The development of student teachers’ professional identity

This study focuses on student teachers’ perceptions of their professional identity. The respondents are students enrolled in a three‐year course in secondary education teaching at bachelor level. Questionnaires were filled out by first‐year, second‐year and third‐year students from two colleges. The questionnaire included four scales: commitment to teaching, professional orientation, task orientation and self‐efficacy. In the first five months of the first‐year course, a shift in students’ task orientation was observed: students developed a more pupil‐centred view on teaching. Practical experience with classroom teaching again caused a shift: students focused less on the subject matter, on maintaining order in the classroom, on the long‐term educational qualification targets and self‐efficacy decreased. Students with work placement experience developed a more ‘realistic’ view of learning and teaching compared to students without this experience. A final important difference in professional identity is based on students’ gender: while male students tend to attach more importance to discipline in the classroom, their female counterparts focus more on student involvement.     

Vectors of identity development during the first year: black first-generation students’ reflections

In this study, black South African first-generation students’ experiences related to identity development during their first year at a higher education institution were explored. Chickering and Reisser’s [1993. Education and Identity. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass] seven-vector identity development theory served as overarching framework. The focus group discussions and individual interviews of ten black first-generation students were analysed thematically. Participants experienced their first year as a time of instability, mostly due to inadequate preparation for the psychological, social, and especially academic challenges of higher education. Black first-generation students’ ability to remain connected to their family while forming new social connections on campus enabled them to feel safe in their exploration of new worldviews, relationships, and occupational considerations. Black first-generation students’ unique progression in vector attainment confirms the importance of research on the application of Chickering’s theory in a more diverse higher education environment.     

A novice mathematics teacher educator–researcher’s evolution of tools designed for in-service mathematics teachers’ professional development

This study documented the process of evolution of the continuous design and revision of the tools of a novice mathematics teacher educator–researcher (MTE-R) as he planned and implemented design-based professional development workshops for in-service mathematics teachers in Taiwan. In order to effectively facilitate teachers designing and implementing their own conjecturing activities during the workshops, the MTE-R fostered their professional learning and growth through reflection upon students’ performance. From the perspective of activity theory, this study examined the evolution of the MTE-R’s mentoring activities and tools whose design gradually changed from being based on the literature content toward being learner-centered activities with teachers as learners. Such evolution not only enhanced teachers’ learning outcomes, but also facilitated the MTE-R’s own professional growth in different areas, including mathematics, mathematics learning, mathematics teaching, teacher education, and, in particular, the extrapolation of generic examples for understanding mathematical concepts.     

An expert EFL reading teacher’s readers club: reader identity and teacher professional development

This study unveils a tertiary EFL reading teacher’s reader identity and its interconnectedness with her pedagogical decisions through narrative inquiry. Community of Practice was employed to elucidate the sources of this reading teacher’s reader identity and the interplay between that and her teaching practice. Findings from the categorical content analysis show that this reading teacher’s reader identity was projected through her strong passion towards reading. An interactive reading process that results in a better self-understanding is experienced through the reader’s reflection on her readings. She reified her reader identity in her teaching practice by forming a readers club. Reader (teacher)-text- reader (student) interaction is thus the most salient feature of this readers club and serves as a mediator that connects the members. Along with this feature, her competence of synchronicity with students was observed in this experienced reading teacher. Pedagogical implications concerning teacher education are discussed.     

A school leaders’ professional development project The first year: Progress in researching the professional development needs of secondary school headteachers

Ted Wadsworth is a professional counsellor, educator and trainer. He has taught and counselled in schools for many years before taking up his present position in 1976, and has had a long‐standing interest in the personal and social development of adolescents, a sympathy for their teachers and headteachers and a concern for the organizational health of secondary schools. He has concerns also for equity in education and a desire to see much greater participation by minority groups in a more empowering form of education. As a counsellor educator he has had many contacts with schools and headteachers and has worked to integrate counselling and pastoral care within schools as organizations.

This paper describes the first stage of an investigation into the professional development needs of secondary school heads. The time period is November 1986 to November 1987. The aims of the research are to ascertain what professional development needs the heads have and what strategies might be used to meet them. The style of the investigation is ethnographic and action research. The researcher convened and ran seminars/workshops for the heads, their deputies and sometimes other school leaders twice a term for the year, acted as a consultant to two heads and conducted a school development exercise (in the school of one of the heads to whom he was a consultant). Also 12 heads were interviewed in depth about their professional development needs. Finally, a questionnaire was developed from the total findings and sent to all 60 heads in the Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Central Plateau areas. A two‐year programme for school leaders was developed and has already commenced.     

