What a difference a year makes: Mapping the teacher identity development of preservice primary teachers across a graduate entry program

Author(s):

Denise Beutel(presenting / submitting)Leanne Crosswell(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 06 B, Professional Identity and Teacher Education (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 10 SES 07 B

Time:

2016-08-24

15:30-17:00

Room:

NM-Theatre N

Chair:

Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

There is a growing global number of beginning primary school teachers undertaking their initial teacher training in graduate entry programs. Recent figures show an increase to 47% in Australia (McKenzie, Rowley, Weldon, Murphy & McMillan, 2014) and to 41% in England (Mercer, 2014). Becoming a teacher requires active engagement in an ongoing process of reflection and reframing perceptions of self, informed by the individual’s prior experiences, beliefs and values about teachers and schooling (Lortie, 1975). For individuals who are coming to teaching from other careers, the history that informs their emerging teacher identities also includes their diverse previous professional identities along with their work and life experiences. In this paper, teacher identity is interpreted as the perceptions that teachers have of themselves as teachers (Cattley, 2007). While some studies of teacher identity have related to images of self, others have emphasised teachers’ roles. However, who a teacher is as a person and how he/she acts professionally are closely intertwined and so a teacher’s personal and professional identity are intimately connected (Lamote & Engels, 2010). While a teacher’s identity begins with his/her perceptions of self as teacher, this identity continues to develop through interpretations and re-interpretations of experiences and interactions commencing in preservice teacher education (Sutherland, Howard, & Markauskaite, 2010). This paper explores the evolving teacher identities of a cohort of pre-service primary teachers as they progress through an Australian one-year graduate-entry teacher education program, mapping the changes, tensions and expectations at critical milestones. In Australia, primary schools cater for children aged from five years of age to twelve years of age. Primary school teachers are considered to be generalist teachers who teach across the curriculum, rather than discipline experts who teach one subject area only. This paper explores how the individual biographical histories and specific elements of the teacher education program influence the evolving teacher identities of this cohort. The study uses the theory of possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986; Hamman, Gosselin, Romano & Bunuan, 2010) to interrogate the hopes and fears and shifting teacher identities of this group. Possible selves describe the mental representations of an individual’s hopes and fears (Carroll, 2014) in relation to what they perceive they are able to achieve and become (their hoped-for selves) (Markus & Nurius, 1986) and also provide a lens for what a person hopes to avoid becoming (their feared selves) (Blanton, 2013). As such, possible selves act as structures through which current experiences are interpreted and evaluated and provide incentives that guide future behaviour (Markus & Nurius, 1986).

Method

This qualitative study used questionnaire data from a graduate entry cohort at four milestone points within their one-year program. Questionnaire data were collected upon entry to the program (n=63), after a one week immersion in classrooms (n=41) and after each of the two formal field experience periods ((n= 48) and (n=32)). Each questionnaire included open-ended questions that allowed for extended responses. In the initial questionnaire, the preservice teachers identified their background characteristics, such as age, gender and prior qualifications as well as identifying previous and current work experiences. The first questionnaire also asked the preservice teachers to identify their key reasons for wanting to become teachers, the perceived strengths they believe they are bringing to teaching, their perceptions of personal challenges relating to teaching and the professional challenges that they expect await them in the classroom. We were also interested in their perceptions of the qualities that constituted a ‘good’ teacher. Through subsequent questionnaires, we traced the preservice teachers’ reactions and reflections on their classroom experiences at times holding up a mirror to prevailing classroom practices and attitudes within the teaching profession. The data analysis involved the two researchers coding the data individually through an iterative process of content analysis with broad categories emerging after repeated readings of the data (Merriam, 2015). The data from each questionnaire were analysed horizontally as well as vertically. That is the complete set of responses of each participant in each questionnaire was examined as well as looking for emergent themes across the whole set of responses for each question in each questionnaire. Following the independent data analysis, the researchers met to share and discuss the emergent themes. The themes were reviewed and refined throughout the process.

Expected Outcomes

The research revealed that significant reshaping and reviewing of qualities, beliefs and experiences are required to develop teacher identity. In general, this cohort exhibited a strong sense of their possible selves as teachers as they entered the program. For a small group the various experiences throughout the program reaffirmed both their choice of teaching and their developing teacher identity. However, the majority of the cohort reported misalignment between their prior assumptions and imagined possible selves and the realities of classroom practice. Even on completion of the program, some participants reported unreconciled tensions around their possible teacher selves. The critical role of supervising teachers in shaping preservice teachers fledgling professional identities also became evident. In this one year program, preservice teachers are supervised by a different classroom teacher in each of the two field experience periods and the data revealed that participants clearly positioned their hoped-for and feared possible selves in direct relation to their perceptions of their supervising teacher’s practices, values and beliefs. Finally, the findings from this research indicate that prior experiences in other professions are highly influential in developing teacher identities. Expectations and norms from prior professional fields were often used as comparative benchmarks within the data. These previous professional experiences informed how the individual student was shaping (and reshaping) their emerging teacher identity. The level of reflexivity and reframing evident within this data reflects the quality of new teachers being recruited to the profession through these graduate-entry programs and the capacity they have for reframing and influencing the teaching profession they are entering.

References

References Blanton, H. (2013). Evaluating the self in the context of another: The three selves model of social comparision assimilation and contrast. In G. B. Moskowitz (Ed.), Cognitive social psychology: The Princeton symposium on the legacy and future of social cognition. Hoboken, NY: Taylor and Francis. Carroll, P. J. (2014). Upward self-revision: Constructing possible selves. Basic and Applied Psychology, 36(5), 377-385. Cattley, G. (2007). Emergence of a professional identity for the pre-service teacher. International Education Journal 8(2), 337-347. Hamman, D., Gosselin, K. Romano, J. & Bunuan, R. (2010). Using possible-selves theory to understand the identity develpment of new teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26, 1349-1361. Lamote, C. & Engels, N. (2010). The development of student teachers’ professional identity. European Journal of Teacher Education, 33(1), 3-18. Lortie, D. (1975). School teacher: A sociological inquiry. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Markus, H., and Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American Psychologist 41 (9): 954-969. McKenzie, Rowley, Weldon, Murphy and McMillan, (2014). Staff in Australia’s schools 2013: Main report on the survey. Canberra: Department of Education. Mercer, S. (2014). Initial teacher training census for the academic year 2014 to 2015. London: Department of Education. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/380175/ITT_CENSUS_2014-15_FINAL.pdf Merriam, S. (2015). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Sutherland, L., Howard, S., & Markauskaite, L. (2010). Professional identity creation: Examining the development of beginning teachers’ understanding of their work as teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, (26), 455-465.

Author Information

Denise Beutel (presenting / submitting)

Queensland University of Technology

Faculty of Education

Brisbane

Leanne Crosswell (presenting)