Becoming a teacher: Coordinating past, present, and future selves with perspectival understandings about teaching

A longitudinal study is presented of how students preparing to become teachers conceptualized teaching and developed their identities as teachers. Findings were that contextualized momentary switchings between student and teacher perspectives accompanied participants' understandings about teaching and their negotiation of the process of becoming a teacher. Dynamic processes involved in constructing conceptions of teaching and self-as-a-teacher unfolded across three semesters, culminating in a more professional identity at program's end. The study contributes to teacher preparation research by making connections among aspects of professional development and suggesting a model of learning to teach, grounded in participants' situated perspectives on teaching.