(Un)Becoming a Teacher in Ontario's Teacher Education Programs: Beginning Teachers' Professional Identity Formation

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Five
  In Roundtable Session: Division K Section 8 Roundtable (Table 14)

Abstract

Canadian society is widely recognized as “a kaleidoscope of overlapping and intersecting identities” (Fleras & Elliott, 2002, p. 17). However, despite the growing diversity in both the Canadian and K-12 populations, the prototypical teacher remains white, middle-class, heterosexual, cisgender, female, able-bodied, and Canadian-born (Cho, 2010). In Ontario, underrepresented groups like students with disabilities, students from low-income families, first- and second-generation immigrants (Schmidt, & Gagné, 2015) and racialized minorities (Childs et al., 2016) are poorly represented in teacher education programs (Holden & Kitchen, 2018). My research unpacked how under-represented Teacher Candidates (TCs_ negotiate the process of professional identity formation, or, come to see themselves as ‘real teachers’–or not – while learning to teach across the one year period of their teacher education program.

Author

• Mandeep Kaur Gabhi, Toronto District School Board 
  Presenting Author