The American Identity Formation Of The Case Study Of Pre-service Teachers

Contemporary research suggests that forming a teacher identity is crucial to theprocess of becoming a teacher. Furthermore, a "discourse turn" has emerged as a majormethodological influence for the study of identity in research on teaching. A guidingassumption of traditional discourse research is that discourse plays an important role inteacher identity formation. Identity is produced through participation in discourse,which is manifested through language, and consists of a system of beliefs, attitude andvalues that exist within particular social and cultural practices.As a complement to this traditional approach, this study takes a "discursive"approach to text analysis, where identity is neither predetermined nor static, but ratheremerges and is made relevant in discourse, specifically the discourse within teachereducation the preservice teacher go through.The discourse analysis explores thediscursive formation of preservice teacher identity in America. The study highlightsthe challenges and concerns faced by these preservice teachers. I draw on thetheoretical framework of discourse analysis to analyze the teacher identity developedby the participants in everyday discourse interactions.The three case studies demonstrate the complex ways that participants imagethemselves and become a teacher among societal discourses on teaching and learningin America. This study tries to provide some solutions of those questions including,how does the preservice teacher’s faith as a teacher change during the stage of teachereducation? What does discourses work in the formation of preservice teacher identityand what should we do to help the formation of preservice teacher identity? Findingsalso highlight several emergent concerns faced by American teacher education. Finally,findings build on the study of discourse analysis by illustrating the process preserviceteacher developed their teacher identity.This study gives a voice to discourse analysis that is still on the fringes of identityresearch. Furthermore, it offers the possibility of understanding preservice teachers innew ways and of understanding teacher training programs as complex ecologicalsystems where such awareness can help foster emergent identities in the situatedprocess of learning to teach.