Reporting on a design-based research (DBR) (Barab & Squire, 2004) this paper is concerned with the transition of new entrants into third level education and towards professionalism, particularly within the domain of undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE). Contextualised by an undergraduate mathematics and education programme, this research project seeks to develop pre-service teachers’ emerging professional identities, as members of a pre-professional community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), evidenced through a collaborative engagement with the History of Education. This topic is considered, by many pre-service teachers, as difficult to reconcile to the practice of teaching (McCulloch, 2011). This research project seeks to develop a design methodology (Wang & Hannafin, 2005) to help new entrants to undergraduate ITE transition into third level education and towards professionalism by becoming members of an emergent collaborative Community of Practice (CoP).

The continuum of secondary school teaching has long been beset with concerns regarding the isolation of teachers in their classrooms and how that, established culture, perpetuates the perception of a teacher as an individual rather than members of a collaborative CoP (Lortie, 2002; Conway et al, 2009; European Commission, 2014). Efforts to ameliorate this issue have largely focused on in-service teachers, however a dearth of work exists in relation to developing such communities within ITE programmes. Of particular interest are new entrants to undergraduate ITE. These recent observants of in-service teachers also face the concomitant challenges of coping with life at third level education (Wagner, 2008; Hyland, 2011).

Building on key aspects of ITE that the European Commission have identified as pertinent to research in this area, that being an aspiration to ‘promote reflective practice and inquiry to enhance knowledge integration’ (Conway et al, 2009, p.xviii). Cochran-Smith (2003) and subsequently Munn (2008) contend that a researching practitioner should have the capacity to be dynamic, informed and informative ‘within the changing context in which they work’ (Cohran-Smith, 2003, p.24). Petty suggests that the learning experience of any practitioner should be founded on Kolb’s interpretation of experiential learning cycles (Petty, 2009) as part of ‘an integrated ITE curriculum that can support student teachers’ critical thinking, teaching and learning with relevant knowledge, understanding and research.’ (European Commission, 2014). Occurring in concert, has been the exponential growth in technology over recent decades, breaking down the boundaries between formal in informal educational settings (Kornbluh, 2008). Established therefore is a relationship between education and best facilitated by the design of Technology Enhanced Learning Environments (TELEs) (Wang & Hannifin, 2005). The convergence of these aspects of modern teaching underpin the motivation for educational research study which aims to develop a design methodology that is empirically rigorous and that can be effective in the pursuit of enabling undergraduate pre-service teachers to explore, together, their own histories of education with the explicit aim of establishing an emergent collaborative CoP at the point of entry to undergraduate ITE. This main objective is framed by the following research question and three core objectives:

How can a technology enhanced engagement with the history of education help new entrants to third level education transition into undergraduate ITE and become members of emergent collaborative CoP as they move towards professionalism?

• Design an intervention that enhances engagement with the history of education in a TELE.
• Iteratively refine the prototype design in a longitudinal study so that the formation of four distinct learning communities is facilitated, representative of an emergent collaborative community of practice.
• Output a robust and contextually flexible, design methodology for use by others, attempting to establish an emergent CoP in professional programmes, that is both adoptable and adaptable.

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