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Journal of Education, 2021
Issue 82, http://journals.ukzn.ac.za/index.php/joe doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2520-9868/i82a05
Online ISSN 2520-9868 Print ISSN 0259-479X
“Do all roads lead to Rome?”: The influence of two
different higher education programmes on beginner
teacher identity
Mické van der Westhuizen
Faculty of Education, Department of Humanities Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
mickevdw@gmail.com
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6649-3723
Yolandi Woest
Faculty of Education, Department of Humanities Education, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
yolandi.woest@up.ac.za
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5595-0546
(Received: 29 September 2020; accepted: 3 February 2021)
Abstract
In this qualitative case study, we explored the experiences of beginner teachers who chose two different
routes—full-time and part-time studying—on the journey to becoming teachers and we report on the influences
of this choice on their emergent beginner teacher identities. We purposefully selected two groups of participants,
each consisting of three who studied full-time and three who studied part-time. The latter worked part-time at
schools or in similar educational contexts while they were studying. Epistemologically underpinned by the
interpretivist paradigm, we employed the Possible Selves theory (Marcus & Nurius, 1986) as the theoretical
lens. Inductive thematic analysis of data demonstrated three main themes. First, data showed a distinct
divergence between the perceptions of initial beginner teacher identity states in the two groups of participants.
Second, both groups of participants agreed that time is a significant factor in the complex psychological
processes required for the construction of a beginner teacher identity. Third, both groups strongly considered
practical experience as an essential factor for beginner teacher identity development.
Keywords: beginner teacher identity, full-time student, part-time student, Possible Selves theory, teacher
education programmes
Introduction
The title of our article refers to the well-known saying, “A thousand roads lead a man [sic]
forever toward Rome” coined by French poet Alain de Lille, (cited in Storey, 2008, p. 965).
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 79
Rome was situated at the conjunction of all the main roads of the Roman empire, and was,
later, the destination of most of the medieval journeys through Europe as Storey (2008) has
reminded us. There are many roads that lead to Rome; some are longer, some shorter, some
easier or more difficult to follow, but the desired destination is still Rome. This saying serves
as a starting point to our contribution to the existing debates in educational research around
the “theory–practice divide in teacher education” (Gravett et al., 2017, p. 370). In other
words, we are interested in which of the two teacher education programmes—full-time study
or part-time study combined with part-time work in an educational context—taken on the
way to becoming a teacher is better or worse in terms of the development of a beginner
teacher identity. Depending on which teacher education programme one chooses, there are
several different views when it comes to this choice. Levine (2006) has pointed out that some
believe that the teaching profession calls for a vast volume of formal pre-service education as
a condition for one to develop into a practitioner, much like becoming a doctor or a lawyer,
while others consider teaching to be a skill that is learned primarily on the job, like, it could
be argued, journalism.
In this article, we explore the ways in which the choice of road towards that metaphorical
Rome influences the identities of the travellers. To do so, we delved into the experiences of
beginner teachers who chose different routes to becoming teachers and we report on the
influences of this choice on their emergent beginner teacher identities. Our aim was not to
compare differences between teacher programmes per se but, rather, to try to understand the
lived experiences of pre-service teachers who took these two different routes to becoming
teachers and show how these experiences influenced their beginner teacher identities. We
consider here the influences of only two different paths (full-time and part-time teacher
education programmes) on beginner teachers’ identities.
Prospective students aspiring to become teachers, enrol in teacher education programmes
with certain preconceived expectations of what it means to be a teacher (Yuliyana, 2019).
Then, in many cases, beginner teachers who studied full-time consider their professional
courses at tertiary institutions as consisting of too much theory and not sufficient practical
knowledge and they have reported a sense of dissonance when faced with the real situation in
schools during their early years in the profession (Lambert, 2010). However, the influence of
the chosen path taken towards becoming a teacher is a much more complex process than
prospective pre-service teachers anticipate or understand (Beltman et al., 2015; Langsford,
2020). In this article, we unpack the ways in which different roads influence beginner
teachers and consider what it is that influences that sense of dissonance mentioned by
Lambert (2010).
During the course of their studies, pre-service teachers construct their individual teaching
identities, which change later into the teaching identities they need if they are to adapt in the
real school environment (Yuliyana, 2019). Initial beginner teacher identities are vulnerable
during the early years in the profession because of the daily demands that they face. Much
has been written about these challenges and the influences thereof on beginner teacher
identity (see, for example, Dicke et al., 2014; Klusman et al., 2016; Kumazawa, 2013).
80 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
Tertiary training institutions are the spaces within which pre-service students’ beginner
teacher identities, influenced by their perceptions, begin to develop formally. Thus, the
tertiary training institution of choice should be conducive to growth and development for
emergent beginner teacher identities since this development frames, significantly, the process
of learning to teach (Nomlomo & Sosibo, 2016). The experiences of pre-service teachers
during their years of study at these institutions might influence their development during their
early years in the education profession.
