The Development and Construction of Teacher Professional Identity: a Case Study on Beliefs Towards Teaching

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to attain a more detailed understanding of teacher professional identity in general in order to enhancethe ways in which teacher education programs are conceived. The paper reports on a three-year longitudinal case study on theprofessional identity change of one Turkish EFL teacher in the last two years of her university education and the first year ofteaching in a primary school in Turkey. The significance of this study is that it examines the process of the combination ofteacher identity over the period immediately before and after entering full time teaching. This study analyses teacher professionalidentity as an undergoing process and the findings show that reflecting on one’s own teacher identity develops the consciousnesswhich promotes the concept and strengthens the process of identity development.