From Informal Learning to Identity Formation: A Conceptual Journey in Early Teacher Development

Abstract

This paper traces the development of an attempt to understand how teachers learn to teach from a vague grounded concept of informal learning through to identity formation. Drawing on ongoing research into beginning teachers in a Scottish context, it is argued that the early experience of teaching is characterised by emotionality and relationality rather than as a more cognitive or competence-related kind of professional learning. The conclusion is that progressive focusing on researching informal learning has been important in leading to a more robust theory of early professional learning in teaching, supported by a wider international literature, as a deeper process of personal change and an emergent self-as-teacher identity.