Having set the scene of this paper, we go on to frame our study in relation to the relevant
literary scholarship. Then we discuss the theoretical underpinning of the research question in
terms of the Possible Selves theory as suggested by Marcus and Nurius (1986), and argue for
our research methodology, after which we present the findings and a discussion of them.
Framing our study in literary scholarship
In this section we present a discussion of recent scholarly debates involving the key concepts
of our paper: initial beginner identity states; the influences of the challenges experienced by
beginner teachers; and the role of teacher training programmes as influential on beginner
teacher identity. Additionally, to provide some background to our study, we provide a brief
historical overview of these concepts.
The development of beginner teacher identity
The effectiveness of beginner teachers is influenced by their personal backgrounds (past self),
their formal training (teacher educational programme) and the context of their school
placements (practical experience) as Hofmeyr (2016) has pointed out. Current academic
research has started to shift its focus towards the important question of how teachers learn
(Korthagen, 2017). Many teacher educators object to a professional teacher obtaining just
practical tools for handling classroom situations and suggest that it is their job to present pre-
service teachers with a broader view on education and to offer them a proper foundation in
psychology, sociology, and other disciplines (Korthagen et al., 2001). Twenty-six years ago,
Clandinin (1995, p. 28) called this issue “the sacred theory-practice story” which many
teacher educators have understood to be about the conversion of theory on good teaching into
lived classroom practice. However, many studies have shown that the transfer of theory to
practice is still inadequately achieved or is not achieved at all (Abongdia et al., 2015;
Korthagen et al., 2001; Nomlomo & Sosibo, 2016). For the beginner teacher, what was
understood theoretically, now becomes complex since they must now use practically the
knowledge and understanding of the theory to guide their actions, communication, and
socialisation in order to fit in with the culture of the school (Padua & Franca-Carvalho,
2019). Put differently, a beginner teacher who studied full-time may have the theoretical
background provided by their teacher education programme but may lack the practical
teaching skills.
Any attempt to make more explicit the link between theory and teaching practice is pointless
without sufficient knowledge about how teachers learn (Korthagen, 2017). Gravett (2012, p.
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 81
3) argued that “no teacher education programme can prepare teachers for the full complexity
of real classrooms, where they take full responsibility for the first time.” In accordance with
this statement, Feiman-Nemser (2001, p. 1,026) noted,
New teachers have two jobs—they have to teach, and they have to learn to teach. No
matter how good a preservice program may be, there are some things that can only be
learned on the job. The preservice experience lays a foundation and offers practice in
teaching. The first encounter with real teaching occurs when beginning teachers step
into their own classroom. Then learning to teach begins in earnest.
The conversation about the “the sacred theory-practice story” (Clandinin, 1995, p. 28) was
continued 19 years later by Tamrat and Teferra (2020). In an online article in World News,
they discussed a “diversified means of educational delivery, in particular a non-residential
model, that may become more mainstream, more acceptable and more respectable.” Tamrat
and Teferra (2020) agreed with the views of South African scholars Maphalala and Mpofu
(2019, p. 3), who wrote that “the education system must create conducive working
conditions, which will ensure the retention of teachers, especially those with the most
experience and with scarce skills.”
The independent Carter Review (2015) found difficulty drawing conclusions about whether
one route into teaching is better than the other since both routes had their strengths (practical
experience vs theoretical knowledge) although programmes that offered more practical
experience brought benefits and delivered important preparation options to improve the
quantity and quality of teachers (Hofmeyr, 2016). The link between practice and theory in
pre-service teacher learning is not exclusively important; the connection with the person of
the teacher is significant as well. Connecting to your teaching identity through in-depth
reflection is an important device in establishing rewarding links between theory, practice, and
person (Korthagen, 2017).
It is in the classroom setting that many of the beginner teachers’ knowledge about everyday
life as a teacher is used as a basis for inspiration, and where contextualisation of pedagogical
practice is experienced (Padua & Franca-Carvalho, 2019). Many pre-service teachers acquire
a deeply rooted perception of teaching and learning from their own educational experiences
before they start as a beginner teacher which will guide their choice of route (Nomlomo &
Sosibo, 2016). Lortie (1975, p. 35) referred to these early ideas formed about teaching as an
“apprenticeship of observation”, a view upheld by Gravett et al., (2017, p. 370) who posited
that the “images of teaching developed during student-teachers’ own school years form the
basis for interpreting and assessing conceptual knowledge and their learning experiences as
student-teachers.” These moments are imperative to the forming of a student’s identity, and
are, in turn, likely to then have an impact on their future teaching identity.
Challenges during early years: Learning to teach in difficult contexts
Adding to the complexity of the beginner identity construction process is the matter of
challenges experienced by beginner teachers during their early years in the profession. As
82 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
early as the 1980s challenges faced by beginner teachers have been documented in scholarly
literature in the field. The struggles associated during the early years of beginner teachers in
the profession have been described as “transition shock” (Corcoran, 1981, p. 19), “reality
shock” and “the survival phase” (Huberman, 1989, p. 57). The scholarly debate surrounding
the demands on beginner teachers are ongoing (Friedman, 2000; Klusman et al., 2016;
Stokking et al., 2003).
