Abstract:

The identity of a teacher in teaching includes the evaluation processes of how a teacher regards himself/herself as a teacher. Analyzing the professional identities of teachers can be considered as an important step in developing more efficient teacher training programs. The purpose of the present study is to identify the possible expected identities of classroom teacher candidates through the “teacher candidates’ possible personality scale” and investigate the possible teacher identities in terms of certain variables. In the present study, a total of 444 final year (fourth grade) teacher candidates studying at the Elementary Education Undergraduate Departments of 9 different universities in the regions of Marmara, Black sea, Central Anatolia, Mediterranean and South East Anatolia were given the “teacher candidates’ possible personality scale”. The data obtained were analyzed by the Mann Whitney-U and Kruskal Wallis statistical technique. Results of the analysis revealed that given the sub-factors regarding the factor of possible expected teacher personality in the first year of classroom teachers candidates’ teaching careers, they had high level of professionalism and perception of learning to teach; and given sub-factors regarding the feared teacher personality, the teachers candidates had low level perceptions regarding non-creative teaching, insufficient classroom management and becoming a disinterested teacher. Teachers’ identities were analyzed in terms of the variables of gender, the social environment where teachers led most of their lives and the geographical region of the university where the candidates studied. The data obtained revealed that there were some significant differences in terms of the variables of gender and geographical region in some sub-factors of the scale.

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