Embracing Institutional Authority: The Emerging Identity of a Novice Teacher Educator

“What’s the Middle Ground? Am I Ever Going to be the Perfect Teacher?:” Self-Study of a Doctoral Student’s Acculturation Process

“…By analysing situations or events in her journal and engaging in critical-friend discussions, Shrehan realized she had noticeably changed throughout the process of self-study. In itself, this finding calls for more self-study research to investigate how future teacher educators' identities, experiences, and priorities change over time (Allen et al, 2016;Butler & Diacopoulos, 2016;Foot et al, 2014;Gregory et al 2017;Marin, 2014;McAnulty & Cuenca, 2014;Murphy et al 2014;Wiebke & Park Rogers, 2014). With regard to doctoral students becoming teacher educators, this is the first study known to us that contributes to the beginning body of knowledge that has emerged linked to a D-PETE student using self-study.…”

“…Teacher education doctoral students across a variety of disciplines, including science (Wiebke & Park Rogers, 2014), mathematics (Marin, 2014), elementary education (Allen, Park Rogers & Borowski, 2016), and curriculum and instruction (Foot, Alicia, Tollafield, & Allan, 2014;Gregory, Diacopoulos, Branyon, & Butler, 2017;McAnulty & Cuenca, 2014) have contributed to the knowledge base on beginning teacher educator doctoral students. Some S-STEP research has also been conducted by interdisciplinary groups of teacher education doctoral students (Murphy, McGlynn-Stewart & Ghafouri, 2014).…”

“…These studies have illuminated that, although some disciplinary difference may exist in the doctoral student socialization process, there are commonalities related to the challenges doctoral students face in their process of learning to be teacher educators. For example, all doctoral students must balance multiple identities (e.g., gender, race/ethnicity, marital status) with their role as an emerging teacher educator (Foot et al, 2014;McAnulty & Cuenca, 2014;Allen et al, 2016). This balancing act can lead to challenges, particularly when doctoral students do not take adequate time and opportunity to analyse their educational journey (Murphy et al, 2014;Wiebke & Park Rogers, 2014).…”

“…There were, however, few examples of selfstudy research conducted by D-PETE students for Shrehan to use in guiding her own inquiry (Richards & Ressler, 2016. As a result, she turned to a more general outlook of self-study conducted by teacher education doctoral students (e.g., Allen et al, 2016;Butler & Diacopoulos, 2016;Foot et al, 2014;Gregory et al, 2017;McAnulty & Cuenca, 2014;Murphy et al, 2014;Wiebke & Park Rogers, 2014). This highlighted the importance of establishing social connections and the benefits of collaborative relationships built through self-study.…”

“…Role balance can be achieved in collaborative research projects; faculty can acknowledge the personalities of their students and attempt to build relationships through increased communication methods. Furthurmore, we believe that self-study, particularly in group settings (Allen et al, 2016;Butler & Diacopoulos, 2016;Foot et al, 2014;Gregory et al, 2017;McAnulty & Cuenca 2014;Murphy et al, 2014;Wiebke & Park Rogers, 2014) can be an important part of this process and can increase support for one's emotional identity.…”