Abstract:

Initial teacher education has been considered one of the main preparatory devices for shaping teachers’ professional identities and for supporting their professional development. We approached teachers’ professional identities through Dubar’s concept of “dual transaction”, which means that the construction of a professional identity is a transaction between two parties, each of which is also in another transaction: first there is the biographical transaction (subjective or internal) between what I have been and what I want to be and then there is the relational transaction (objective or external) between what I want to be in a certain situation and what I am offered by the situation, or not, to enable me to be what I want to be therein. So we have individual identities seeking recognition and self-fulfilment, and with their own histories and plans, in interaction with others (persons and institutions) which, with their own identities, structures, cultures, projects and aims, may or may not sustain the individual identities claimed or desired. Practicums organized by pedagogy departments constitute the learning, institutional and educational context in which the theory-practice connection can be put in motion by neophyte teachers. In addition, by exploring how they connect theoretical knowledge with practical requirements in the classroom, one can detect their motives to follow a teaching career, their future identities and how the practicum has empowered their readiness for dealing with these requirements.
In our presentation we will present data obtained by means of research which has been conducted in a central and a regional pedagogy department in Greece. Our research questions aimed
a) to detect the extent to which the practicum as organized by these two departments creates the sense of preparedness to teacher students,
b) to explore how engaged they are to the role of the teacher and
c) to bring to light how student teachers themselves evaluate the pros and cons of the practicum.
The research design we followed is the sequential explanatory mixed-method design according to which first quantitative data are collected and then the qualitative part follows for explaining the main findings (expected by previous knowledge or unexpected) of the quantitative part. Our sampling choice was the nested sampling in order to increase the internal validity and to overcome the weaknesses of each method. In our presentation we will present only the quantitative data by focusing on the constructs we created for tapping the above-mentioned research questions. In particular, we made use of a modified version of a scale measuring Teachers’ Sense of Preparedness, Engagement and Self-Efficacy in Classroom Teaching, of a scale measuring the identification of teacher students with the teacher role, of the FIT (Factors Influencing Teaching Choice) -Choice scale and of a scale which measures how student teachers evaluate the practicum.

Keywords:

Initial teacher education, teacher professional identity, professional development, pre-service teacher education.