Why I want to become a teacher…

Abstract

The present research is part of the field of Teacher Education. It aims at investigating the narrative of the path of three students, two females and a male who participated in the 3rd spiral of Teachers’ Practicum of the School of Philosophy and Education of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the key points that led them to this particular professional choice and the construction of their identities. Drawing from social constructionism I investigated the way in which students reconstruct their path, the points they highlight as pivotal for choosing this specific profession as well as the type of identities they construct as potential teachers. This is a study of three cases which is part of my post-doctoral research that constitutes an ethnographic case study of the 3rd spiral of Teachers’ Practicum. I gathered the material using qualitative research techniques and analyzed it following Educational Discourse Analysis Model steps. The research highlighted the course of the narratives of the prospective teachers towards strongly choosing their profession as intertextual and dialogic, reflecting the wider social, cultural and school context. The students of the research resisted dominant Discourses and charted their course based on this resistance. The teacher identities they wish to construct are those of the partner, the supporter who places the child at the center of the teaching process.

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