A language teacher’s agency in the development of her professional identities: A narrative case study

This narrative case study examined how a Hispanic language teacher invested agency while developing professional identities in different contexts. A recursive analysis of interviews and journal entries indicated that the participant’s English language learning experience, the discrimination and marginalization in the work environments, and the knowledge gained through graduate studies all shaped her agency and professional identities development. The findings highlight the complex links among and significant roles of ethnic and racial background, past experience, and power differentials in shaping the dynamic nature of teacher agency and identities.     

How can a dialogue support teachers’ professional identity development? Harmonising multiple teacher I-positions

The present study uses Dialogical Self Theory to explore the extent to which a dialogue supports teachers' professional identity development. Using a narrative approach that includes interviews, observations of educational activities and collective meetings, insight is gained into teachers’ I-positions, meta-positions and promoter positions. The findings suggest that a dialogue, in which teachers talk about boundary experiences and articulate I-positions, stimulates teachers to reflect on their teaching behaviour from a meta-position and enables them to harmonise their multiple I-positions. Moreover, it stimulates teachers to develop their identity as a teacher and to change their teaching behaviour.     

Understanding change through a high school mathematics teacher’s journey to inquiry-based teaching

This article focuses on an experienced high school mathematics teacher who changed her practice without participating in planned interventions aimed at producing this change. It reports on the nature of the teacher’s change from her perspective and an interpretation and understanding of the change from the researcher’s perspective. It illustrates how meaningful change can occur when the process is initiated and rooted in the teacher’s experience based on a tension in self and/or practice that is personal and real to him or her. It discusses three types of change that are possible depending on the level of engagement of the teacher in professional development opportunities: instrumental change, conceptual change, and foundational change.     

Tracing the development of preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs in teaching mathematics during fieldwork

This paper focuses on efficacy beliefs with respect to teaching mathematics; it aims at testing and validating an existing scale for measuring efficacy beliefs in the domain of mathematics, examining the development of preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs in mathematics during fieldwork, and identifying factors that contribute to the development of these beliefs. Exploratory factor analysis applied to longitudinal data collected through a questionnaire administered to almost 90 preservice teachers elicited a two-factor model, reflecting efficacy beliefs in mathematics instruction and classroom management. Using cluster analysis, we found four patterns in the development of preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs regarding these two factors. Our analysis of semi-structured interviews with eight participants representing these four patterns suggested that preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs were mainly informed by experimentation with teaching and interaction with mentors, tutors, peers, and pupils. Based on our findings, we draw implications for mathematics preservice teacher education and provide suggestions for future research.

One‐year teaching internships and the dimensions of beginning teacher development

The authors draw on data from weekly e‐mail responses to a questionnaire completed by beginning teachers placed in one‐year, paid, internships. Interns were assigned mentors who responded every several weeks, also via e‐mail, to a questionnaire about the interns and their development. Data from 23 interns were analyzed. Seven themes were identified that capture various dimensions of intern development. To portray the nature, direction and complexity of intern development, each of the dimensions is conceptualized in terms of opposable orientations to the defining aspect of each theme. The authors use the dimensions and their related orientations to organize the data for discussion. Conclusions related to each dimension are situated within the wider research literature on teacher development, and some similarities and differences are noted between this group of interns and what is widely reported about beginning teacher development.

One‐year teaching internships and the dimensions of beginning teacher development

All authors

Robert V. Bullough, Jr * , Janet Young & Roni Jo Draper

https://doi.org/10.1080/1354060042000224124

Published online:

04 August 2006

Table     

A primary teacher’s mathematics teaching: the development of beliefs and practice in different “supportive” contexts

This article refers to a longitudinal case study of a primary school teacher over a period of 4 years. The focus is on the development of the teacher’s beliefs regarding mathematics teaching and learning from the last year of her university studies up to the third year of teaching mathematics in school. This development has been investigated within three different contexts, which have been distinguished in terms of the kind of support provided to this teacher. Two dominant beliefs emerged which have been traced through the period of the study from both the teacher’s reflections and actions. The first belief drew on the idea that what was considered an easy mathematical task by an adult could also be easily understood by children, while the second was that children learn mathematics through their actual involvement in a variety of teaching activities. The results indicate the way that teacher’s experiences from her university studies, actual classroom practice and inservice education interact and influence her beliefs and professional development.     

