Abstract:

Following the 2010 White Paper (DfE 2010) initial teacher education in England underwent several radical reforms which sought to reduce the role of universities in place of a more government-led agenda. This pervades still with the Initial Teacher Training Market Review Report (DfE 2021a).

Beijaard (2006 p4) proposed that there is ‘a constant becoming’ to being a teacher. In this paper, teacher identity is conceptualised as both dynamic (Sexton 2008) and relational (Sachs 2001; Beijaard, Meijar & Verloop 2004). This is supported by a theoretical framework based upon interactive symbolism (Mead in Morris 1934). The paper investigates how training teachers on a work-based initial teacher education route experience ‘becoming’ teachers and how teacher identity evolves for them. It focuses on aspects of identity development such as what the training teachers bring to their training from their own biographies and backgrounds. On an employment-based route into teaching, training teachers spend the majority of their time as employees in school. Therefore, the influence of the school context on their experiences is also a focus. Set in the interpretative constructivist paradigm, case study was used as a design frame. Questionnaires and small focus group discussions were undertaken with the 22 training teachers on the employment-based route (known as ‘School Direct Salaried’) into primary teaching.

The findings indicate that training teachers bring their experiences of education and values they attach to it to their training which impact upon their teacher identities. As the employment-based route was established for career-changers as well as those who were teaching assistants prior to their training, the study findings suggest that they experience ‘becoming’ teachers in different ways to training teachers on other routes. There are assumptions made that the transition from teaching assistant to teacher is easy. Often the ‘training’ aspect is overlooked, and they are treated as teachers far too early. Conversely, there is often a risk averse approach from the schools who are reluctant to allow the training teachers to teach subjects which may be under scrutiny from accountability agendas and where pupil progress needs to be demonstrated. The training teachers also experience a desire to be seen as ‘the’ teacher in the classrooms as opposed to just another teacher in school.

The findings have implications for practice and further research in this area. For example, on an employment-based route the school has a significant role as a place of becoming, the paper suggests a recognition of this. Furthermore, it recommends clearer progression pathways for teaching assistants to train to teach are necessary.

Keywords:

Initial teacher training, teacher identity, becoming a teacher, schools, employment-based routes.