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theses

Professional identity development is a complex phenomenon experienced by preservice teachers before, during, and after their time spent in a teacher education program. Developing an effective praxis is also a complex phenomenon experienced by preservice teachers. Preservice teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, and experiences in teacher education programs shape their professional identity. What my study explored is the “how” about teacher identity development. My study is an inquiry into a black box: How does a preservice teacher’s sense of professional identity development during the Clinical II Student Teaching Practicum semester?

As a clinical instructor in three New Jersey teacher education programs, my work piqued my interest in preservice teacher identity development and the possible linkages with emerging praxis. I observed preservice teachers flourish in their field placement classrooms and I witnessed others flounder with their praxis. I also observed preservice teachers flounder and then flourish, and, to my dismay, I witnessed preservice teachers who floundered and then failed in their quest to become teachers. Teachers and teaching practices have primarily been studied by what teachers do while ignoring what might be going on with what they experience (Freeman, 2000). There is limited research on the linkages between professional identity development and praxis. Grossman (2008) and Cochran-Smith and Zeichner (2009) call for more thorough research on the linkages between identity development and preservice teachers’ praxis. This study answers that call in its systematic documentation of how a purposive sample of five preservice teachers, enrolled in a northeastern university’s college of education in their Clinical II Student Teaching Practicum semester, experienced becoming a teacher. An interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach allowed for a nuanced examination of the types and complexities of relationships between identity formation and praxis. Mixed methods were used to collect data in a pretest and posttest design.

Findings for this study indicate that teacher identity prescribes teacher praxis and teacher praxis, in turn, describes teacher identity. Engaging preservice teachers in their professional identity formation and facilitating their understanding and implementing effective classroom praxis must become the focus of teacher education programs, especially for programs with an urban education focus (Sardabi et al., 2018).

ETD_11358

Ph.D.

Includes bibliographical references

External ETD doctoral

doi:10.7282/t3-b45m-sj03

The author owns the copyright to this work.