Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Identity Development in Learning to Teach Science: A Multi-site Case Study

Authors

Deepika Menon, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Saiqa Azam, Memorial University of NewfoundlandFollow

ORCID IDs

Deepika Menon http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8652-7019

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2021

Citation

Published in Journal of Science Teacher Education 32:5 (2021), pp. 558–577.

doi:10.1080/1046560X.2020.1870810

Comments

Copyright © 2021 Association for Science Teacher Education. Published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis. Used by permission.

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate preservice elementary teachers’ science teacher identity development during their participation in the field-based science methods course and a year after. Grounded within the Feiman-Nemser’s thematic framework of learning to teach, this study utilized a case study approach aimed to examine the experiences that contributed to formation of science teacher identities of two participants uniquely positioned in the teacher education programs at the two sites, USA and Canada. Data collected over a year included science autobiographies, reflective journals, interviews, classroom observations, and artifacts. The analysis of the data revealed that experiences and interactions within prior science courses, science methods course and classroom teaching, and the program itself (a year after), accounted for the changes in how and in what the ways the two preservice teachers think, feel, know, and act as a teacher of science. Findings indicate the importance of the framework of learning to teach in shaping preservice science teachers’ identities. The study includes implications for preservice teacher education programs and research.