Finnish pre-service teachers’ identity development after a year of initial teacher education: Adding, transforming, and defending




Varis Sotiria, Heikkilä Mirva, Metsäpelto Riitta-Leena, Mikkilä-Erdmann Mirjamaija

PublisherElsevier Ltd

2023

Teaching and Teacher Education

Teaching and Teacher Education

104354

135

1879-2480

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104354

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104354

https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/181198073



Amidst the broad range of teacher competencies, professional beliefs and professional identity are two important domains of personal orientations that inform teacher quality. This study examines how pre-service teachers have negotiated their professional identity after their first year in initial primary teacher education. The study uses qualitative data from an online survey voluntarily answered by seventy-two Finnish pre-service teachers in Spring 2022. The data were thematically analyzed and further examined for additive, transformative, and defensive identity development using Ruohotie-Lyhty's (2018) framework of teachers' identity-agency. The study supports the notion of identity as social, multiple, and discontinuous.


Last updated on 2025-27-03 at 22:03