Negotiating and Defining "Self" as Science Teachers: A Narrative-Case Study among Non-Science Education Major Teachers

Abstract

Learning to teach is a very fundamental stage with which beginning teachers should be concerned with. They, in particular should expect to encounter problems and frustrations, with which they must learn from their experiences and improve their instructional skills over time. This study examined how beginning non-science education major teachers developed and negotiated their science teacher identity in their first three years of teaching. Participants in this study were three public secondary teachers who are non-science education majors but are assigned to teach science subjects. A methodology combining case study research and narrative inquiry was employed in this study. Data were collected through interpretive research methods using data sources such as interviews, photo-elicited interviews, written answers to open-ended questions, observation notes, and researcher’s journal of informal face-to-face and phone conversations with the respondents. This study utilized Gee’s (2001) notion of D-identity and Holland et al.’s (1998) “concepts of tools of agency and self control and change”. The analysis of narratives showed that each participant displayed unique characteristics in negotiating their teacher identity. The first three years of teaching serve as the induction period of teachers thus, this is the stage when participants negotiate their teacher identities facing various struggles and enactments inside the classroom, from being non-science education teachers to science teachers.