Gallchoir, CO,O'Flaherty, J,Hinchion, C

2018

January

European Journal Of Teacher Education

Identity development: what I notice about myself as a teacher

Published

()

Initial teacher education identity making reflective practice School Placement STUDENT-TEACHERS REFLECTIVE PRACTICE EXPERIENCES EDUCATION APPRENTICESHIP TYPOLOGY CONTEXTS IMPACT

41

138

156

Teacher identity has been recognised as critical to the practice and development of teachers. However, there remains a paucity of scholarship capturing the voice of pre-service teachers' meaning making of their own development as teachers during initial teacher education. This paper sets out to explore seven pre-service teachers' meaning making of becoming a teacher. Reflections gathered using autobiographical narratives and teaching metaphors, were prompted by video clips of practice during School Placement. Results suggest that pre-service teachers' were initially drawn to the physical depiction of what a teacher looks like. Their meaning making then turned towards instances of dissonance between their prior meanings of what it is to be a teacher and their lived experiences of School Placement. These sources of dissonance challenged the pre-service teachers' ongoing construction of their teacher identity. The findings of this paper are discussed in terms of relevant literature.

10.1080/02619768.2017.1416087