Source: Teaching Education, Volume 26, Issue 2, 2015, pages 196-221
In the context of the student-teaching practicum, interactions with cooperating teachers and pupils are believed to comprise the press for professional identity development, though theory-based explanations are often neglected in the literature, and findings are not always consistent.
To address this issue, the authors used grounded theory to articulate a model explaining the relations among three constructs important to the process of identity development of student teachers.
The participants were 14 student teachers.
The findings are organized around a model that highlights the phenomenon of “negotiating who I am as a teacher”.
This model helps the authors describe differences between student teachers who changed identity vs. those that did not, and psychological and contextual reasons for renegotiation of identity.
Discussion focuses on comparisons with previous models and possible implications for teacher education.