How does professional identity change over time among Chinese preservice preschool teachers? Evidence from a four-wave longitudinal study

Abstract

The current study attempts to delineate changes in teachers' professional identity and to examine factors that influence these trajectories through a longitudinal study. A total of 1197 Chinese pre-service preschool teachers were initially recruited and four waves of data were collected. The results showed that teachers' professional identity had three patterns, including patterns of high-stable, low-increasing, and medium-decreasing; the number of children in the family, childhood maltreatment, and anxiety predicted these trajectories. These findings suggest that teachers' professional identity development is heterogeneous and individual differences should be considered when studying teachers’ professional identity trajectories.