The contribution of a phenomenology of professional practice: pre-service teachers, placement feedback and professional identity formation

Abstract

Extensive research about the impact of classroom supervisors' feedback has established it as asignificant indicator of pre-service teachers’ success as teachers. However, there is missingliterature of corresponding depth that documents the impact that feedback, inclusive of the widercontext of the entire professional placement (placement feedback), holds for the success of pre-service teachers’ professional identification as teachers. My significant original contribution toalleviate this deficit, is the understanding reached in this inquiry that documents the quality-proofing practices that these pre-service teachers innovated from their placement feedback intohigh quality teaching practice like that of qualified teachers. This professional understanding willinform a range of stakeholders committed to addressing issues of quality teaching in initial teachereducation to support pre-service teachers in mandated contexts of professional experienceplacement.Evidence from three further sources motivated my commitment to this research inquiry for that verycharter of support. The first source was evidence in the literature-as-data that showed thesustained impact of the global “crisis of confidence” in teachers and their pre-service counterpartsas professionals. Widespread calls for the standardisation of teachers’ work on a global and localscale have driven reforms in the Schools and Higher (Initial Teacher) Education sectors that haveset professional work performance for pre-service teachers at standards reflecting the world classOECD level. Second, was the widespread issue for more rigorous scrutiny of entrants suitable forinitial teacher education programs and the quality of the program, itself. The third motivating factorwas my own extensive professional supervision and teacher-support roles with pre-serviceteachers, their classroom supervising teachers, and their placement co-ordinators. These rolesspanned some decades; initially, in my role as a classroom supervising teacher; a teacher co-ordinator and researcher for a national university in a remote indigenous location, a lecturer/tutor inregional and capital city teacher education programs; then more recently, as a professional liaisonofficer working within a coastal regional university-to-school-partnership of professional experienceplacement.Altogether, these motivations directed the inquiry through the pursuit of the main researchquestion: What is the contribution of placement feedback to pre-service teachers’ professionalidentity formation? This question assumed an unexplored connection or impact between twodifferentiated phenomena for pre-service teachers while at placement: (i) their feedback and (ii)their identification as teachers. To explore this assumption, the research design needed to bepractice led and recently experienced so that participants could capture the essence of thephenomenon of what-it-was-like-for-them-living-through-placement-feedback. So, I developed abespoke design of a phenomenology of professional practice, using a suite of mixed methods ofphenomenological, qualitative and quantitative analysis within an evidence-based epistemologicalframework. Twelve volunteer participants joined the inquiry from several teacher education cohortsof a well-established Australian university across two different campuses, one regional and onemetropolitan. They engaged in individual person-to-person conversations, semi-structuredinterviews and in online discussion; before, during and / or after placement in the role of pre-service teachers.Thematic analysis of the cache of data revealed five overall findings that ‘quality-proofed’participants’ recognition as professional teachers. Four major findings were the following sub-ordinate themes: 1. Pedagogical practices, 2. Professional communication, 3. Relationship-buildingpractices and 4. Professional learning and placement workplace responsibilities. The fifth findingwas the overlapping zone of shared codes from the sub-ordinate themes: the super-ordinate themeof professional relationality. Professional relationality enacted by pre-service teachers involvedmastery of a complex collaborative capability with placement feedback to develop coreprofessional pedagogical practices that gained recognition for themselves as professionalteachers.As the contribution of placement feedback to professional identification for pre-service teachers,was documented as professional relationality, it became evident that this was ground-breakingresearch for two reasons. First was that their recognition as a functioning classroom teacher wasessentially contingent upon their capacity with professional relationality and placement feedback.The second reason was that knowledge of this would impact a range of stakeholders. Potential andcurrent teaching candidates would benefit from knowing the relational capacity required of them tobe recognised as teachers, given the quality of their engagement with their placement feedback.Future and existing classroom supervising teachers would know the quality of placement feedbackrequired of them and could tailor their preparation to provide it. Teacher education providers andteacher educators would also have an evidence-base to guide course content to includeengagement with placement feedback as a distinct high-quality form of feedback-as-a-pedagogical-professional that can make or break pre-service teachers’ sense of themselves asteachers. An added significant contribution of this inquiry was my appreciation of a phenomenologyof practice as a research practice methodology to explore phenomena of individual pre-serviceteachers transforming their professional pedagogical practice in the placement field. Essential tothis effectiveness was the triple hermeneutic, a meaning-making set of conditions of professionalresearch that highlighted the relationship between the researched, the researcher and the researchstakeholders.