This paper examines how student teachers in their first year of a teacher education programme develop insights of their ideal school and desired teaching. The research focuses on the pre-stage of practice teaching where students are exposed to different educational systems but do not yet experience teaching.  They explore, ‘the teacher within them’ and discover their own belief systems, values and perceptions about what it means to be a teacher and the type of school they would like to teach in (Sach, 2001, p.6).

Much research has dealt with growing into the profession (Flores and Day, 2006) the transition phases from student to teacher  (Huberman, 1991;Lacey, 1977; Lortie, 1975; Veenman, 1984; Vonk, 1993) and even becoming a student teacher (Malderez, Hobson, Tracey, &  Kerr, 2007). However, there is scarcity of research on the pre-phase of practice teaching, the stage where students are exposed to declarative knowledge (the What) rather than procedural knowledge (the How).

 Research has shown that learners view and interpret new information and experiences through their existing network of knowledge, experience and beliefs (Huberman, 1993; Desforges, 1995; Fosnot, 1996; Leshem & Trafford, 2006). They combine parts of their past, including their own experience in school and in teacher preparation with pieces of their present (Feiman-Nemser, 2001, p. 1029). Studies also reveal that prior experiences as pupils and former teachers who provide positive or negative models of teaching play a strong mediating role in the identities which new teachers bring into their first teaching experiences (Flores & Day, 2006). Based on these theoretical perspectives, we were interested to see how the learning that students experienced in a particular core course crystalized into a visualization of a desired school model that they had to design as their final assignment, and what principles, values and visions underlie their model, as a stage in their professional development (Zur, 2011). Thus the research question that guided our study is: How, if at all, does experiential learning of first year student teachers develop their perceptions of school and teaching?  

The conceptual framework for this research is based on theories which draw on the importance of prior life experiences on shaping the professional identity of student teachers, and the process of effecting change in a frame of reference (Mezirow, 1996).  These processes can occur in a framework of experiential learning whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience (Kolb, 1984). These perspectives shed light on the initial phases of student teaches’ learning processes and the dynamic nature of developing a professional identity.

This research contributes to previous research on student teachers development of a professional identity during teacher education and the role of teacher education programmes. 

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