Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity

Gabriella Shwartz; Yehudit Judy Dori

doi:10.29333/ejmste/8502

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Gabriella Shwartz ¹ ^* , Yehudit Judy Dori ¹ ²

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¹ Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, ISRAEL² Samuel Neaman Institute for National Policy Research, Haifa, ISRAEL^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Using the identity lens as a theoretical framework, we studied 42 novice second career chemistry teachers, who had previously worked as chemists and participated in an alternative certification program (ACP) at a science and engineering research university. Our goal was to understand the transition process of these teachers into the teaching profession as they shape their identity and navigate through the contexts of the preparation program and the school system.
Results showed that the career changers attributed their identity development to a variety of program identity resources, which shape one’s identity: coursework, field experiences, and social contexts. We saw that the transition to the teaching profession was mainly due to their desire to contribute to society.
Investigating three case studies, we learned that through the active participation, one’s vision of the particular kind of teacher one aspires to be has developed within the unique learning environment created in the program.

Keywords

second career teachers
teacher’s professional identity
career changers
chemistry education

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 16, Issue 11, November 2020, Article No: em1891

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502

Publication date: 02 Sep 2020

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APA

Shwartz, G., & Dori, Y. J. (2020). Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(11), em1891. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502

Vancouver

Shwartz G, Dori YJ. Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(11):em1891. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502

AMA

Shwartz G, Dori YJ. Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2020;16(11), em1891. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502

Chicago

Shwartz, Gabriella, and Yehudit Judy Dori. "Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2020 16 no. 11 (2020): em1891. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502

Harvard

Shwartz, G., and Dori, Y. J. (2020). Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 16(11), em1891. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502

MLA

Shwartz, Gabriella et al. "Transition into Teaching: Second Career Teachers’ Professional Identity". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 16, no. 11, 2020, em1891. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/8502