New teacher students and the formation of teacher identity
Author
Summary, in English
Focusing new teacher students has at least two different implications. The students are new in the meaning of being first term students. Analyses of the recruitment to teacher education show that the new students have other social characteristics than before.
During the last two decades fewer students from academic families and fewer students with high degrees from upper secondary school have entered teacher education. How do the new student’s different habitus influence the formation and development of teacher identity? The process of teacher identity formation is illustrated and analysed from qualitative interviews with students in different periods of their teacher education.
The first study presented here takes its starting point in interviews and a complementary survey to first term teacher students at Växjö university in 2007.
One of the main results, presented in this paper, is the student’s way of looking upon the teacher as mainly a social worker responsible for the pupils feeling well and comfortable among teachers and schoolmates. How is this student approach to teaching as social work to be understood and what are its consequences in the formation of teacher identity? From a professionalization perspective the formation of teacher identity can be understood as either a product of student’s individual school experiences (Lortie 1969) or the result of professional socialisation during several years in higher vocational education programs (Freidson, 1994). The results from this interview study are discussed in relation to these different standpoints.
During the last two decades fewer students from academic families and fewer students with high degrees from upper secondary school have entered teacher education. How do the new student’s different habitus influence the formation and development of teacher identity? The process of teacher identity formation is illustrated and analysed from qualitative interviews with students in different periods of their teacher education.
The first study presented here takes its starting point in interviews and a complementary survey to first term teacher students at Växjö university in 2007.
One of the main results, presented in this paper, is the student’s way of looking upon the teacher as mainly a social worker responsible for the pupils feeling well and comfortable among teachers and schoolmates. How is this student approach to teaching as social work to be understood and what are its consequences in the formation of teacher identity? From a professionalization perspective the formation of teacher identity can be understood as either a product of student’s individual school experiences (Lortie 1969) or the result of professional socialisation during several years in higher vocational education programs (Freidson, 1994). The results from this interview study are discussed in relation to these different standpoints.
Department/s
Publishing year
2008
Language
English
Pages
1-20
Document type
Conference paper
Topic
- Sociology
Keywords
- teacher education
- recruitment
- professionaliztion
- teacher identity
Conference name
24th Conference of Nordic Sociological Association
Conference date
2008-08-14 - 2008-08-17
Status
Unpublished