The complexities and effectiveness of Initial teacher education (ITE) have become hegemonic policy issues in Europe (European Commission, 2014). Effective ITE programmes include extended school placements in schools that share the vision and values of the ITE programme (Zeichner & Conklin, 2008). Nevertheless, school placement practices vary greatly between European countries, with programme changes having occurred in several countries since publication of the 2013 Eurydice report. ITE programmes in the Republic of Ireland have been reconceptualised in recent years, with an extension to the duration of both concurrent and consecutive ITE programmes. Since 2014, consecutive ITE programmes have extended from one- to two-years in duration, with the Professional Diploma in Education (PDE) being replaced with a level 9 Professional Master of Education (PME). The publication of the Guidelines on School Placement (Teaching Council, 2013) has clearly defined the roles of stakeholders in ITE for the first time.

The socialisation of student teachers into the teaching profession has been widely explored. McNally, Cope, Inglis and Stronach (1997) indicated that the quality of transition from student teacher to teacher was determined by others; with the influence co-operating teachers, as well as other teachers have on the development of the student teacher, serving as a crucial condition for individual development. The social relationships that student teachers develop in school contexts are of central importance to their learning (ibid.). The key role partnerships and school placement contexts as professional communities play in student teacher learning is widely acknowledged (European Commission, 2014). One of the ways in which student teachers learn to become teachers is through situated learning, namely learning as a collaborative social practice and gradual growth into a community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991). This learning happens through legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) in communities of practice (CoP) (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Therefore, situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991) and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) provide the theoretical framework for this paper.

This paper is part of a longitudinal study that explores the experiences of Maynooth University student teachers while on school placement, with a particular focus on the support structures available to them. Our study examines the ways in which identity is constructed by involvement in communities of practice, in this regard involvement in schools as organisations, the teachers within them and, at a more fundamental level, the staffroom within which they work, and how these ways of construction of identity have changed between 2009 and 2015/16. We explore the processes in place to assist student teachers in moving from LPP towards central/core participation where experienced practitioners work. Processes such as school-specific induction practices are examined, with a focus on induction into the school and to the profession as sub-categories of the process.

The study has been carried out with four cohorts of student teachers in Maynooth University in 2008-09, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16.  This paper compares data gathered from the 2009 cohort with the current 2015-16 cohort and presents the findings from student teachers’ experiences during the initial month of their school placement. It considers how changes to the programme since 2009 have impacted on the experiences of the student teachers on school placement and the extent to which changes at national level (DES, 2011; Teaching Council, 2011a, 2011b, 2013) are affecting experiences on the ground.

The research objectives for the study include:

1. Exploring the types of formal and informal support made available to student teachers;
2. Identifying the challenges experienced by them while on School Placement;
3. Examining the development and transformation of the student teacher. 

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