The OECD 2030 Goals (2018) identify the important role agency and co-agency plays as individuals and communities respond to global uncertainty. Teachers charged with preparing individuals who develop “a sense of responsibility to participate in the world and, in so doing, to influence people, events and circumstances for the better” (OECD, 2018, p. 4), require these desirable attributes to be cultivated during their teacher education. However, in an era of accountability and increasingly regulated teacher education programs, opportunities to develop professional agency in preservice teachers compete in a crowded arena.

In many western countries teachers’ work is undervalued and seen as an easy career option (Richardson & Watt, 2016). The discourses de-valuing teaching as a profession are reinforced through incomes non-commensurate with other professional roles, negative reports in the media, and programs that promote teachers as technicians. If preservice teachers are studying and gaining experience in this context, how can their own sense of professional agency be enhanced so that they may be able to positively influence their profession and the lives of others while also protecting their own well-being?

Our comparative study from Australia and North Macedonia explored how reflection activities support the development of professional identity within systems of teacher education, each driven by economic and policy constraints. Reflection, known to be an important aspect of teacher professional growth (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2010), is often not explicitly taught and specific practices and processes are assumed rather than integrated into learning opportunities. Finlay (2008) contends that context influences how reflection is actioned and is understated in the literature.

The purpose of the study was to provide an environment where students could engage in a range of reflection activities to examine their possible teaching selves. Our goal was to provide opportunities for preservice teachers to explore their beliefs about teaching and to examine creative possibilities related to professional concerns so they may develop a) more sophisticated conceptions of teaching, b) a robust professional identity and c) a compelling sense of agency that includes the capacity for self-care as well as competence and efficacy to respond to the diverse needs of their students.

The conceptual framework of this study is shaped by Conway’s (2001) notion of anticipatory reflection and the interconnectedness of professional agency, identity and wellbeing (McKay, 2019). We theorise these concepts using Markus and Nurius’s (1986) idea of possible selves and Dörnyei and Kubanyiova’s (2014) notion of vision, i.e. a future possible self-concept which promotes self-motivation because it is achievable, without being comfortably certain.

Professional agency, identity and wellbeing

Within teacher education we understand professional agency a) is socially constructed and linked with identity as a fluid concept that is temporal and contextually bound; b) involves personal qualities such as motivation and self-efficacy in facilitating learning or change (Soini et al., 2015); c) is a learnable skill that can change through experience rather than an inherent quality (Schoon, 2018); d) includes making choices related to self-care to prioritise a balance between developing the knowledge and skills associated with preservice teachers’ future careers with the demands of their personal lives (Eteläpelto et al., 2013).

Self-care is important for teachers to activate as a means of “preventing or ameliorating the negative consequences of professional stress” (Grise-Owens et al., 2018, p. 181). While a well-developed professional identity can act as a barrier in stressful contexts, negotiating that identity during preservice teacher education may result in emotional dissonance as a consequence of challenges to, and transformation of deeply held values and beliefs (Korthagen, 2017). Exploration of these emotions through individual and collaborative reflection provides fertile ground for self-care and identity development (Zembylas, 2003).

Our study included 8 preservice teachers from Australia studying to be classroom teachers (n=6 primary; n=2 secondary) and 9 preservice teachers from North Macedonia studying to teach English as a foreign language in primary and secondary classes. These students, all female, were in their penultimate semester of their undergraduate teacher education. Students created a bird-eye perspective of their imagined ideal classroom. During this group process the physical and aesthetic aspects of the room were explored in relation to how the students and teacher negotiated learning in this context; and how their observations from their own histories reflected within this ideal classroom. Participants then collaboratively identified the qualities of the ideal teacher using the collage technique. Individual reflection followed to consider those ideal teacher qualities suggested in the collages that resonated with the pre-service teachers. Conversations were recorded and verbatim transcripts were prepared prior to analysis. The data set comprised of the verbatim transcripts, individual written reflections and the images produced by the participants. Applying a social cognitive lens (Bandura, 1986) data was interpreted using thematic analysis in relation to the interconnected influences on the preservice teachers’ possible selves. Following four stages of thematic analysis –initialisation, construction, rectification, and finalisation (Vaismoradi et al., 2016) data were examine, initially as a set from each country and then as a cross country comparison. Data transcripts were read by the lead researchers from each country. Units of meaning were highlighted and annotated and used to identify codes which were then discussed and refined through synchronous and asynchronous discussions between the lead authors. Participants’ images were also examined in relation to the coding, considering personal experiences, context of learning and teaching and the emotional responses to consideration of social justice and equity in education. Working between the transcripts, researcher notes, and the literature, concept map of each country’s data set was constructed to organise the codes and categories. The shared discussion between researchers “helped to explore interpretations of findings and give evidence to confirmability of theme[s]” (Vaismoradi et al., 2016, p. 106) that were generated. Finally, the story lines that were constructed based on meaning making from the participants’ experiences in each country were brought together while maintaining their voices in the narrative.

Our findings indicate that these preservice teachers have a very clear understanding of the ideal classroom and the qualities that they associated with the teacher’s role in this classroom. This suggests that important motivational processes of crafting professional vision are under way. The preservice teachers are also very articulate about the contrast between the real and ideal contexts that they perceive exist in education. Despite being offered very different opportunities for authentic teaching in the two teacher education contexts, participants in both settings offer a range of suggestions about how such discrepancies can be reduced, which suggests that their vision for themselves is realistic and achievable. It can be argued that discussing the above issues in the safety of a group of like-minded colleagues is likely to lead to intensifying the identity processes currently taking place, as well as developing more elaborate strategies for dealing with any gaps between the current and the ideal. Our findings provide a detailed understanding about the factors that support or detract preservice teachers from developing a strong sense of their future selves during initial teacher education. We anticipate these processes will support preservice teachers’ emerging professional agency so that imagination, emotion, thoughts, feelings and actions of the ideal self may be actioned within their future selves. The processes of reflection strengthened the preservice teachers’ future oriented teacher identity adding valuable insight into their professional agency and future self-care. These are important understandings to support longevity in teaching as a career and important considerations in the contexts of highly regulated teacher education programs and potentially stressful teaching environments in many western countries. Our presentation includes recommendations for teacher educators and teacher education program developers as well as suggestions for future research.

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