Blogs as liminal space: student teachers at the threshold

Abstract

Trainee teachers undergo a complex series of changes as they move through their training, from subject specialists to teachers of their subjects. This paper considers the results of a small-scale action research project, part of which used blogs as a medium for developing students’ understanding of geographical concepts, and as a space for developing ideas and approaches for a ‘model lesson’ they were asked to teach before starting their first school placements as trainee teachers. The blogs acted as pivotal spaces for the students to develop creative ideas for later use in teaching, and were important in their transition from subject specialists to teachers. The concept of liminality is used to demonstrate how the students can be identified as having crossed an important threshold in their own initial practice and in their own identities. As such, the blogs acted as ‘liminal spaces’, important in the initial development of the trainee teachers.