Paths of Becoming: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry Into Teacher Candidate Professional Self-Understanding

Abstract

An extensive body of educational literature examines the process and implications of how an individual becomes a teacher, but studies within this field often minimize or ignore the existential nature of this act of becoming. Something happens to the individual as they enter into the teaching profession and commence their teaching practice and in many educational jurisdictions, those happenings are left for the novice teacher to grapple with in isolation. This study presents interpretations of four teacher candidates’ sense of becoming and provides a meta-analysis of important existential themes arising from examinations of the participants’ professional self-understanding. This study engages with the concept of existential becoming in teacher candidates through a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to interpretation and understanding. Four teacher candidates, about to enter their final teaching practicum before graduating from an eight-month Bachelor of Education program as certified teachers, participated in this research project which included one-on-one interviews, journal analysis and focus groups. Interpretations of these teacher candidates’ understandings of becoming a teacher are organized by Kelchtermans’ professional self-understanding framework and presented through the use of poetic vignettes and images of the teacher candidates’ paths of becoming. These aesthetic representations of teacher candidates’ understandings of becoming offer an alternative and existentially-informed vehicle for teacher candidate reflection and professional self-understanding. Data analysis and hermeneutic interpretations among and between the researcher and the participants revealed a number of existential themes present in the teacher candidates’ understandings of becoming a teacher, including: fear, responsibility, authenticity, purpose, and the self. Each theme is examined via a connection to both existential and teacher education literature and implications for teacher education programs are discussed.