In many cases, beginner teachers feel isolated and perceive school management teams and
more experienced colleagues as hostile and unfriendly (Flores & Day, 2006). Additionally,
beginner teachers experience conflict with their colleagues since they are unfamiliar with the
different ideologies prevailing in the schools (Deswita, 2019). They also find it difficult to
establish and maintain discipline especially in large, overcrowded classroom contexts which
are common in South Africa (Woest, 2018). Often, beginner teachers face difficulties with
learners because they have not yet become skilled at problem-solving (Deswita, 2019).
Friedman (2000, p. 182) described the realisation of the chasm between the period of teacher
training and the early years of teaching as a case of “shattered dreams.” It is therefore
important to take a step back and explore the teacher identity-building experiences of pre-
service teachers during their years of training.
Initial beginner teacher identity as a complex construct
Studies on beginner teacher identity deal with the initial processes of the construction of a
specific professional identity as a teacher. The process of
learning or developing a teacher identity is imbued with and fuelled by many aspects
that are primarily personal, such as one’s own biography, aspirations, learning history,
and beliefs about education . . . [including] the hopes, dreams, and ideals that students
bring with them to teacher education” (Beijaard, 2019, p. 3).
Positive psychology promotes the consideration of personal qualities, which centre on
people’s wellbeing and positive growth and, in turn, influence the formation of their teaching
identity (Korthagen, 2017).
Over the last few decades, various researchers have explored the progression of a pre-service
teacher becoming a teacher, as well as their first years in teaching (Beauchamp & Thomas,
2009, 2011; Flores, 2017; Pillen et al., 2013; Yuan & Lee, 2016). Beginner teacher identity
development implies the initial and sometimes volatile psychological, mental, cognitive, and
behavioural processes pre-service teachers undergo to arrive at a stable, yet fluid, teacher
identity. It is important to note that professional identity (in this case teacher identity) is not
fixed or static; it is, rather, a dynamic and continually changing process. In this paper, we
consider only one slice of this ever-changing process—the identity states of pre-service
teachers during the transitioning process of their becoming beginner teachers.
Investigation into both the inward and outward manifestations of beginner teachers’
theoretical and actual growth towards becoming a teacher is necessary. How their teacher
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 83
identity develops may be influenced by their own critical self-examination, but attention must
also be given to the school environment and to their learners and colleagues since these
operate in conjunction with one another (Lee & Schallert, 2016). During this process,
beginner teachers begin to solidify their construct of self as their understanding of the basic
nature of teaching grows.
Accentuating the intricacy associated with learning to teach, Darling-Hammond et al. (2005,
p. 368) specified that “even when observing good teaching or experiencing it for oneself, one
cannot easily glean a deep understanding of the complexity of the work.” A thorough
comprehension of one’s teaching self contributes to the success of beginner teachers during
their early years of teaching and, thus, to a positive career trajectory. The ability to make
meaning of experiences and find ways to overcome challenges in an unfamiliar and new
professional environment strengthens the sense of the professional self and promotes the
resilience of the beginner teacher. We argue that the choice of tertiary education programme
is an often-overlooked influence in the process of the construction and development of the
identity of the beginner teacher.
The role of teacher training programmes in influencing beginner teacher identity
The route chosen by pre-service teachers to become qualified teachers is one of many factors
that influence their teacher-becoming during their early years in the profession. Hofmeyer
(2016) suggested that the choice of educational programme is one of the influences on the
effectiveness of beginner teachers and that this is based on the balanced construction and
development of a stable initial beginner teacher identity. Much of what is taught at
universities are concepts and conceptual frameworks related to phenomena, principles, and
facts. In other words, university learning involves “learning about” (Gravett, 2012, p. 3), but
learning should also be understood with regard to the development of a teaching identity, i.e.
“learning to be” (Gravett, 2012, p. 5). To a degree, beginner teachers’ identity is constructed
from their initial teacher education programme, complemented by their individual teaching
experience; together these motivate and result in the development process of skills and
teaching methods (Padua & Franca-Carvalho, 2019).
Many pre-service teachers in South Africa follow the international traditional norms by
pursuing a four-year university-based programme. These programmes are provided by 23
universities with either distance or face-to-face education, include both professional and
academic modules, and are interspersed with varying periods of supervised teaching practice
in schools as part of the preparation for pre-service teachers’ work in schools as Hofmeyr
(2016) has observed. The idea that universities do not prepare pre-service teachers effectively
for the realities of classroom teaching is not exclusively a South African one (Gravett, 2012).
In some countries a key part of pre-service teacher education has now become the concern of
the schools, thus creating a situation in which teacher education takes the form of “training on
the job” (Korthagen et al., 2001, p. 2). The teacher education curriculum in the United States
of America has been divided, historically, between foundations modules, on the one hand,
and methods modules on the other (Grossman et al., 2009).
