher education.     

The contribution of assessment experiences to student teachers' self-efficacy in competence-based education

Earlier research argues that educational programmes based on social cognitive theory are successful in improving students' self-efficacy. Focussing on some formative assessment characteristics, this qualitative research intends to study in-depth how student teachers' assessment experiences contribute to their self-efficacy. We interviewed 15 s year student teachers enrolled in a competence based teacher educational programme. Thematic content analysis results reveal that the assessment characteristics ‘authenticity’ and ‘feedback’ exert a positive influence on student teachers self-efficacy during all phases of the portfolio competence assessment. The results provide a fine-grained view of several types of self-efficacy information connected with these assessment phases.     

Can cooperating teachers help student teachers develop a vision of education?

Abstract

Research in teacher education is increasingly concerned with teachers' visions of education and their sense of calling, mission, and professional identity. Interviews with outstanding cooperating teachers focused on exploring their beliefs on teacher vision, and what makes a good teacher. The teachers were also asked to discuss their beliefs on whether vision—and the independence of spirit that a strong vision is thought to foster—is relevant in their work with student teachers. The teachers revealed a strong sense of why they teach and shared goals around several themes. They also maintained that reflection is key to developing a vision of education. Teacher education programs can support these teachers' views of quality education by developing conceptual frameworks that foster reflection and the development of a vision for education, particularly in the student teaching experience.     

Theorizing Language Teacher Identity: Three Perspectives and Beyond

Language teacher identity is an emerging subject of interest in research on language teacher education and teacher development. Yet relatively little attention has been paid to the ways in which teacher identity is theorized. The present article explores ways of theorizing language teacher identity by presenting three data-based studies of teacher identity and juxtaposing the three different theoretical frameworks that they use: Tajfel's (1978) social identity theory, Lave and Wenger's (1991) theory of situated learning, and Simon's (1995) concept of the image-text. It is seen that each theoretical perspective allows us to investigate different substantive and theoretical aspects of language teacher identity and that there are strong conceptual resonances among the different approaches. While in isolation each theory has its limitations, an openness to multiple theoretical approaches allows a richer and more useful understanding of the processes and contexts of teacher identity.     

Engagement with a teaching career – how a group of Finnish university teachers experience teacher identity and professional growth

The aim of this qualitative study was to identify teachers’ ways of experiencing their identity and development challenges as teachers in the social and professional context of university. Identity and development as a teacher were examined based on interviews and drawings of career paths collected from a group of university teachers representing diverse scientific fields at one research-intensive university in Finland. Based on the findings, a typology of teacher identities and classification of development themes were constructed, illustrating the experiences and drawing on the themes found in the data and comparing them to Huberman’s teachers’ career cycle as well as Åkerlind’s views on university teachers’ changes. The findings showed that those who have reached a goal-reflective and stabilised teacher identity recognise development challenges, especially in the areas of self-development and facilitation of student learning, while those who have a constructive-conflicting or unsolved teacher identity struggle with the many pressures of teaching practice and reaching teacher comfort. The learning trajectories of the studied university teachers were varied and lasted considerably longer than suggested by teachers’ career cycle views.     

Student teachers' experiences of participating in mixed peer mentoring groups of in-service and pre-service teachers in Finland

This article examines from the student perspective a new Finnish model of teacher development that uses the peer group mentoring (PGM) method for combining pre-service and in-service teacher education. Reflective reports of student teachers (N = 19) who participated in PGM were analyzed using the phenomenographic method. The results show that students' experiences varied from considering the activity as (1) a coffee break or (2) peer-support, to seeing it as (3) identity construction or (4) a way of participating in a professional community. In further development of the model more emphasis should be placed on the integration of theory and practice.     

Teacher professionalization in the age of social networking sites

As teacher education students become professionals, they face a number of tensions related to identity, social participation, and work-life balance, which may be further complicated by social networking sites (SNS). This qualitative study sought to articulate tensions that arose between professionalization influences and teacher education student participants' SNS participation. Findings suggest that some expectations of professionalization in SNS cut deeply into participants' self-concept and that tensions arose surrounding unclear expectations of professionalization and fears related to political and religious expression. The study's implications are: teachers need to (a) consider how participation in SNS may impact their identity, (b) understand how moral turpitude is defined in their communities and how their behavior aligns with these standards, and (c) carefully explore how they can maintain meaningful social connections in online spaces as they pass through new phases of life and seek to become professionals.     

Constructing a new professional identity: Career change into teaching

The presence of career change students in teacher education programs is neither new nor unusual. Despite this, there is a lack of research into the experiences of such people as student teachers. In this paper, the experiences of one career change student teacher, Michelle, and the ways in which she constructed her new professional identity as a student teacher, are examined. Using the theoretical framework of learning and identity within communities of practice developed by Lave and Wenger (1991) and the notion of career change student teachers as expert novices, Michelle's experiences are examined in detail to gain a greater understanding of how, as a career changer, she ‘became’ a student teacher. The research on which this paper is based found that as a career change student, Michelle needed to reconcile her various identities in order to construct her new professional identity in the context of teacher education. Findings were analysed and discussed with reference to Lave and Wenger’s (1991) framework of legitimate peripheral participation and Wenger’s (1998) communities of practice, and with recourse to the relevant literature.     

