AUTHOR=Mansfield Jennifer , Park Rogers Meredith , Berry Amanda 

TITLE=Understanding Identity Development as a Science Teacher Educator Through Shifts in Pedagogical Equilibrium

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Education

VOLUME=Volume 7 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/education/articles/10.3389/feduc.2022.908706

DOI=10.3389/feduc.2022.908706

ISSN=2504-284X

ABSTRACT=This article reports research investigating the identity development of an experienced science teacher educator (Author 1) through the lens of pedagogical equilibrium. Despite previous experience as a secondary science teacher and science teacher educator, Author 1 found herself questioning her feelings of legitimacy and relevance when teaching pre-service primary science teachers. Identifying moments of disturbance in her pedagogical equilibrium, and working with a critical friend to analyse her ideas and experiences, she began to develop her professional self-understanding, contributing to improved feelings of credibility, and professional identity development. Emerging from this study, Author 1 experienced two important shifts in her perspective and understanding of her role. The first shift concerned recognising the different sources that comprised her ‘authority of experience’ as a science teacher educator, while the second shift involved learning to see pre-service teachers in her classes as future teachers, rather than ‘students’. These shifts in perspective were facilitated through applying self-study as the research methodology. The study provides insights into the identity formation processes of an early career teacher educator, as well as the value of pedagogical equilibrium and self-study for exploring teacher educator identity.