The Role of ITE Along My Career Trajectory: A Personal Narrative of Interest and Experience
I donât feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think you would have the courage to write it?âŠThe game is worthwhile in so far as we donât know where it will end (Foucault 1988, p. 9)
The above quote reflects my lifeworld, the particular reason why I embrace the philosophy of post-structuralist/postmodernist French theorist Michel Foucault, with a particular affinity for his âtridentâ espousing scepticism, critique, and problematization, moreover, when coupled with my particular interest in and experience of initial teacher education (ITE) along the various stages of my personal and professional trajectory in both local and international contexts.
My resolve to become a teacher never wavered throughout my compulsory education years, despite guidance teachers regarding this as a âwasteâ and urging me to take up law or medicine, instead, claiming that my intellect was better suited for such âchallengingâ careers and that teaching could be pursued by more âmundaneâ students who did not need to be highfliers like I was, back then. My childhood dream was to become a teacher, mainly because of my love for books (passed on to me by my mother and further bolstered by the home environment literally littered with books), my insatiable appetite for learning anything new (especially if this went beyond my âsupposedâ age level), as well as the excellent teachers who left an indelible imprint on me in both my compulsory and further education years. Due to English being the first language I was exposed to from birth, and my preferred language of interaction, as well as the language I read books in, I enrolled for a Bachelor of Education course and graduated as a secondary teacher of English with First Class Honours in 1999. During my four-year undergraduate degree, we had study units in both methodology and foundations of education, as well as a teaching practice session in our last three years, building on weekly observation in schools from the first year. Early on, I discovered that there was quite a distinct gap between theory at university and practice in the classroom, as well as our interaction with our university tutor and the class teacher. I cannot deny that it was my initiation into the rite of passage leading to professional teaching, but the main focus was not on the teaching and learning process per se, but on the teaching practice file, on following the advised lesson plan format, on having as many resources as possible, on covering the curriculum content assigned by the class teacher, and mostly on ensuring that one gave a good performance on each of the four visits conducted by the assigned university tutors in order to obtain a pass mark in teaching practice, and thus graduate at the end of the four-year degree and hopefully get a job.
The six-week teaching practice block was an intense race of lesson planning and resource preparation at a time when modern technology was inexistent and where communication with our tutors was restricted to the visit period, while the class teacher was concerned with syllabus coverage â with the result that mentoring was lacking from both the higher education and school environment. It was a âsink or swimâ situation that was repeated in the initial period as a newly-qualified (NQT ) teacher where you enter the teaching profession full time, are bestowed with a permanent teacherâs warrant by the Ministry of Education and Employment, and the âprobationâ period is considered to be over at the end of your first year of teaching after three visits by the Education Officer concerned who gives you the âconfirmationâ at the end of the scholastic year. The jump from campus to classroom was a baptism of fire, in the sense that the majority of the theories were impossible to put into practice, and one had to forget about writing lesson plans with objectives and outcomes for every lesson! One was totally immersed in the professional setting without any guidance. I felt torn between being a student teacher still or a fully graduated NQT , not so much in the classroom where I managed to establish my authority as teacher from the very beginning, but more with the rest of the teaching staff and the senior management team (SMT) â some of the former did not take to my innovative teaching methods and wide array of resources too kindly, due to their set, conventional modus operandi. I did manage to find my place and eventually establish myself, but it was not without struggles. I wanted to make a difference for student teachers, therefore made sure to accept them in my classrooms and be their mentor and critical friend, as well as observe them informally during their teaching practice. This continued when I moved on to Deputy Headship, where I took the initiative to mentor NQTs and meet them regularly until their confirmation date and beyond. After reading for both my Masters and PhD degrees in educational leadership, I had the opportunity to take on a full-time lecturing post, which brought me in direct contact with ITE in a Scottish context. Discussions with both postgraduate and undergraduate ITE students during lectures, as well as teaching practice visits in Scottish schools, spurred my interest in the topic of student teacher identity and in doing a series of small scale qualitative studies with my own students. I was really impressed by the strong level of support offered to student teachers in Scottish schools, as well as their induction year as NQTs which was completely different to what I had been exposed to in Malta. Another thing that perplexed me was the equally important role played by the school in passing or failing students, as well as the studentsâ attitude towards theory, with their sole concern being with the practicum , therefore failing to make a link between theory and practice. A number of students I was tutoring experienced a visible tension between their personal and professional selves, resulting in doubts of self-presentation and performance in the school setting. My growing interest in ITE thus led me to explore various issues that contribute directly to student teacher identities, namely: the practicum ; career choice motivations; the role of the Professional Standards; teacher agency; as well as ITE policy and how this translates into practice.
I will now move on to outline the concept of teacher identity and how it contributes to ITE and subsequent professionalism.
The Concept of Identity in Professional Teacher Education
The concept of teacher professional identity is gaining ground in the research field as a burgeoning area of interest in twenty-first century education due to a plethora of reasons (Akkerman and Meijer 2011). For example, it serves to provide an insight into teacher reception and performance of education reform (Beijaard et al. 2004; Day 2002); teacher attrition and retention rates (Hong 2010); as well as teacher commitment and motivation (Day et al. 2005). Additionally, this concept âis of vital concern to teacher education, it is the basis for meaning making and decision makingâ (Bullough 1997, p. 21). Thus, the concept of teacher identity is unanimously agreed to be centre stage to teacher development (Rodgers and Scott 2008; Stenberg et al. 2014), which is mirrored in contemporary studies published in teacher education literature (for example, Anspal et al. 2012; Beauchamp and Thomas 2009; Stenberg et al. 2014; Trent 2011).
Teacher identity is an intricate and tangled web of influences and imprints rooted in personal and professional life experiences ⊠[it] reflects not only the professional, educational, and pedagogical aspects of being a teacher but â more importantly â the imprints of the complex interconnectedness of oneâs cumulative life experiences as a human being (Bukor 2015, p. 323).
Consequently, Beijaard et al. (2004) suggest novel pathways for future research on teachersâ professional identity, namely: relationships between the âselfâ and âidentityâ; contextual influences; as well as the real significance of âprofessionalâ in professional identity, mainly due to potential friction between the âpersonalâ and the âprofessionalâ due to these being unnecessarily distanced from each other. As a result, âProfessional identity is often interpreted in terms of individualsâ perceptions of themselves as a teacher and as the teacher they wish to becomeâ (Canrinus 2011, p. 3).
The Complexity of Teacher Identity: Dilemmas of Definition
The construction of teacher identity is heavily influenced by the context in which it is perceived and performed, being âdiscontinuous, fragmented, and subject to turbulence and change in the continuing struggle to construct and sustain a stable identityâ (Day et al. 2006, p. 613). This invisible yet inherent tension between fragmentation and stability and the mobilization of multiple, complex identities by the professional teacher unfolds in the in-between space between the âstructureâ (of the power-status relationship) and âagencyâ (in the influence exerted ...