Pre-service teachers’ professional identity transformation: a positioning theory perspective

ABSTRACT

By innovatively applying positioning theory with reference to a framework of willingness, capability and power, this study explored how pre-service teachers’ professional identities dynamically change through the negotiation of various positions. A qualitative approach was adopted using data from six Hong Kong pre-service teachers in a teacher education programme for teaching Chinese as a second language. Multiple data sources, including interviews, reflective journals, classroom observations and lesson plans, were collected over one year. Pre-service teachers were found to negotiate individual deliberated self-positionings before entering the education programme and forced self-positionings from significant others during the education programme in three key stages: pre-positioning, negotiated positioning and performed positioning. Three differentiated positioning trajectories were identified that were greatly influenced by the pre-service teachers’ levels of willingness, capability and power.

KEYWORDS:

• Positioning
• professional identity
• pre-service teachers
• power
• willingness
• capability

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Education Faculty Research Fund [200007704/087927/10000/400/0], Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong