Exploring Identities in a Reading

This qualitative study used theories of language and learning to explore the identities of one preservice teacher in a reading specialization program. Data sources included archived online course responses, interviews, jour-nals, and an electronic portfolio. Analysis indicates that the participant used multiple discourses as an immigrant, multilanguage learner, and writer/poet to make sense of her learning in the program. These discourses shaped her identities as a teacher and influenced how her peers recognized her. Analyzing online responses over time added to the uniqueness of this study because it allowed the researcher to tap into shared discourse related to course readings and field-based experiences. Negotiating multiple discourses within a learning community influenced the participant’s instructional decisions as a student teacher and fashioned her identity with other future teachers. Implications include the significance of exploring multiple identities in relation to a clearly identified program mission, using computer mediated discussions to nurture collaborative reflection, and understanding how a group’s common values and commitments can enhance one’s teaching identity. Knowing what good teachers do, how they think, or what they know, is not the same as knowing how teachers learn to think and act in particular ways and what contributes to their learning. Researchers, policy makers, and teacher educators are beginning to recognize that understanding more about teachers as learners, what they need to know and how they learn their craft, can help in clarifying the role for formal teacher education in learning to teach. (Feiman-Nemser & Remillard, 1995, p. 63) How do teachers learn to teach? This question is important to many teacher educators and politicians alike. Although some believe that learning to teach can be carried out as a series of technical skills-based training sessions, man