84 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
One of the main points of teacher education programmes abroad is that they promote a close
relationship between the tertiary institution and the schools that host students for their
practical term. There is a system of “studying theory from books and in lectures” and then
applying it practically in what is termed the “real world” (Gravett, 2012, p. 4). According to
Hofmeyr (2016), a key flaw identified in university curricula worldwide is the lack of
sufficient school practical experience. Although all university-based teacher education
programmes include many field experiences during the programme (as a requirement in
South African initial teacher education policy according to The Revised Minimum
Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications, Department of Higher Education and
Training, 2015), the gap between what students are taught in university modules and their
opportunities for learning to enact these practices in their school placements is often still very
large (Zeichner, 2010).
Although student life plays a particular role in higher education since students attend classes
with the intention of learning which is made viable by attending classes, but which also
occurs in the teachable moments that arise inside and outside the classroom (Mitchell, 2014).
However, some universities in South Africa employ Open Distance Learning, which
stipulates that all students (including pre-service teachers) must study part-time (Hofmeyr,
2016). Part-time students can work even as they study, whereas full-time students become
part of the student culture mentioned above. In Open Distance Learning, course and study
materials are supplied in the absence of a university intermediary, and students must
interrogate these individually and in their own time (Hofmeyr, 2016). Moreover, working
full-time at a school while studying part-time can also be extremely challenging and difficult
for students given that they have to “grapple with meeting the requirements of both the
university programme and the school-based curriculum, which may be in tension with each
other” (Chan, 2019, p. 3).
Limited research about different teacher education programmes in relation to beginner
teacher identity development is apparent in the literature we reviewed. Incomplete research
on the influence of teacher education programmes on beginner teacher identity was pointed
out by scholars in the field (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009; Cherrington, 2017; Chubbuck et
al., 2001; Du Plessis & Sunde, 2017). Most of the past research on beginner teacher identity
is based on identities and factors that influenced them (see Canrinus et al., 2012; Hobson et
al., 2009; Hong, 2010; Nomlomo & Sosibo, 2016), except for the influence of teacher
education programmes.
Theoretical framing
Our research is framed theoretically by the Possible Selves theory (Marcus & Nurius, 1986).
This theory concentrates on investigating the growth of beginner teachers’ identity as
Hamman et al. (2010) have pointed out. It also concerns beginner teachers’ establishing their
individual beginner teacher identity in their changeover to becoming teachers. The Possible
Selves theory is appropriate because it accounts for the fluctuating states of the professional
self of the beginner teacher during the transition process from pre-service teacher to beginner
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 85
teacher. The use of the Possible Selves theory as a lens through which to view the formation
of beginner teacher identity has not been well-researched but see, for example, Hamman et al.
(2010), Lee & Schallert (2016), and Yavuz Tabak (2020); most literature focuses on either
beginner teacher identity or on the Possible Selves theory, but not on both. The limited nature
of this research prompted us to use this theory given our belief that it is still relevant many
decades later.
The Possible Selves theory (Marcus & Nurius, 1986) posits that at the beginning of a
teacher’s career, they might have a handful of ideas regarding the type of teacher they want to
be (future self) based on their past experiences (past self). During their pre-service years and
first years of in-service teaching, these identity states will change and evolve as they
experience the realities of a classroom setting, are exposed to external factors, and carry out
personal experimenting with their teaching identities. The beginner teacher’s identity will
therefore have an impact on their identity as moulded in their first years of teaching. The
Possible Selves theory moulds a person’s idea of what they want to mature into. This theory
not only illustrates who it is that someone wants to grow into but also who they fear
becoming. The Possible Selves theory illustrates how future-oriented thought is driven by the
pursuit of self-relevant goals, and how it delivers identity-relevant information (Hamman et
al., 2010). Possible future selves are characterised by specific, individually unique hopes,
fears, and fantasies and are not just any set of fictional states of being (Marcus & Nurius,
1986). For the beginner teacher’s identity, this includes their own hopes and fantasies as well
as their fears about the kind of teacher they want to become in the future. The Possible Selves
theory also includes the beginner teacher’s past self. In this case, these are their experiences
from their chosen teacher education programme. When beginner teachers enter the teaching
profession, their emergent beginner teacher identities have already undergone some changes
marked by previous experiences during their years of training and might at this point be in
flux as they start out in a new and unfamiliar environment, (Woest, 2018). We build further
on this theory in the discussion of our findings.
Research context and methodology
We employed a nominalist, interpretivist, qualitative methodological paradigm, with,
following Zartman and Goodrick (2005), a single case study as research design. A qualitative
methodological paradigm is an approach that strives to explore and understand the meaning
participants have of their social problem(s) without manipulating the data as Creswell (2008)
has explained. Qualitative research allows for the gathering of stories in a personal
environment. In the context of this study, it meant gathering the stories of beginner teachers
with different teacher education backgrounds—full-time and part-time.
