Initial teacher education constitutes a key moment in the construction of teacher identity, understood as a dynamic, relational, and situated process that takes shape at the intersection of personal trajectories, institutional frameworks, and sociopolitical contexts (Finney & Philpott 2010; Jurasaite-Harbison & Rex 2010; Varis et al. 2023). In the case of secondary education in Spain, this process unfolds primarily within the framework of the Master’s Degree in Teacher Education for Compulsory Secondary Education, Upper Secondary Education, Vocational Education and Training, and Language Education (MAES), a consecutive program that has been the subject of ongoing debate due to persistent tensions between theoretical training, practical experience, and the construction of professional meaning (Imbernón 2019; Flores 2018).

Following Blanchard and Fernandes (2021), initial teacher education is a dialogical space where theory and practice intersect to reshape values and beliefs, and teacher identity emerges as an evolving narrative shaped by experience. As Imbernón (2019) argues, teacher education should foster critical participation and ethical commitment to social justice, a challenge the MAES addresses in seeking to integrate pedagogical knowledge with a dynamic professional identity.

Studies on teacher identity among in-service teachers have shown that vocation and commitment to students function as intrinsic drivers of identity construction, while coexisting with extrinsic motivations such as job stability or social recognition (McIntyre et al. 2017). In the context of initial teacher education, the Practicum plays a central role in transforming these motivations into reflective commitments by confronting idealized beliefs with the realities of classroom practice (Goldshaft & Sjølie 2024).

Within the European context, where a consecutive model of initial teacher education predominates—characterized by strong disciplinary training at the undergraduate level followed by a one-year specialized master’s program—research has shown that this structure often reproduces a fragmentation between universities and schools. As a result, the Practicum tends to function as a poorly articulated training space, weakly connected to academic learning and strongly shaped by local school cultures (McIntyre et al. 2017; Leite & Sousa-Pereira 2022). This fragmentation has direct effects on how prospective teachers understand their role, value their training, and project their professional identity, particularly in contexts marked by high levels of job insecurity, teacher burnout, and growing questioning of the social meaning of the profession (Brooks 2021; Tillin 2023).

These tensions unfold within complex political scenarios. Global studies have shown how accountability policies, performativity, and educational reforms directly shape identity-related processes, placing pressure on the meanings of teacher professional development and professional commitment (Ehren et al. 2023; Ball 2016), even from the earliest stages of teachers’ trajectories. Such pressures can hinder the realization of teacher professionalism as an exercise grounded in judgment, responsibility, and democratic commitment. For this reason, institutional settings—such as schools in the case of in-service teachers, or universities in the context of initial teacher education—take on a crucial role, as they can function as relational contexts in which prospective teachers develop their professionalism collaboratively with other actors and in response to major social transformations.

Against this backdrop, this paper aims to analyze the construction of teacher identity in initial teacher education within the MAES through an ethnographic immersion conducted in Spain at a public university in Andalusia, focusing specifically on the preparation of future STEM teachers. This study is part of a five-year national research project aimed at understanding the relationship between teacher identity, the teaching role, and relationships with students at the secondary level in Spain, using a range of methodological strategies that include case studies, narrative studies, and comparative ethnographies across three countries.

This study adopts a qualitative approach and corresponds to an educational ethnography conducted within a broader research project on teacher identity. The paper presents exclusively the findings from the ethnographic immersion carried out in Spain, conceived as an intensive case study. Context and Participants The research was conducted within a MAES program at a Spanish public university, specifically in the specialization of Technology, Computer Science, and Industrial Processes. The ethnographic immersion took place over four consecutive months, allowing for continuous observation of the group’s formative experience. Systematic shadowing was conducted with the MAES student group, accompanying their participation in classes, formal and informal spaces, and everyday academic dynamics. Shadowing is a qualitative strategy of intensive observation that involves continuously accompanying a group or actor in their daily activities, following their practices, interactions, and movements in real-life contexts. It enables access to the situated experience of learning and work, capturing formal and informal dynamics that do not always emerge in interviews. In educational research, this strategy is particularly useful for understanding relational processes, decision-making, and meaning-making as they unfold in real time. This approach made it possible to observe, in a situated manner, how meanings, relationships, and learning are constructed throughout the ordinary course of the program. Data production included in-depth interviews with six MAES students, fifteen university faculty members, and one school-based practicum tutor. The interviews were designed to reconstruct perceptions, evaluations, and experiences related to the training received, the teaching role, and the relationship between university and school. In addition, twenty self-narrative micro-stories were generated through personal diaries written by the students. At all stages, appropriate ethical safeguards were implemented, ensuring anonymity and voluntary participation. Data Analysis Data analysis was conducted through thematic analysis, following an iterative process of open and axial coding aimed at identifying patterns of meaning related to teacher identity, the theory–practice relationship, and formative experience. The analysis was supported by ATLAS.ti software (v.25) and incorporated strategies of data source and methodological triangulation, as well as analytic review by researchers not directly involved in the fieldwork.

The ethnographic findings show that teacher identity within this MAES program is constructed in a context shaped by structural and relational tensions, particularly in the articulation between university-based training and the Practicum. The program’s everyday experience reveals a persistent gap between formative discourses oriented toward critical reflection and the practices actually lived by students, who are confronted with contradictory demands regarding what it means to “be a teacher.” The Practicum emerges as a key identity turning point, functioning in many cases as a space of confrontation between expectations and school reality. The influence of school-based mentors and local school cultures proves decisive in the reaffirmation, redefinition, or questioning of teaching vocation, directly shaping the meanings attributed to the profession and to the continuity of the professional project. At the same time, the ethnography reveals an ambivalent valuation of theoretical knowledge. While students acknowledge its potential to illuminate the social role of teachers and to problematize education, they also call for stronger connections to concrete classroom situations and to everyday work with adolescents. These tensions shape how prospective teachers negotiate their identity at the intersection of formative ideals, working conditions, and personal trajectories. At the same time, prior experience and previous training operate as a foundation for resignifying both practice and teacher identity. Many students are engineers who, in addition to expressing a vocation for teaching, articulate a legitimate interest in achieving more stable working conditions—even if this entails lower income—linked to specific life trajectories. In this sense, initial teacher education makes visible the tension inherent in teacher identity across two of its central dimensions: labor identity and professional identity.

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