Constructing Identity through Practice: Preservice Teachers’ Narratives of Practicum

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2
Writer(s): 
Peter Clements, Shizuoka University

As a follow-up to a study of the published accounts of preservice teachers (PSTs) in Japan, I conducted interviews with three PSTs before and after their final teaching practicum. The narrative framework and themes generated in the previous study served as a guide to examining the settings, times, and people that the PSTs suggested were significant to their practicum experience. The results complicate and extend the previous findings, providing insight into how the PSTs dealt with stress and negative episodes as well as how their identities as teachers developed through practice. The PSTs’ relationships with their students were key in this regard, while mentoring teachers tended to play an evaluative and disciplinary role that was less central to development. This has implications for how teachers who work with PSTs can productively intervene to promote reflective growth.

本研究は、先に行われた実習生の感想文を分析した結果に基づく調査である。教育実習の前後に3人の実習生へインタビューを行い、前回のナラティヴ枠組やテーマを使い、実習期間を通して実習生にとっての重大な場所・時間・人々を調べた。結果は前回の結果より詳細であり、特に実習生がストレスや困ったことをどのように対処したか、また教師としてのアイデンティティが実践を通じてどのように発達したかについての洞察ができる。教師としてのアイデンティティの発達には、実習生において生徒との関係が非常に重要であり、指導教諭はむしろあまり重要ではない評価的な役割であった。この結果は実習生の成長を促す指導方法に重要な示唆となる。

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