‘Becoming the teacher’ – self and teacher identity in the context of training to teach on a school direct salaried employment-based route
This study investigates how trainee teachers in England on an Employment-Based Route (EBR), namely School Direct Salaried (SDS), experience ‘becoming’ teachers in the context of the primary school. Drawing upon Beijaard’s (2006) theory that teachers experience ‘a constant becoming’ the study focuses on aspects such as what the trainees bring to their training from their own biographies and backgrounds, and the influence of the school context on the trainees’ experiences. The study conceptualises teacher identity using the theoretical underpinning of symbolic interactionism and specifically the work of George Herbert Mead and Herbert Blumer. Whilst much has been written about teacher identity and the experiences of trainee teachers, there is a significant lack of literature which discusses the experiences of those who are employed specifically to train to teach on EBR. With the gradual move away from SDS towards the Post-Graduate Teaching Apprenticeship (PGTA) route into teaching (DfE 2021a) this study not only contributes to the gap in research and writing which focuses on EBR but also to the training of teachers who enter the profession on such routes. Set in the interpretative constructivist paradigm, case study is used as a design frame for the methodology with the EBR as the case. Questionnaires and small focus group discussions were undertaken as the data gathering tools with the whole cohort of 22 trainees on the SDS route into primary teaching. The findings indicate that trainee teachers bring their experiences of education and the values they attach to it to their training which have an impact upon emergent identity. As the SDS route was specifically established in England for career-changers as well as those who were working in schools as Teaching Assistants (TAs) prior to their training (DfE 2010), the study finds that they experience ‘becoming’ teachers in very nuanced and specific ways. The study discusses the influence of the school environment on the development of teacher identity for trainees on the EBR given that they are employed to train to teach and spend most of their training in the school environment. The thesis recommends ways in which Initial Teacher Training (ITT) programmes might account and plan for the experiences of trainees on EBR and their mentors in developing teacher identity considering how they experience ‘becoming’ teachers differently to trainees on non-EBR.
teacher identity, employment-based route, initial teacher training (ITT), becoming a teacher, teaching, training, teacher training
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