1. Introduction

   The significance of teachers’ professional identity in teachers’ professional practice has been identified in many empirical studies (Czerniawski,2010; Hammerness et al.,2005;Nias, 1989) , though it has been reported that professional identity formation is often presented as a struggle, because (student) teachers have to make sense of varying and sometimes competing perspectives, expectations, and roles that they have to confront and adapt to. (Beijaard et al, 2004). If the different role expectations means the possibilities for student teachers’ professional identity formation, the reality shows that the outcome of the struggle of professional identity formation is not always been satisfactory (Darling-Hammond,2003; Suell & Piotrowski, 2007) . To address this concern, it is important to understand what the different role expectations held by the different stakeholders and how they shape the student teachers’ professional identities. The current study represents one step towards this goal by investigating the experience of four student teachers’ learning to teach and their emerging professional identities in a Chinese context.

2. Theoretical Framework

According to the socio-cultural theory, identity is recognized as being closely dependent on the context and as the outcome of the learning process, which is presented as the participation of individuals in socially meaningful activities that are valued by particular communities (Lave & Wenger,1991; Rogoff,1995; Wenger,1998). In other words, teachers’ professional identity construction is completed by learning to participate in the social and cultural practices with regard to education. For this reason, understanding of the context and the experience of student teachers’ school-based learning to teach, would contribute the development of teachers’ professional identity construction theory.

3.Research Questions

How do student teachers perceive their professional identities?

How do student teachers experience their school-based learning to teach?

How do the different role expectations influence their learning experience?

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