INTRODUCTION

Teacher training is a key variable for the development of meaningful educational processes and impacts on the students’ development in the school system. It has also become a permanent challenge for educational authorities and institutions (^{Tzifopoulos, 2021}).

It is known that training a teacher is much more than teaching knowledge and developing teaching skills, because teaching practice depends largely on how and how much teachers identify with their profession (^{Hanna et al., 2019}).

The teacher’s professional identity (PI) is a personal dimension that integrates meanings about what it means to be a teacher and the way in which this role is exercised, in addition to skills to carry out teaching tasks, a professional self-image and self-efficacy beliefs about teaching performance (^{Beijaard, 2019}).

There is currently evidence of the importance of the teacher’s PI development for good professional performance, motivation and job satisfaction, commitment to the profession and even the students’ academic success (^{Hanna et al., 2019}). However, less is known about how this identity develops in the context of initial teacher training (^{Izadinia, 2012}), especially in Latin American countries.

Regarding how teacher PI develops, the characteristics of the academic-professional environment in which the future teacher is inserted and how this is perceived by him/her, in addition to the awareness and perception of himself/herself as a professional (^{Heled & Davidovich, 2019}), have an impact. In initial teacher training, the variety of situations that impact the IP of future teachers can be classified into: (a) the characteristics of the study programs; (b) the psychological characteristics of future teachers; and (c) sociocultural factors. In the latter, being incidents in the development of IP, the relation of the university with the institutions linked to teaching (^{Le & Dwyer, 2019}).

Being a teacher is exercising a profession based on the sciences of education of an eminently practical nature. A strategy that universities have increased to improve teacher training is teaching under a practical methodology, for example, professional practices (PP) (^{Ponce & Camus, 2019}). Evidence shows that practice-based teacher training is one of the experiences that could most positively or negatively influence the development of IP (^{Machado & Mattos, 2018}).

^{Carey and Vargas (2016}) describe PP as a training process that consists of inserting students into a real work context, thus being able to acquire knowledge, competencies and skills for professional practice, as well as new ways of addressing similar problems in real contexts and complex environments. One factor that encourages the construction of PI in the context of PP is the questioning of the beliefs and knowledge that students have, once they are integrated into a context of real practice of the profession (^{Chikoko & Msibi, 2020}). Added to this is the promotion of the autonomy of the practitioner in the professional practice, because these experiences allow strengthening the capacities to face uncertainty in the educational context. This uncertainty, which is typical of critical incidents that future teachers frequently face in practice-based training contexts, may or may not favor the development of teaching PI (^{Şenel, 2021}).

Another relevant factor is the adequate link among university, society and practice center. An adequate articulation between these institutions is produced on the basis of an epistemic symmetry and knowledge about educational processes, achieving formative reciprocity, in addition to including a policy that formalizes the link.

^{Trent and Shroff (2013}) point out that the use of pedagogical tools that allow the achievements of pedagogy students to be evidenced, such as portfolios and experience notebooks, facilitate the construction of a PI. On the other hand, some situations that could negatively impact the PI are the high emotions of insecurity and fear on the part of students when entering a PP (^{Sakallı Gümüş, 2015}), in addition to the overload and stress during this period (^{Machado & Mattos, 2018}).

This study seeks to understand the construction of PI in the context of the professional practice (PP) of future teachers, understanding PP as a formative process of universities that consists of inserting students in a real work context (^{Carey & Vargas, 2016}), as part of the completion of studies. The above, from the subjective experience of the future teacher. This subjective dimension of IP is fundamental to understand its development and consists of a construction of subjective senses and meanings about what it means to be a teacher (^{Hanna et al., 2019}). This work addresses this subjective dimension of PI from the subjective theories (ST) of pedagogy students who study PP. The ST are hypotheses that people develop in their daily lives to understand their environment, their own behavior and that of other people (^{Flick, 2018}). In education, there is an important theoretical framework of ST that describes the behavior of teachers and highlights the impact of this type of subjective knowledge in teaching decision-making (^{Köb & Janz, 2021}).

This study seeks to answer: How do student teachers construct their PI during PP, from their subjective theories? The general objective is to describe and interpret these ST. Specifically, and from the students’ TS, we seek to: a) describe which elements of the PP they associate with the construction of the teaching IP, b) describe the main changes that occur in the students’ PI during their PP, c) describe the process of constructing the PI during PP, (d) describe suggestions for improving the PP and its relations with the PI and (e) propose a comprehensive model of the construction of the PI in the PP, from the reconstructed ST.

METHOD

RESULTS

1. The meaning of the teaching profession in professional practice

Two subcategories group the ST of the teaching students, on the meaning of the profession that is constructed in PP (Chart 1).

