In the field of teacher education, the teaching practicum has been described as a critical, important, and challenging aspect to student teachers since it is an opportunity for them to put theory into practice and to learn about the life of teachers. Existing literature on learning to teach during the teaching practicum has used teacher idenity construction as a framework, and these studies have reported the construction of teacher identity as a struggling process. It is becasue previous studies have employed “pathological lens,” looking the world through the lens of failure. As a result, little is known about how student teachers pass through this struggling process. By using teacher idenity as a lens, this study attempted to find answers to the folloing research questions, a)  How do student teachers construct and negotiate their teacher identity during the teaching practicum? b) How do student teachers pass through the process of struggle during the teaching practicum? and c) How does the teaching practicum support teacher identity construction?

To move away from the pathological lens, this study adopted a perspective of Goodness, derived from portraiture methodology, to investigate the teacher identity construction of English-major student teachers at a five-year teacher education program in Thailand while they are doing the teaching practicum. Through this lens, the author used postmodorn interviews, shadowing observatons, and artifact collections to elicit the data. The findings showed that student teachers constructed their teacher identiy through a socialization of learning, which is often conflict with their years of observations, a recollection of teacher image, and innitial expectations during their childhood experinces. The socialization learning process consists of performing "real teachers" activities and interacting with more experienced teachers. Student teachers passed through the struggling process with support machanisms, such as supports from peers, coaching teachers, supervising teachers, and family members. They often exchange emotions, tensions, and challenges with other peers who go though the same experience. The findings affirms the role of language as a mediation tool in identity construction. Finally, the teaching practicum strongly supported the teacher identity development. Depending on contexts and socialization, student teachers might develop positive or negative attitudes towards teaching, affecting the decision to enter the teaching profession. 

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