Ontology can be seen to relate to our views of the world together with how we perceive
reality (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008) so, for us, a nominalist stance was appropriate because this
showcases the importance of participants’ internal and subjective experiences as Maree
(2016) has noted. Epistemology is related to the relationship between the inquirer and the
known as Denzin and Lincoln (2008) have explained. An epistemological perspective can be
86 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
either positivist or interpretivist according to Cohen et al. (2007). As Snape et al. (2014) have
established, interpretivism strives to understand meaningful, subjective experiences as well as
the meaning behind social interactions in a personal context. Interpretivism allows for a
subjective participatory role in the research process, while one is being empathetically and
personally immersed in the research (Maree, 2016). The participants interpreted their own
teaching identities differently so, in being subjectively involved we could better understand
what they experienced during their first year of in-service teaching. This deeper involvement
in the interviews meant that our findings are rich, extensive, and inclusive of relevant data.
From ethical reasons, we were sensitive to our participants’ emotional state since their
experiences were likely to trigger unsettling memories. Following Leedy and Ormrod (2005),
our ethical considerations included ensuring informed consent and maintaining
confidentiality, allowing of no deception, and causing no harm to our participants. We
explained the aim of the study and the roles of participants to them during the first interview
and all participants signed consent forms. They were also assured that their responses would
be handled confidentially and that their identities would be protected by the use of
pseudonyms. No deception occurred since the participants were informed about the exact
purpose of the research which was not harmful to them and they had the option to withdraw
at any stage of the study with no negative consequences if they chose to do so.
Research design
As mentioned above, the chosen research design was a case study (Maree, 2016). We argue
for the suitability of our chosen design by drawing on the work of Zainal (2007, p. 2) who
said,
Case studies, in their true essence, explore and investigate contemporary real-life
phenomenon through detailed contextual analysis of a limited number of events or
conditions, and their relationships.
In this paper, the contemporary real-life phenomenon under scrutiny was the influence of
beginner teachers’ choice of tertiary institution on their emergent beginner teacher identities.
Aligned with Zainal’s (2007) view, we acknowledge that there are many factors influencing
beginner teacher identity construction, but the focus of this paper is on the choice of tertiary
institution as influence on beginner teacher identity. Zainal (2007) further described case
study research as an in-depth inquiry into participants’ life experiences in terms of the
interrelationship between contextual settings and the research question being asked. Using a
case study research design from this perspective allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of
the influences of the choice of a part-time as opposed to a full-time higher education
programme on beginner teacher identities. Additionally, the case study research design
provided us with the opportunity for collaboration with participants within their own
environments as advocated by Cohen et al. (2007). In this case, the implied environment was
the space in which participants found themselves during their teacher training—studying via
a part-time higher education institution while working at a school or studying at a full-time
higher education institution.
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 87
Participant selection
Participant selection was conducted by using purposive sampling following Cohen et al.
(2007). In line with the case study as our chosen research design, we opted for a small
number of participants since we were interested in data that is detailed, varied, and extensive
as suggested by Neuman (1997). In so doing, we were able to conduct an in-depth analysis of
our six participants’ responses. Of these, as made clear above, three had studied at a part-time
higher educational institution and three had studied at a full-time one. Their ages ranged from
24 to 29 years. At the time of the interviews, all participants were beginner teachers and had
three or fewer years’ teaching experience. Although we acknowledge other terms for this
status, we consider beginner teachers as teachers who have been teaching for three or fewer
years in line with Fraser et al. (2017), for the purpose of this paper. The only selection criteria
we had was that participants had to be beginner teachers and that three had to have studied
full-time and three part-time. To aid us with the analysis of data, we grouped the participants
informally into two groups. Each pseudonym followed by FT indicates a full-time student
while PT indicates a part-time student. Group 1 consisted of participants Nthabiseng, (FT),
Angelina, (FT), and Colin, (FT), while group 2 included participants Fred, (PT), Hannah,
(PT), and George, (PT). Participants in Group 2 also worked for the duration of their studies
either in schools as teaching assistants or in similar school-like educational contexts. The data
was collected from participants situated in Pretoria, Gauteng (South Africa) and all
participants were employed at fairly well-resourced urban schools.
Data collection and analysis
Following Cresswell (2008), we collected the data from face-to-face semi-structured
interviews. We conducted two interviews of 60 to 90 minutes’ duration with each participant.
The interviews were steered by a set of semi-structured questions that included some on the
participants’ understanding of their own teacher identity and the ways in which they
perceived these identities. In a conversational manner in line with Uitto (2012), we also
discussed their perceptions of the ways in which their teacher identities had been shaped by
certain influences and we funnelled our discussion towards the choice of teacher education
programme as primary influence on their emerging beginner teacher identities. Finally, a
general overview was elicited from participants about their broad experiences during their
teacher training and they were free to share any other details or memories with us. To
preserve the integrity of the data and ensure that it was interpreted properly, interviews were
audio-recorded, and we transcribed them from these recordings and used them repeatedly to
go over the interviews and verify what we believed the participants to have said. We used
thematic content analysis to analyse the data from the interview transcriptions as advised by
Braun and Clarke (2006) who have pointed out that thematic content analysis involves
identifying, analysing, and reporting different themes that are supported by the data that is
collected.
88 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
Main findings
Following an analysis of the data, three main themes emerged: diverging perceptions of
initial beginner teacher identity states; beginner teacher identity evolving over a period of
time; and practical experience being critical to beginner teacher identity.
