To examine the professional development of pre-service modern language teachers from a consecutive program of study in terms of both knowledge and identity underpinned conceptually by the Threshold Concepts Framework (TCF)

Abstract

This study tracks the professional development (PD) of two cohorts of student language teachers (ST) in Initial Teacher Education in both their learning and school placement throughout a year of their studies in terms of teacher knowledge development and teacher identity development. Using a multiple nested case study approach, this study utilizes Mezirow's Transformative Learning (TL), and the Threshold Concepts Framework (TCF) to identify the Threshold Concept (TC) encountered by the participants and to track their transition from a novice to an expert teacher via the thematic analysis tool of I-poems (Brown & Gilligan, 1991). The TC of Teaching as Relational was identified as Threshold Concept (TC) for this study. In order to achieve this, the TCF model was utilized and adapted as the interrelated framework to examine the influences of internal and external factors on the development of a teachers' knowledge and identity regarding their schooling, professional development, and classroom practice.