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Constructing a Sense of Purpose and a Professional Teaching Identity: Experiences of Teacher Candidates with Disabilities |
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| Authors: | Adam Moore Victoria Kern Alexis Carlson Annemarie Vaccaro Jordan A Abbott |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Education, Roger Williams University, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA;2. Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College Student Personnel Program, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA;3. School of Education, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA;4. College Student Personnel Program, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, USA;5. Department of Student Development, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA |
| Abstract: | AbstractUsing grounded theory, we examined the ways in which undergraduate teacher candidates with disabilities developed a sense of purpose and constructed professional identities. Our findings suggest K-12 experiences with advocacy as well as exclusionary school experiences influenced their emerging professional identities. Resistance to a deficit view of disability was central to teachers’ professional identities and influenced their desire to become “change agents” in their future professions. We describe collegiate experiences that affirmed or presented roadblocks to their career path. |
| Keywords: | college students with disabilities preservice teachers with disabilities professional identity sense of purpose teacher education |