Identity development: what I notice about myself as a teacher |
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| Authors: | Ciarán Ó Gallchóir Joanne O’Flaherty Carmel Hinchion |
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| Institution: | School of Education, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland |
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| Abstract: | 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. |
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| Keywords: | Initial teacher education identity making reflective practice School Placement |
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