The Construction of the Professional Identity of Pre-Service Secondary School Teachers: Case Studies of Student Teachers' Learning to Teach

As the identity transformation is essential for becoming a teacher, researchers have emphasized the role that the teacher education play in the shaping and forming of pre-service teachers' professional identities, with teaching practice as the critical stage in transforming the identities of pre-service teachers. However, few empirical studies have been conducted to investigate how the pre-service teachers construct and develop their professional identities through professional learning. To this end, this research explores the professional learning trajectories of pre-service teachers to understand the construction and development of their professional identities. Furthermore, this study looks into the teaching practice from the angle of pre-service teachers in order to depict a picture of the context for the professional identity construction.;Using the framework of learning concept and identity construction (see Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998), the research employed the case study method, carrying out both in-depth interviews and field observations to gather qualitative data. Four student teachers from two placement schools participated in the research as four cases. The four teachers' learning experiences as well as their identity construction and change were investigated to explore factors constructing and changing the professional identities of the four student teachers.;The research, on the one hand, has confirmed the importance of learning as participation in changing the student teachers' professional identities. In the four cases, the professional identities of the student teachers were all found to be changed after the teaching practice in different ways and at different levels. The major motivation for the change was attributed to the professional commitment and the concept of teacher role, which had been formed prior to the teaching practice of the four student teachers. Moreover, the professional commitment and the concept of teacher role were the two anchoring points of student teachers to locate themselves in the field of teaching practice. Regarding the two anchoring points, the professional commitment determined the willing of student teachers to participate in the teaching practice and construct their professional identities; the concept of teacher role, taking shape out of their self-as-student, was the frame of reference for the four student teachers' understanding of the teaching practice context as well as the role playing. The clash between the four student teachers' concept of teacher role and the role script embedded in the culture of the two schools was the trigger of the four student teachers' identities reconstruction.;The research, on the other hand, has indicated that, the four student teachers participated in the teaching practice and interacted with the role partners according to their own original professional commitment and concept of teacher role, although the teaching practice context, comprising the placement school culture and the mentors, shaped the way and the content of the four student teachers' participation. Therefore, the negotiation of identity took place between the four student teachers and the teaching practice context, which was influenced in different ways by the three factors, namely, the biography, the context and the experience. The interaction among the three factors subsequently built up the participation trajectories of the four student teachers through the whole teaching practice, guiding the four student teachers to achieve different professional identities.;On the whole, the research has contributed to conceptual understanding as well as practical implications in the construction of pre-service teachers' professional identities through professional learning. In future research and practice, it is proposed that learning to teach be explored from the perspective of professional identity construction.;Key words: student teachers, professional identity construction, learning to teach, situated learning theory.