Student teachers’ professional identity: A review of research contributions

doi:10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100286

Educational Research Review

Volume 28, November 2019, 100286

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100286 Get rights and content

Highlights

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Emotions influence the professional perceptions of student teachers;
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Supervision emerges as a research topic for studying professional identity;
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Reflections are undervalued by most student teachers;
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Professional identity is not consensually defined in literature.

Abstract

Twenty-two empirical studies on student teachers' professional identity were selected for this review. In this paper we present important implications for current and future research on student teachers' professional identity by focusing on the discussion of key-issues associated with it. We also discuss the studies’ contributions and implications for initial teacher education and future research. Based on this discussion, we present a working definition of professional identity and consider which are the current emerging research issues.

Introduction

Research in the field of Education and Teacher Education has emphasized the importance of professional identity (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004; Pillen, Beijaard, & Brok, 2013). Identity development is a fluid and changeable social process that involves individual and collective perception and differentiation (Sherry, 2008). Due to its multifaceted and complex nature, the review of studies that focus on professional identity shows its evolution, current trends and which areas remain uncharted. Hence, with this paper, we intend to pinpoint research contributions regarding student teachers’ professional identity by reviewing twenty-two articles that were published in the last ten years.

We start by presenting some contributions from prior reviews, and the methodological procedures and limitations of this review. Then, we discuss the reviewed studies’ definitions of professional identity, key-issues that are associated with it, major findings and contributions and implications for initial teacher education (ITE) and future research, ending this paper by proposing a working definition of professional identity.

Section snippets

Contributions from prior reviews

As a starting point, we looked for articles on professional identity in some high impact journals, including those that exclusively publish analytic reviews, literature reviews and states of the art in the field of Education. We found eight articles (Avraamidou, 2014; Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Beijaard et al., 2004; Gee, 2000; Izadinia, 2013; Johnston, 2012; Luehmann, 2007; Trede, Macklin, & Bridges, 2012), which will be used throughout this paper to inform, complement or substantiate our own

Methodology

Using key-words we have searched for articles on secondary student teachers’ professional identity on databases that include some of the most prestigious and well ranked journals in the fields of Education and Teacher Education. Used databases and respective search criteria are listed in Table 1. Though always using advanced search in all databases, key-words and search criteria could not be exactly the same, because they needed to be adjusted to the specificities of the search engines existing

Professional identity: striving for a definition

Many of the selected articles present a theoretical framework on identity and/or professional identity (sometimes denoted as teacher identity) and are based on previous definitions and concepts presented by other authors. However, only few authors clearly state the definition they have adopted in their research (e.g. Melville, Bartley, & Fazio, 2013; Pillen et al., 2013). On the one hand, Martínez-de-la-Hidalga and Villardón-Gallego (2016) do not present a theoretical framework in their article

Expanding knowledge: studies’ contributions and major findings

This section focuses on the selected articles’ research contributions. After analyzing their major findings, we concluded they revolved around the following four key-issues, which we used to structure this section: (a) emotions; (b) professional stance; (c) supervision; and (d) reflection. It is noteworthy that with the exception of supervision, all the remaining issues are contemplated in the theoretical framework of several articles, where they appear related to professional identity.

Major implications for ITE, teacher educators and future research

Not all articles present suggestions for future research, ITE or teacher educators (e.g., Dang, 2013; Lanas & Kelchtermans, 2015; Melville et al., 2013). Regarding future research, many authors recommend longitudinal studies to understand the evolution of professional identity throughout ITE (Ballantyne & Grootenboer, 2012; Chong & Low, 2009; Lamote & Engels, 2010; Martínez-de-la-Hidalga & Villardón-Gallego, 2016; Pedretti et al., 2008; Schepens et al., 2009). For example, Rodrigues and Mogarro

Final considerations

This review shows that only recently ITE started to be a topic of research, especially when it comes to the study of student teachers' professional identity. Over a decade has passed since the publication of the review done by Beijaard et al. (2004) and we can still see that there is not a consensus in defining what influences professional identity. Both Beauchamp and Thomas (2009) and Trede et al. (2012) have argued it is difficult to define professional identity as it is a broad, complex and

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, I. P. – Portugal (scholarship SFRH/BD/111488/2015).

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