Stowell, Marie (1988) Becoming a teacher : an ethnographic study. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This ethnographic study of the professional studies year
of a Bachelor of Education course in a College of Higher
Education aims to understand teacher education as a process of
professional socialisation. The study starts from the
recognition that our present understanding of the process of
teacher socialisation is limited - theoretically, conceptually
and empirically - despite considerable recent developments in
the sociological understanding of school and classroom processes.
By taking an interactionist/ethnographic approach to the study
of the process of becoming a teacher, attention is drawn to the
negotiated character of professional socialisation, and the
similarities and differences in student teachers' experiences
and perceptions of what it is to be a teacher. The study is
concerned with the social processes and experiences of teacher
education the subjective perceptions, feelings, interests
and understandings of individuals and their creative and
strategic adaptations in response to perceived circumstances.
The study finds student teachers actively constructing
perspectives, strategies and identities as potential teachers,
a process involving conflicts and contradictions, taking
place within a social context which imposes constraints on
individual action Conceptualising the professional socialisation
process as a critical phase of 'survival' in which
student teachers must learn to cope, the study documents the
necessity for strategic negotiation, accommodation and
resistance to ensure success in the teacher education course.
The particular difficulties of initial encounters with pupils
and student teacher's relationships with teachers on school
experience are discussed. The study also examines the power
relations involved in teacher education, particularly those
concerning the 'hidden pedagogy' of control and its relation
to assessments of teacher competence.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Teachers -- Training of, Student teachers, Professional socialization
Official Date:	January 1988
Dates:	Date Event January 1988 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Burgess, Robert G.
Extent:	xi, 533 leaves
Language:	eng

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