Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
374864 Teaching and Teacher Education 2009 14 Pages PDF
Abstract

This paper presents findings from an ethnographic study of beginning pre-service teachers enrolled in a large U.S. teacher preparation program (N = 34). Discussion focuses on participants' identity development as examined through the lens of the stories they learn and tell during and about their initial experiences of becoming teachers. Specifically, the analyses suggest that dissonance may play an important catalytic role in pre-service teacher identity development among the study participants. The stories participants tell illuminate their negotiations of conflicting stories about teaching, teachers work and themselves and inform a tentative theoretical model of identity development. The implications for teacher educators include immediate programmatic concerns as well as issues potentially related to teacher attrition.

Related Topics
Social Sciences and Humanities Social Sciences Education
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