STUDENTS TEACHERS’ CONCEPTS OF PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY: INVESTIGATING THEIR TEACHING PRACTICE PORTFOLIOSPROCEEDINGS UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN MACEDOSTUDENTS TEACHERS’ CONCEPTS OF PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY: INVESTIGATING THEIR TEACHING PRACTICE PORTFOLIOSN4th International Conference Education (original) (raw)

In this study we investigate students' concepts of their professional identity as it is constructed in their teaching practice portfolios. Teaching practice, divided in phasesaims among others to integrate student teachers into daily work and life of school, as they -at the last phaseteach in school classes for two weeks. After completing their two weeks teaching, studentshand in their portfolios, including their everyday lessons, their everyday selfassessment, the analysis of a critical incident, their experience about teaching practice and their remarks about the whole teaching practice program. The data of the present study is selected by the above-mentioned portfolios, while our sample consisted of 50 of them. The main purpose of the research is to explore the ways in which students shape their professional identity as teachers through their written discourse at their portfolios. The interpretation of their discourse is related to their personal theory of teaching, i.e their beliefs about school and teaching according to which teacher gradually shapes his / her identity, perceives educational situations and manages his / her choices in dilemmatic or critical situations.Findings indicated that the majority of students teachers perceive the pedagogical aspect of their professional role as the most important one. the concept of subjectivity is always involved in the formulation of social identity and professional identity is a notion of every social identity. In the present research, we adopt the viewpoint of social construction of the subject and identity, and more specifically, their social construction through discourse. The above-mentioned function of discourse, and the construction of subjectivity, constitutes a major issue within theories of cultural re-production, but also within the constructivist approaches. Subjects are dynamic and are always positioned in relation to specific discourses and practices which are formed in the context of social circumstances and social institutions. Social contexts and discourses form specific social positions that individuals occupy. This, however, doesn't mean that the individual is a pathetic one but she or he takes part in their formation, and in their production or re-production. By relating subjectivity to identity, we can say that subjects are organized within the framework of cultural institutions, where Evmorfia Kipouropoulou PhD in Pedagogy, Special Scientist,