A narrative analysis of a teacher educator’s professional learning journey

This article reports on a narrative analysis of one teacher educator’s learning journey in a two-year professional development project. Professional development is conceived of as the complex learning processes resulting from the meaningful interactions between the individual teacher educator and his/her working context. Our analysis indicates that the capacity to manage such interactions contributes strongly to teacher educators’ experience of vulnerability. We analytically describe three strategies (building positive self-esteem, sustaining moral commitment and purpose, and strategical compliance) to cope with this vulnerability and their impact on processes of professional development as well as the outcomes of it. Understanding the role of the working context – and vulnerability as a structural characteristic of that context – in professional development processes adds to existing knowledge of teacher educators’ professional lives and development.     

The role of concrete materials in Emma Castelnuovo’s view of mathematics teaching

Emma Castelnuovo (1913–2014) was an Italian mathematics teacher of grades 6 to 8 in secondary school. During the crucial period of the 1950s and 1960s, when important reforms were proposed, she was involved in significant events such as the first CIEAEM meetings and the Royaumont Seminar. She was an active contributor to the development of international cooperation in mathematics education and was one of the first authors in the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics. Thanks to pioneers such as Emma, the figure of teacher-researcher took shape and the milieu of mathematics education was forever changed. The main aim of Emma’s work as an innovative teacher was to actively involve learners. In outlining Emma’s action as a mathematics educator, we will pay particular attention to the use of concrete materials as this was a favorite means by which she pursued her aims.     

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.     

Teachers’ experience from a school-based collaborative teacher professional development programme: reported impact on professional development

The aim of this study was to find out how science teachers who have participated in a one-year school-based collaborative teacher professional development programme, perceive the programme’s impact on their professional development. Constant comparative analysis was used on data from three schools to generate the findings in this study. The results indicate that participating teachers perceived a clear effect on their teaching practice and ways of thinking about teaching science. In addition, the findings identify a positive effect on the teachers’ attitudes towards collaboration. The article further discusses how reflection seems to contribute to the teachers’ professional development.     

Mobility,place and affect in transnational teacher education graduates’ accounts of their first year teaching

In this article, we consider how mobility, immobility, embodiment and affect appeared in research with 13 beginning teachers who were ‘bonded’ graduates of a twinned (Malaysia-New Zealand) teacher education programme. We discuss the teachers' accounts of moving place, and being placed in new schools; ‘moving selves’, or experiencing a changed sense of self as new teachers; ‘moving students’, or seeing shifts in students' educational outcomes; and being moved by (responding affectively to) student learning and behaviour. Our study highlights the need in internationalised teacher (and higher) education to pre-empt challenges inherent in moving ‘home’ or to new places to work.     

Learning to become a teacher in Australia: a study of pre-service teachers’ identity development

This study aims to examine how pre-service teachers learn to teach in Australia context during their practicum and how this learning experience constructs their identities as teachers through activity theory framework. Data were drawn from interviews with two pre-service teachers, interviews with their supervising teachers and university mentors, lesson plans, and supervising teacher’s feedback. The findings indicate that the two pre-service teachers’ identity formation is a continuing process and an outcome of the collective activity through their interaction with their coordinating teachers, mentors and students. We argue that teachers’ identity formation is related to their agency to seek and offer support to others. The pre-service teachers could produce and reproduce their identity in the relevant community through their agentive action to interact with others.     

The co-construction of learning difficulties in mathematics—teacher–student interactions and their role in the development of a disabled mathematical identity

Leaning on a communicational framework for studying social, affective, and cognitive aspects of learning, the present study offers a new look at the construction of an identity of failure in mathematics as it occurs through teaching–learning interactions. Using the case of Dana, an extremely low-achieving student in 7th grade mathematics, I attempt to unearth the mechanisms of interaction between Dana and myself, her teacher, that instead of advancing Dana, perpetuated her failure. Through examining the interactional routines followed by Dana and me, I show how Dana’s deviations from normative routines resulted in my identification of Dana as “clueless” in mathematics. This identification, shared both by Dana and by me, was accompanied by adherence to ritual rule following that did not enable Dana’s advancement in mathematical discourse. This case points to the need to re-examine permanent difficulties in mathematics in light of the reciprocal nature of such difficulties’ (re)construction in teaching-and-learning interactions.     

The influence of teacher education on mentor teachers’ role perception in professional development schools

Apprenticeship and professional development schools (PDSs) are two models for teacher education. The mentors that are the focus for this research completed their initial teacher training through one of these models and now mentor in PDSs. The paper reports on how the way in which they were trained as student teachers influenced their role perceptions. The findings suggest that mentor teachers who were trained via the PDSs model have a broader conceptual understanding of their role perception.