Mapping the Liminal Space: A Conceptualization of the Processes Involved in Becoming Teachers in Schools

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 11
  In Roundtable Session: Preservice Teachers: Liminal Spaces of Becoming Teachers

Abstract

This paper offers a conceptualisation of the processes involved in the liminal space of becoming as drawn from a narrative inquiry into individual teachers’ stories lived and told during their first year of teaching abroad. A better understanding of these processes has implications for teachers’ and teacher educators’ practice that might contribute to fostering and sustaining positive identity and effectiveness especially through periods of instability during personal and professional change. A better understanding of the process of becoming, it is hoped, opens up possibilities for further comprehending the complexities of the liminal space (Kennedy, 2001) and for how we might shape (and interrupt) stories that shift experiences and identities in positive ways.

Author

• Nicola Gram