Teaching Selves: Identity, Pedagogy, and Teacher Education (Suny Series Teacher Preparation and Development) (Suny Series in Teacher Preparation and Development.)

Through the experiences of six students who wish to become high school teachers, this book explores the process of what it means to be a teacher and proposes ten principles for identity development.

This is a book about how identities arise, in particular, about how individuals “become” teachers, and how pedagogy in teacher education programs can promote identity development. Teaching Selves argues that being a teacher is not a matter of simply adopting a role but rather involves the construction of an identity as a teacher. Focusing on identity, the book tells the stories of six undergraduate students enrolled in a secondary teacher education program at a large state university. Through a qualitative study made up of interviews, observations, and teaching experiences with the subjects over a three-year period, the author explains the process of becoming a teacher, concentrating on the influences of education courses and other features of the teacher education program. Filled with students’ stories and personal reflections from the author, Teaching Selves offers a personal vision of what is possible in a very public endeavor—the education of new teachers.

“I’m taken by its personal quality. Few teacher education books ever talk about the students, making them real people with values and aspirations—and selves. Jane Danielewicz has done some nice connecting of their stories to ‘theory.’ The link between these personal stories and the vagaries of the larger teacher education enterprise is one of the book’s strengths.” — Tom Gregory, author of Making High School Work: Lessons from the Open School