Personal and Professional Identity Re-Construction of Young Mature Student-Teachers in the Context of a PGCE Course
This study aims to understand student-teachers' perceived re-construction of their personal and professional identity, associated with participation in a PGCE course. A framework integrating Personal Construct Psychology (Kelly 1955) and Domain Theory (Layder 1997) is used to subsume interdependent personal and interpersonal processes of re-construction. Longitudinal data on twelve volunteer young mature participants' self-constructs and perceived cardinal validatory experiences were obtained by naturalistic methods (inspection of coursework) and constructivist interventions (interviewing and reflective writing). In-depth interpretivist analysis and portrayal of three cases explored the personal and biographical dimensions of identity development, and perceived validatory experiences. All participants' perspectives on issues of identity, cardinal validatory experiences, and Standards-based assessment were then explored, and presented as vignettes and thematic descriptions. Findings illustrate the individual, biographical nature of participants' identity re-construction processes, ordered by superordinate aspects of their personal construct systems. They portray participants' resolution of their need for self-maintenance and for social affirmation as they seek a personal teaching identity. The findings demonstrate the importance, and the dynamics, of personal and professional relationship-building in school, sometimes in circumstances of conflicting values and expectations.