Becoming a Teacher: The Development of Teachers’ Professional Identity through Engagement with Community of Practice

Abstract

This paper explores the development of professional identity amongst students during their commencement in teacher education programme. Particularly, it examines the process of adaption that take place during teaching practice or practicum at school whereby student teachers negotiate teacher identities they assume as they engage in their work with practising teachers and pupils. Lave and Wenger's work on apprenticeship to communities of practice (CoP) is used to examine the effect of teaching practice on the development of professional identity. Group interviews were used to explore student teachers experiences at school. All interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded line-by-line. Thematic analysis was used to identify the patterns of meaning across datasets to provide answers to research purpose being addressed. Results showed that pupils constitute an important part of the teacher education students’ community of practice as well as socialisation agent that influence their professional identity development.