Diverging perceptions of initial beginner teacher identity states
Data showed several differences between the perceptions of participants who studied full-
time and those who studied part-time in terms of their perceptions of their initial beginner
teacher identity state. However, certain similarities between the two groups were also
evident. Participants explained how their initial beginner teacher identities were constantly in
flux and were based on the situations that occurred daily in their classrooms. Angelina (FT)
revealed how she had to alter her teaching identity to be able to handle ordinary classroom
situations. She said, “Coming from a university you have a certain mind-set of how things
need to be, and then when you actually start teaching you see that it’s completely different,
you must change yourself.” Hannah (PT) noted how she had to adapt her teaching identity to
be able to handle day-to-day situations; she explained that “you get thrown into the deep end,
but it teaches you very quickly how to swim and how to become a strong teacher.” George
(PT) said that “being a part-time student and working in a school environment, gives more
clarity on what it truly means to be a teacher.” His sense of clarity made him seem more self-
confident, probably because his teacher education programme permitted him to probe into his
beginner teacher identity before he had to really start teaching.
It appears that the professional identities of the full-time participants may have been in a
more unstable state when they began to teach. They seemed less able to develop their
identities without first understanding and maturing their present selves when they found
themselves in teaching contexts. This is evident in Colin’s (FT) response: “I was not sure of
who I [was] when I was a student, only when I started teaching, I became a little bit more
sure but not that much.” Similarly, Nthabiseng (FT) said, “I felt pressure during my years of
studies because I couldn’t know how I would turn out as a teacher one day” and for Angelina
(FT), “I wasn’t really sure what kind of teacher I would be one day, because I haven’t been
there really, but it got better only when I was a real teacher.” Only after they had found and
understood their present teaching self within the profession could they formulate and start
working toward their future teacher selves.
Beginner teacher identity evolving over a period of time
Our data showed that time was significant in relation to beginner teacher identity. Participants
from both groups agreed that beginner teacher identity construction and development
involved time-consuming psychological processes. They related that the time spent in the
practice contributed greatly to their beginner teacher identity. Fred (PT) told us how he had
“had time to actually make mistakes in class” and could learn from his mistakes by trying
new methods. Part-time participants showed more secure beginner teacher identities during
their first years in the profession and seemed to have a clearer idea of the fact that teacher
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 89
identity is never completely stable. Fred (PT) said, “I knew I would still change a lot as a
teacher because even now when I see other colleagues teaching, I think about it and try things
in my class. I also remembered that from when I was studying and working at a school only
as an assistant. I realise this thing will take years.” Hannah (PT) explained that by working as
an assistant teacher while studying part-time, she could try different ideas about what she
thought would work for her. This is apparent from her explanation that “at one point, I was
basically the teacher for five weeks in the class. And that already helped me, from an early
stage, to identify what works for me as a teacher and what doesn’t work for me as a teacher
so that once I graduated it wouldn’t be such a bomb shock for me in class.” George (PT)
agreed with Hannah (PT), in the sense that his identity was shaped over an extended period.
He commented that because he had additional time in a school setting, he had extra time
during which to change his beginner teacher identity to feel more self-assured in what he was
doing in class. He said, “Creating your identity is a process, which I feel is done over a long
period of time, and by studying part-time it was easier to find myself and to stand on my own
feet in the educational world.”
Full-time participants agreed that the construction of a beginner identity takes time, and they
thought that pre-service teachers who studied part-time had had more time for this process to
happen. In some cases, full-time participants viewed this as a distinct advantage of having
studied part-time. Angelina (FT) said that “all the other teachers starting with me who did it
part-time, I feel like they had more of an advantage, and they knew exactly what to expect
when walking into a classroom because they had more years working with the kids.” Colin
(FT) agreed with Angelina (FT) and added, “I believe part-time would have been a better
choice because even though you are working, you are not a full-fledged teacher. You are still
learning, you are learning by observing and doing a little, and then systematically increasing
the amount of work you do.” Hannah (PT) explained how her choice of teacher education
programme aided her to evolve and adjust her beginner teacher identity even though she was
busy studying. She said, “I literally got to grow within a school system, and I got to evolve in
my way as a teacher because I was constantly busy with teaching every single day.” She said
she had additional time to experiment with different ways of teaching and that those
teachable instances matured her beginner teacher identity earlier in her years of study. She
said that “the institute that I graduated from definitely helped my teacher identity because I
went through a trial-and-error stage while I was doing it. I could see what was working for
me and what was not working for me.” Angelina (FT) made an interesting point about the
time available for full-time pre-service teachers when she commented on the demands of
being a full-time student by saying, “You know you are studying full-time, so your studies
must be the priority. Making sure that you pass is really important, you don’t really have time
to think about the type of teacher you want to be or will be even if lecturers ask you to think
about it.”
Practical experience being critical to beginner teacher identity
Although both groups of participants had vastly different experiences, one aspect upon which
they all agreed was the significance of practical experience as part of teacher education
90 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
programmes. Full-time participants felt that their beginner teacher identity would have
manifested differently if they had had more practical experience before they started teaching.
