'I Felt Like A Teacher Today': Beginning Teachers and Professional Identity
Year: 2005
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: In this paper, we consider the way in which beginning teachers seek to construct their professional identity as they enter the teaching profession. We report on findings of an ongoing research project into the experiences of beginning teachers in NSW in the course of their first two years in the profession. We argue from case studies and a state-wide survey that the employment contexts in which beginning teachers enter the profession appear to affect significantly the capacity of newcomers to the profession to develop strong personal professional identities as teachers. We explore the construct of professional identity in the light of beginning teachers' images of teaching and the formation and re-formation of their views about teaching and their place in it as they move from teacher education institutions to take up differing teaching positions in schools. The findings suggest that those involved in teacher preparation programmes and in the induction of beginning teachers into the profession need to understand, acknowledge and strengthen the individual's view of self as teacher in the early year of teaching in order to ensure that commitment to the profession can be sustained through the difficulties inherent in early experiences of learning to teach.
Authors: Marilyn Pietsch, John Williamson
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2538537249