The formation of a professional identity in the initial stage of teacher training is a very important process for both students and their teachers. Detailed information about the expectations of students aspiring to become professional teachers can provide basic data for developing effective content and a structure for teacher training courses of the future. The general question posed by this paper is: What kinds of mechanisms have the strongest influence on the formation of a student teacher’s professional identity? Objectives are: • To analyze the identity statements of student teachers • To describe the mechanisms in initial teacher training that influence the professional identity of a student teacher Most theoretical and empirical studies about the content and quality of initial teacher training address the context and complexity of processes in teacher education. A cultural, political and economic context is inevitable in all social processes including learning about teaching. The concept of identity is only one aspect of this complex issue (Ashforth 2001, Castells 2004, Côté 1996, Côté & Levine 2002, Kroger 2007, Luhrmann 2001, Wenger 1998); investigations on the identity in the teacher profession have, however, concentrated mostly on novices, experienced teachers and professional self-concepts. Professional identity affects all aspects of a student’s personality and practice (Korthagen, Verkuyl 2007). To identify factors influencing student teachers perceptions a typology of the most significant statements about identity was devised. An attempt to create a typology is often accompanied by scepticism about the complexity of the phenomena and a lack of belief that an explanation can be achieved. A mechanism- and process-based view of explanation was, therefore, chosen. The focus was interviews with students about teaching practice in initial training. Analyzing the statements of experiences obtained during teaching practice, we drew conclusions on the student’s professional self-concept and factors that are most influential in development. Student statements can be divided into three categories: perceptions of themselves, perceptions of relationships and perceptions of the teaching environment. Concept mechanisms were also devised. Roughly three sorts of mechanism were identified: environmental, cognitive, and relational (Tilly 2001). It appeared that students were most influenced by cognitive aspects. Examples of most frequent statements will be presented.

Structured interviews, including identical questions asked of every student, were devised to indicate the most significant aspects of perceived professional identity based on the concept of ‘communities of practice’ (Wenger 1998). Interviews were conducted with 45 teacher students in Tallinn University in the academic year 2006/2007. The interviews were segmented and coded, categories of analysis were created and the results were analysed within this frame.

The main outcome is an outline of a typology of student teacher’s statements about their teacher identity (their teaching self) where the elements and dimensions of the more significant mechanisms are defined. .