Angelina (FT) and Colin (FT) made several substantive claims in this regard. Angelina (FT)
said, “I believe that if I had studied part-time and worked as a teacher, my teacher identity
would have been completely different. Because, then I would have gained more practical
experience, working with the kids, hands-on experience.” Colin (FT) agreed when he said,
“During my short teaching practice, there my teaching identity was formed and shaped, I
believe. It gave me the opportunity to prepare for what being a full-time teacher would be. I
learned more from teaching practice than I did from my institution.” He added, “I believe that
if I studied part-time, I might have gotten the opportunity to learn more and be more
prepared. Studying part-time would kind of already make you a teacher, so you would have
learned from the job.” Angelina (FT) stated that she would have valued additional practical
experience and that the lack of prolonged practical engagement made her feel lost. As she put
it, “When I walked into the classroom, I was completely lost . . . I did not feel that I had
enough practical experience to be able to work with the kids.”
All participants felt confident about the positive impact the practical experience had had on
their beginner teacher identity, whether it was more practical experience in the case of part-
time participants or less so for full-time participants. Fred (PT) said, “I got my experience
from my school, it is out and out because I have been teaching there while I study that gave
me the advantage or the experience, to teach like I teach now. They guided and supported me
and gave me lots of opportunities.” Colin (FT), as a full-time student, concurred with the
significance of his practical experience of six months when he said, “It was during teaching
practice where we learned, where we worked at schools for six months, there my teaching
identity was formed and shaped.” George (PT) commented on the way in which his practical
experience now elicits a sense of early success when he said, “I also feel practical experience
gave me a head start in the teaching industry where I had a lot of experience because I taught
and studied part-time. I already know I will make it in the industry. Experience is key to help
you find your own teaching identity.” Hannah (PT) explained that some of the most
important aspects of her beginner teacher identity came from observing other teachers. She
said, “I had a lot of examples to learn from, and I had a lot of people that I could grab
knowledge from.” Nthabiseng (FT) captured the significant role played by practical
experience by these powerful words when she said,
When I was actually dealing with problems and seeing how the teachers actually react
to certain situations, I could either gain from that or decide for myself that I won’t
ever handle a child that way. I think there are a lot of influencing factors, that need to
be taken into consideration for your beginner teacher identity to grow. But I would
definitely label the most important one, the one you cannot go without as practical
experience.
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 91
Discussion of findings
Different routes towards the profession influence beginner teacher identity
states
Pre-service teachers’ identities are not fixed, but are, rather, fluid processes involving
“interpretation and reinterpretation of experience” (Nichols et al., 2017, p. 407). It was
evident from our data that early teacher identity states of former full-time and part-time pre-
service teachers differed in several ways and that they all had unique visions and goals for
their future teaching selves. This is in agreement with the view of Harrison (2018, p. 4) who
noted,
We all envisage a range of possible identities for ourselves, framed by factors both
within and beyond our control . . . These possible selves are part of building a wider
narrative that we use to make sense of our lives in our own social context.
The participants who studied via full-time teacher education programmes said that they had
not yet formed a clear beginner teacher identity before they started teaching and their
responses during the interviews suggested an uncertainty about their emerging beginner
teacher identity. Marcus and Nurius (1986) explained this process as the idea an individual
has of what they want to become. Full-time participants were not sure of who they were as
teachers when they started teaching. When describing their beginner teacher identities, the
full-time participants spoke about who they “hoped” they might become. This is in line with
the view of Marcus and Nurius (1986) whose Possible Selves theory indicates how thoughts
about the future has self-relevant goals as its aim and how future-orientated thought provides
information relevant to identity formation as confirmed more recently by Hamman et al.
(2010).
Both groups of participants expressed individual hopes for the future and spoke about their
fears regarding present teaching situations. Teaching is a profession in which feelings and
motivation play an important role, and to support pre-service teachers’ learning, their
feelings, desires, and thoughts must be taken into account (Korthagen, 2017). From the
findings elicited from our data, it is safe to say that the beginner teacher identity states of full-
time study participants seemed to shift more frequently between perceptions of their past
selves and hopeful visions of their future selves. Additionally, full-time study participants
seemed to take longer to construct a clear view of their beginner teacher identity. For all these
particular participants, this process began only after they had started teaching. This might
imply that their future self was under slightly more pressure since they had to deal with all
the demands made on beginner teachers as Deswita (2019) and Klusman et al. (2016) have
indicated in different contexts, while attempting to understand and get to know their newly
emerging professional personas.
The group who studied part-time while working in schools seemed to have formed a rough
image of what they wanted their beginner teacher identity to be or, in some cases, knew that a
strong identity had already emerged. For these participants the shift towards a clearer
92 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
beginner teacher identity seems to have started earlier and they also seemed to have a clearer
idea of the current state of their teaching selves. They ascribed this to the fact that they had
the opportunity to interact directly with learners and teachers in a schooling environment.
