Becoming an English teacher: Positioning discourses and professional identities.

This study focuses on the ways two preservice teachers discursively positioned themselves and their students within unit plans written at two points in their teacher education program, the ways these positionings translated (or didn't) into the lessons and goals within those plans, and the implications these positions had for their construction of teaching identities. Drawing on a theoretical frame grounded in feminist theory, critical discourse analysis and critical discursive social psychology, I suggest a set of tools for studying the discursive process of identity construction within written pedagogical plans and portfolios produced as part of a teacher education program. The pedagogical and curricular decisions visible within a teacher's written plans indicate something about the kind of teacher this person is, the kind of students they think they have, and what kind of instruction this relationship (between a certain kind of teacher and certain kinds of students) entails. My findings suggest that despite the availability of discourses (from the teacher education institution) encouraging a stance of inquiry and attention to all learners, the two student teachers in this study appeared to have difficulty observing students and translating their observations into plans, pedagogy, and academically relevant positions for their students. The disconnect between content and students visible in the student teachers' written plans appeared to stem from difficulty with using assessments (both formative and summative) to learn about their students in academically relevant ways and to translate that knowledge into curriculum and pedagogy for their students. This study highlights the importance for teacher education programs of attending to matters of identity and positioning within teacher education programs. I offer specific suggestions for how teacher education can engage preservice teachers in a discourse of practice that provides intellectual and practical experience in constructing teaching identities. The tools described in this study can also be used to provide beginning teachers with ways to study their own practice so they can continue to learn in and from their own practice.PhDEducationLanguage artsTeacher educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/125375/2/3192651.pd