Examining elementary preservice teachers' reform-minded science teacher identity trajectories: A comparative case study

The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary preservice teachers developed reform-minded science teacher identities during the methods course and student teaching, and to examine the impact of changing contexts on their identity development. Using the theoretical framework of identity-trajectory theory, I examined the ways in which preservice teachers’ past and present experiences prior to and during the methods course and student teaching informed how they envisioned their future selves as reform-minded elementary science teachers. This framework also conceptualized preservice teachers’ experiences as having three interconnected strands: 1) Intellectual; 2) Institutional; and 3) Networking. The context of the study included two sections of a science methods course at a large, research-intensive university in the Midwestern United States, as well as local, rural, and urban student teaching sites for selected participants. Participants included 30 elementary preservice teachers from the methods course. Four of these participants were also followed into their one-semester student teaching placements. Data collected during the methods course were gathered via initial and final journey maps, autobiographical and final course reflections, initial and final interviews, and course artifacts (e.g., lesson plans; summative reflective narratives). Data collected during student teaching were gathered via initial, post-teaching, and final interviews, observation field notes, and final journey maps. Data analysis occurred within multiple phases, including data that was gathered during the methods course and student teaching. Within each phase, several stages of data analysis were conducted. Constant comparative analysis (Charmaz, 2014) was used to analyze all interviews, journey maps, and reflections collected within each phase of the study. Document analysis (Bowen, 2009) was used to analyze all course artifacts collected during the methods course and observation field notes from student teaching. Eventually, all data sources were triangulated, and cross-case analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994) was conducted to investigate how changing contexts were informing preservice teachers identity development. Cases were then written to portray the nuanced ways elementary preservice teachers constructed reform-minded science teacher identities during the methods course and student teaching. Results indicated that there were multiple ways elementary PSTs developed science teacher and reform-minded science teacher identities during the methods course and student teaching, and that their situated experiences as learners and teachers were salient to their identity development over time and across contexts. Implications of this study were provided for science education researchers and science teacher identity research, elementary teacher preparation programs, and induction of preservice teachers into their early career teaching.