Concept maps of Korean EFL student teachers’ autobiographical reflections on their professional identity formation

This study utilizes a concept mapping method to explore the underlying structure and dimensionality of Korean student teachers’ autobiographical reflections on their professional identity formation. Participants consist of 90 students enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in English teacher education. The study results imply core concepts (backgrounds for career pursuit, conceptualizations of a good English teacher/teaching, and confidence/aspirations) that constitute professional identity development of Korean EFL student teachers. Dimensionality analysis suggests that the impetus for guiding student teachers’ professional development is their knowledge and experiences related to teacher qualities and teaching practices.     

Facilitating social learning in teacher education: a case study

It is increasingly recognised that social learning by teachers can stimulate professional development. In this study, we search for the social behaviour patterns which can act as a catalyst for professional development, with an explicit focus on student teachers’ learning. Based on the ‘Dimensions of Social Learning (DSL) Framework’, including 4 dimensions and 11 indicators of social learning, the present study explores the social configuration of one network of primary teachers (n?=?12), student teachers (n?=?12) and teacher educators (n?=?2). Two research questions guide this exploration: (1) What patterns of social behaviour in teacher networks are likely to lead to professional learning? (2) What network facilitation guidelines can be discerned to assist teachers and teacher educators wishing to optimise student teachers’ professional development? Data collection consisted of video recordings, reflective notes and semi-structured interviews with network members. The findings paint a picture of how social learning in teacher networks is related to the group’s social configuration. Observation criteria and student facilitation guidelines are suggested to support professional development within teacher networks. For each dimension in the DSL Framework, one point of attention is discerned to optimise students’ learning in teacher networks.     

Tensions and the Teacher’s Role in Student Teacher Identity Development in Primary and Subject Teacher Curricula

This paper describes a 2-year follow-up study on teacher identity development in different types of teacher education programmes. Teacher identity development was analysed with a focus on student teachers’ views of teacher’s roles and tensions experienced during their studies. Student teachers (n?=?20) were interviewed at the beginning and end of the master-level studies. Three types of tensions were identified: (1) conception of self versus professional role, (2) role expectations versus university training, (3) and multiple professional role expectations. The follow-up study showed that tensions tended to accumulate to some extent. However, successful consolidation of tensions appeared to depend on how the student teachers were able to recognise resources at their disposal, with implications for organisation of reflection support in teacher education.     

Professional primary school teacher identity development: a pursuit in line with an unexpressed image

The results presented in this article are taken from a case study of novice primary school mathematics teachers’ professional identity development from the perspective of the teachers themselves. The empirical material was collected through self-recordings, observations and interviews. The results show how the professional identity development of these novice teachers becomes a pursuit in line with their image of a primary school teacher. To develop a sense of themselves as primary school teachers they need to establish their own criteria - individual (including graduation and personal knowledge) and social (the ability to work in one school, have colleagues and have a class of their own for which they do the planning and teaching). These criteria are shown to be both a precondition for and a part of professional identity development. The novice teachers’ image of what it means to be a primary school teacher directs their actions and becomes the goal of their professional identity development. Because of its high impact, student and novice teachers’ image of primary school teachers ought to be made visible in both teacher education and teacher induction.     

Becoming a teacher: Coordinating past,present, and future selves with perspectival understandings about teaching

A longitudinal study is presented of how students preparing to become teachers conceptualized teaching and developed their identities as teachers. Findings were that contextualized momentary switchings between student and teacher perspectives accompanied participants' understandings about teaching and their negotiation of the process of becoming a teacher. Dynamic processes involved in constructing conceptions of teaching and self-as-a-teacher unfolded across three semesters, culminating in a more professional identity at program's end. The study contributes to teacher preparation research by making connections among aspects of professional development and suggesting a model of learning to teach, grounded in participants' situated perspectives on teaching.     

Multiple dimensions of teacher identity development from pre-service to early years of teaching: a longitudinal study

Based on dialogical self theory framework that highlights three dimensions of identity construction (multiplicity vs. unity; social vs. individual; discontinuity vs. continuity), this study explored multiple aspects of teacher identity development over time, in relation to the unity of self, the way the social environment is negotiated, and the shifting or continuing pattern over time. The study employed a qualitative, longitudinal study design that followed five pre-service teachers for four years, including three waves of interviews. Variations of each participant’s journey to develop their teacher identity over time are described. Implications relevant to researchers, teacher educators, and pre-service and beginning teachers are discussed.