1 E = interview, M = female, Y = male, EN = public school, EPS = subsidized private school, JP = public kindergarten

Chart 1 Subcategories of the meaning of the teaching profession. 

2. Axial coding: professional identity and the meaning of the teaching profession

The PP significantly affects the construction of complex knowledge about the profession. Practitioners construct a meaning of what PI is, which implies being aware of what it means to be a teacher, knowing how to practice the profession, as well as developing a vocation and professional self-efficacy. This construction is what guides the practitioner’s behavior at some level in the practice center, which in a circular process continues to affect the meaning of PI (Figure 1).

Figure 1 Axial coding: PI and the meaning of the teaching profession 

3. Factors for the development of professional identity in the context of PP

Five factors are associated with the development of the teacher’s PI, in a PP context and from the students’ ST (Chart 2).

Chart 2 Factors for the development of PI in PP. 

4. Axial coding: factors associated with the development of professional identity

The insertion of the intern in a PP center is an intense, exciting experience, generating learning, reflection and awareness about the new role to be played: that of a teacher considered fundamental for the life of the students. The classroom is the symbol that best represents the exercise of the profession, and performance within it is experienced with a professional commitment regulated motivationally by personal goals, the desires of significant others and the constructed social meaning of the profession. This can lead to seeking support, assessment, guidance and teaching from supervising teachers and to the permanent self-evaluation of professional self-efficacy (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Axial coding: factors associated with the construction of PI in professional practice 

5.5. Axial coding: the process of developing professional identity

The PI develops in a circular process of permanent self-assessment of who one is as a professional. When interns enter the practice center, the context allows them to assess how professionally prepared they are and, based on this, what they must learn in this process. Progress is confirmed based on professionalization indicators and allows them to respond to questions about the type of teacher they are becoming (Figure 3).

Chart 3 Stages of PI development in PP. 

Figure 3 Axial coding: the process of developing PI 

7. Axial coding: Improvements to professional practice and professional identity

A PP management model is required that adequately integrates the university, school and society contexts, based on training strategies that generate deep, meaningful, situated learning (in school and society) and integrate theory and practice, which favor the development of teaching skills for the exercise of the profession in a dynamic knowledge society (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Axial coding: Improvements to professional practice and professional identity. 

DISCUSSION

The general objective of this study was to describe and interpret the construction of teaching PI during PP, from the ST of pedagogy students at a Chilean public university. ST were found that explain this construction, developed by the trainees based on their training experience.

In general, the findings show that in a PP context and experience, future teachers significantly reconstruct the knowledge, skills, and meanings of what it means to be a teacher and the implications associated with the exercise of the teaching profession. These results constitute further proof that practical training and PP can significantly impact identification with the profession (^{Machado & Mattos, 2018}; ^{Torres-Cladera, et al., 2021}), and may even be decisive for future teachers to persevere in their professional career or abandon their profession.

Figure 5 Selective coding: professional identity in professional practice 

For their part, the value and meaning given by the participants of this study to their PP experience is also consistent with those investigations that report in Chile the way in which they are registered and the determining nature of the experiences associated with PP in the biographical trajectory and PI of teachers (^{Arancibia, 2021}).

The first specific objective sought to identify and describe the elements of PP that are associated with the construction of teacher PI. In this context and moment, it was found that the future teacher is considered a professional with an expert status in teaching and may or may not confirm a complex professional role that involves developing the ability to perform a multiplicity of functions, based on a social sense of the profession. The complexity of the teaching role has already been reported in other studies about teacher PI (^{Carey & Vargas, 2016}), as well as the multiplicity of functions that characterizes this profession, which often puts school time in tension with the teachers’ personal time. In the study by ^{Schellings et al. (2021}), this complexity of the role and multiplicity of functions is described as workload, a situation that is considered an element of the teachers’ PI that puts stress on the teachers’ lives.

Based on this same specific objective, factors were identified that are associated with the construction of PI during PP. One of these, particularly relevant for future teachers, is the insertion in the classroom where they carry out their professional practice, due to the experiences acquired in this context, which tests their skills, vocation, beliefs and expectations about the profession. The classroom is a symbol and element of otherness with enormous meaning and influence on the PI of future teachers. It is particularly in this context that the teaching PI is built from an intense and permanent social interaction with students, other teachers and parents of schoolchildren, producing a dynamic that seeks balance between the personal meaning attributed to the profession and the meanings that the educational community gives to teaching practice (^{Meihami & Esfandiari, 2021}). The above reaffirms the importance of incorporating future teachers into the real contexts of the exercise of the profession, to achieve not only an adequate integration of theoretical and practical knowledge, but fundamentally so that an intense, systematic and reflective experience of the construction of the teaching PI occurs (^{Carey & Vargas, 2016}). This, provided that this insertion occurs early and progressively, in addition to having permanent support (^{Korthagen, 2017}).