This finding correlates with the views of Padua and Franca-Carvalho (2019) and Nomlomo
and Sosibo, (2016) who emphasised the significance of pedagogical practice as the basis of
the contextualisation of teaching experience.
The perceived chasm between tertiary studies and practice
Participants from both groups mentioned the magnitude of the difference between what they
had been taught at their tertiary institution and their experiences during what they referred to
as “real-life teaching.” These differences were mentioned by all participants irrespective of
the route they had chosen to become teachers. Participants compared the content of what they
were taught at their respective initial teacher education institutions to how this translated into
their experiences in practice. Their views were in line with Gravett’s (2012, p. 4) descriptions
of “studying theory from books and in lectures” and then “applying” it practically in what is
termed the “real world.” Participants from both groups indicated that they were not sure how
different modules were aligned and failed to understand how theoretical content translated
into practice. Rusznyak (2015) accounted for this by pointing out that when pre-service
teachers failed to understand the fundamental composition of their teacher education
programme, they had trouble understanding the relationships between and among the
different modules they study. It was evident that the chasm between their tertiary studies and
their experiences during their first years in practice influenced their identity formation
process. Participants entered their new profession with the expectation that they were
comprehensively prepared through their tertiary studies to face initial challenges, which was
not always the case.
It is important to note that although the full-time participants had the essential theoretical
knowledge, they just did not yet comprehend how to use it practically. This could have added
to the feeling of being overwhelmed that they experienced; they had not yet realized that their
theoretical knowledge is just as important as their practical experience. Galman (2009)
presented another perspective on participants’ responses to what they learn during their
tertiary training. She viewed the “ubiquitous grumbling” (p. 468) of pre-service teachers as
an indication of a possible positive effect of their teacher education program on their pre-
service teacher identity development. She argued that a phronesis, or practical wisdom
approach to pre-service teacher education, may resolve the theory vs. practice problem and
added that such an approach will focus mainly on the expansion of practical reasoning or
perception-based knowledge, which will assist in effective communication and decision-
making in a classroom setting. The experiences of dissonance and the emotions related to
being overwhelmed, as was evident in participants’ responses, may suggest that they are
wrestling with novel ideas and moving forward in developing a unique and more stable and
secure teacher self.
Van der Westhuizen & Woest: “Do all roads lead to Rome?” 93
The critical role of exposure to practice
Both groups of participants held strong views about exposure to practice being essential to
the construction and development of their beginner teacher identities. Part-time participants
thought that they had had more time to develop their beginner teacher identity than had their
full-time counterparts and added that they felt adequately prepared for teaching full-time. The
choice of teacher education programme determines the amount of practical experience to
which pre-service teachers are exposed (Darling-Hammond et al., 2015). Full-time teacher
education programmes struggle to provide adequate time for important practical experience,
and thus typically place pre-service teachers in schools for limited periods of time (Hofmeyr,
2016).
Beginner teachers’ identities are formed to some extent by the ideas and approaches
promoted by their teacher education programmes (Anspal et al., 2012; Beauchamp &
Thomas, 2011). From our data it was evident that full-time participants had limited practical
involvement compared to part-time participants who worked full-time at schools. The
perceived deficiency in practical experience of full-time participants resulted in feelings of
being overwhelmed and lost, which meant they could not focus on, nor see the benefits of,
their theoretical knowledge. In contrast, our data indicated that prolonged practical
experience during formal teacher training had a strong positive influence on the development
of the beginner teacher identities of part-time participants. According to Hofmeyr (2016), a
key flaw identified in university curricula is a lack of sufficient school practical experience.
This is confirmed by the findings of our study.
Conclusion
Among other factors not explored in this paper, our findings suggest that different teacher
education programmes influence the emergent beginner teacher identity of teachers during
their early years of teaching to a considerable extent. Our findings show that exposure to
practical experience in the school environment played a significant role in the development of
beginner teacher identity. Consequently, the extent of opportunities for practical experience
offered by different higher education institutions might constitute a substantial link to the
development of beginner teacher identity.
From participants’ shared lived experiences, we were able to recognise processes of growth
and transformation in pre-service teachers during their years of study as they experienced the
different routes to qualification with some similarities in the experiences of those who chose
the same route. Although intrinsic desire and motivation of both full-time and part-time
students, among other factors, eventually determines their classroom success (Hofmeyr,
2016) we hold the view that the choice of teacher educator programmes is a factor that cannot
be ignored in conversations about teacher training. Additionally, beginner teacher identity
may be influenced in a holistic sense by the choice of teacher education programmes in ways
that our findings did not show.
94 Journal of Education, No. 82, 2021
We recognise that the choice of a teacher educator programme is one of the important
building blocks that make up the past self of beginner teachers. The past experiences of a
beginner teacher cannot be changed or rewoven; they form part of their past selves which is
essential to building their future teacher selves. After reflecting on our initial choice of the
metaphor of different roads leading to Rome, we are of the opinion that all roads do indeed
lead to Rome. However, since these journeys to the desired destination differ so vastly the
traveller (becoming-teacher) reaching Rome may be a different teacher had they chosen a
different road.
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