From Theory to Practice: the professional identity development of student teachers of English within the context of the Algerian École Normale Supérieure

Houda, Zouar (2023) From Theory to Practice: the professional identity development of student teachers of English within the context of the Algerian École Normale Supérieure. Doctoral thesis (PhD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

Central to this qualitative study is the question of how École Normale Supérieure (ENS) student teachers develop their professional identity during their teacher education programme. Existing research on the ENS is limited with few studies that have been conducted to explore the influence of the training period on the preparation of student teachers or whether learning in the ENS meets student teachers’ perceived needs and expectations. The research explores the process of becoming a teacher from three perspectives: the teaching perceptions that form the professional identity of student teachers, the factors that influence the development of their professional identity, and the role ENS as a teacher education institution plays in developing student teachers’ professional identity. Starting from the theoretical part of the programme until the training part, the study collected reflective narratives and interview data from three main groups of ENS student teachers. These three groups represented the student teachers’ journey through learning in the ENS, through their first, third, and fifth year (the final year) of the programme. The sample included four first year participants as newcomers to the ENS, four third year participants who had been exposed to the pedagogical content knowledge for the first time, and four fifth year participants who had been engaged with school-based training. A sociocultural lens incorporating sociocultural theory of Vygotsky, communities of practice, and figured worlds are used as theoretical frameworks to explore the participation of student teachers in each year of their ENS experience and how this influenced their identity development as future English language teachers. Moreover, the thesis captures the day-to-day experiences that contribute to student teachers’ meaning making within the specific sociocultural context of the ENS. The findings of the study revealed that the process of developing a professional identity is relational, temporal and continuous. Student teachers’ conceptions about teaching that constitute their professional identity continue to change depending on the context of learning, the knowledge they receive in their teacher education programme, and their learning and teaching experiences. Moreover, the development of their identity is influenced by such things as personal, religious, and societal discourses that surround their lives and their day-to-day experiences of learning to become teachers. The thesis also demonstrates student teachers continuous meaning making about themselves as teachers and about the profession of teaching. It also demonstrates their constant struggle for recognition and positionality which involved contradictions between their desired identity and the identity that was assigned to them by others (e.g., society). In addition, the findings revealed that the cultural artifacts used by the ENS and the training school such as cohort structure, peer mentoring, dialogic interaction and unstructured observation are crucial sociocultural resources to the learning and development of student teachers. However, these cultural tools can inhibit the learning and development of student teachers when not utilised carefully. This study has provided valuable insights into the influence of each stage of the ENS teacher preparation programme on the construction of student teachers’ understandings about teaching and themselves as teachers. The findings not only inform teacher education programmes about the factors that influence the learning and development of student teachers inside the ENS but also have relevance for teacher education programmes elsewhere in the world in planning sociocultural tools (teaching materials) that can effectively influence the learning and professional identity development of student teachers.