Exploring possible-selves of Turkish prospective teachers

English (OpenAlex)

Teacher candidates are exposed to a variety of processes, phases and transformations to become a teacher. Examining new teacher identity can be considered as an important step to develop more effective teacher training programmes and identity development of a teacher is related to understanding the notion of ‘self’ (Beauchamp &Thomas, 2009). This study investigates the possible-selves of prospective teachers in relation to the concept of self-knowledge. Major goal of the study is to examine possible selves and fears of senior students who expect to become teachers in the near feature. A six point Likert type scale was applied to undergraduate students attending primary school teaching, science teaching and English language teaching programmes to measure their expected and feared possible-selves about their first year of teaching. The results of statistical analyses showed that prospective primary school and science teachers had higher scores than prospective English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in expected possible-selves in the first year of their job.