Teacher identity development in STEM professional development settings : a multi-case study in China

Abstract

The importance of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education is well established, and its implementation in schools requires changes in teaching practice, which often brings changes in a STEM teacher’s role. In spite of the discussions about how professional development (PD) can improve teachers' performance, there is little research into teachers' perceptions of themselves and how they accept or reject the practical changes involved in becoming STEM teachers. Identity has proven useful in understanding teacher learning and practice in educational changes from an inner perspective. This study investigated how STEM teacher identity (TI) develops in STEM PD with the aim of informing STEM PD organizations so they can facilitate the development of STEM TI and maintain teachers' sustainable implementation of STEM teaching practices. Taking a sociocultural perspective, STEM TI is conceptualized as a dynamic and situational entity whose development depends on the interaction between a teacher’s personal historical factors and their surrounding environment. This multi-case study recruited four secondary school teachers from a STEM PD program authorized by a governmental, educational institute in Beijing, China. Data collection followed an ethnographic approach and spanned one year. The data was collected through participant observation, semi-structured, ethnographical interviews, and documents and artifacts collected from participants. A thematic and narrative analysis combination was applied for the individual case and cross-case analysis. Findings reveal the complexity of STEM TI development processes in a dynamic, recursive, and nonlinear nature. Teacher differences in personal factors and school environments led to different profiles of changes in STEM TI. Teachers conceive their STEM TI based on how they liked or disliked the initial TI when they attended PD. The established TI can inform selective take-on of PD content to STEM teaching practice. Based on the findings, a four-stage CAAA (Comparison, Assessment, Adaptation, and Acquisition) model is proposed for characterizing STEM TI development, which serves as the basis for future studies on STEM TI development. Furthermore, the current PD mainly influences STEM TI development at the adaptation stage, while the other three stages are largely ignored. Findings suggest that STEM TI development at the comparison and assessment stages begins before teachers agree to participate in PD, and that teachers’ initial

perceptions of STEM TI influences its subsequent development. In practice, the teachers’ initial single-subject-specific TI shaped how teachers think they should be responsible for different STEM subjects, hindering collaboration with teachers from other subjects. And how teachers perceive themselves in teacher-student interaction shaped their implementation of a student-centered learning approach in STEM classes. Although feedback from practice can also influence STEM TI, teachers need external guidance on how to interpret practical experiences for impact on STEM TI. This study makes theoretical contributions by enriching the TI literature through the proposal of frameworks for characterizing TI development. It also extends the knowledge of STEM TI, under the influences of PD, and its relationship with STEM teaching practice. Practical suggestions concerning STEM education implementation and teacher PD for policymakers and stakeholders are provided. Possible future works are also discussed.