The PP supervisor teachers act as models and guides of professional practice, being of great importance for the practitioners, the support that they provide for the development of the PI. ^{Vanegas and Fuentealba (2019}) point out that these teachers are references for the necessary expertise. Support from other educational agents is also essential for teacher professionalization during PP, especially for the students who are taught by the intern. The above can be summarized in the need to have an adequate climate within the practice classroom and the university where the future teacher is trained. This is in line with what other studies have pointed out, that is, that the construction of IP is a social and personal process and at the same time, that conditions are necessary for an adequate school environment - practice center - that favors the development of IP, such as positive interpersonal relationships, promotion of personal and professional development, and performance in a safe environment (^{Salleh & Abd, 2015}).

Another relevant factor is the constant analysis and evaluation of professional self-efficacy. The experience and the meaning that we give to professional experience directly influences the process of teacher’s development identity. The above reaffirms the value of training under a practical methodology and warns about the need to overcome the practical training limitations produced by an emergency education context, since it is the gradual awareness of one’s own personality and professional performance, which enables the construction of a personal sense and meaning of the profession (^{Protassova, Mikelsone, & Latsone, 2021}).

Specific objective number two sought to describe the main changes that occur in the PI during the PP of teacher education students, from their ST. From the ST of teacher education students in PP, this training process is an experience that produces changes in multiple dimensions of teacher PI, such as the meaning of the profession, the knowledge for the exercise of the profession, the teacher self-image and professional self-efficacy (^{Hanna et al., 2019}). Other studies report similar results and show that PP can generate profound changes in these dimensions, generating a greater or lesser development of IP, in the latter case, with contextual factors such as salary having a greater influence on the abandonment of the professional teaching career (^{Wang & Zhang, 2021}).

Specific objective number three sought to describe the process of PI construction during the PP of student teachers from their ST. There is consensus that the process of PI construction is complex, dynamic, continuous (^{Beijaard, 2019}; ^{Magen-Nagar & Steinberger, 2020}) and made up of sub-identities. This study describes this construction in the context of PP, identifying a set of stages that act in a circular process of permanent self-assessment - reflection about who one is as a professional. ^{Chavez, Faure, and Barril (2021}) have also highlighted the relevance of the analysis and reflection of training experiences and their impact on teaching IP, with important milestones being the contrast of the students’ previous knowledge and ST with their lived experiences, added to the insertion of the future teacher in a social network of new professional interactions.

In the fourth specific objective, the aim was to identify suggestions for the construction of the PI, under a PP context and from the ST of the study participants. As suggestions, the students in practice point out improving the teaching-learning methods used by their teachers, in order to prepare them to insert themselves in complex environments of the profession, in a society that faces increasing difficulties for survival and development. It is interesting that more specific or technical proposals do not arise from the students, beyond affirming this need for change.

At the same time, it is very important to improve the communication channels that exist among school supervisors, the practice center and the university supervisors, since this link is often difficult, negatively affecting learning. This is in line with studies that point out the need to achieve an adequate university-practice center relation, to favor the construction of the teacher’s PI (^{Machado & Mattos, 2018}). A relation that should distance itself from approaches that view schools or practice centers as test laboratories for training institutions, where the competence or suitability of the future teacher is at stake. Rather, it should be based on the recognition of a space that contributes significantly and concomitantly to professional learning and construction based on a formal relation of institutional reciprocity.

Professional training in PP requires, according to the participants in this study, the formation of learning communities. In this scenario, work teams organized to identify problems, plan their solutions and implement them are fundamental. ^{Näykki et al. (2021}) have reported that learning communities between future teachers and in-service teachers generate important reflections and questions about the professional role, representing a very important experience for professional development.

Finally, comprehensive models of the construction of PI during PP were developed. The central element of this model is the reflective, analytical and introspective processes that occur in the trainees and allow for the teachers’ professionalization. This implies that students in PP construct a relatively reasoned PI, although not necessarily based on formative experiences specially planned to generate this knowledge construction. The above guides future studies to deepen the understanding of these experiences that promote reflection in the context of PP and the construction of PI.

A limitation of this study is the scope of the results, even though it is transferable, as a hypothesis, to units of analysis with similar characteristics.

It is necessary to continue investigating the development of teacher IP, especially in Latin American countries. A better understanding of the above could shed light on the necessary improvements to initial teacher training, in a current social context that increasingly imposes greater challenges on teachers.