Influence of Cooperating Teacher’s Beliefs in the Overcoming of the Student Teachers’ Practicum Identity Crisis regarding Classroom Management

Abstract

This paper aims to report on how student teachers can be permeated by a practicum identity crisis in their teacher training process regarding classroom management. Furthermore, this research project sheds light on how cooperating teacher’s classroom management beliefs can help to overcome those crises experienced by student teachers from a private university of Medellín, Colombia. The methodology used to carry out this study had an interpretative approach. To collect the data researchers applied two different instruments: self-study narratives, which were developed by 5 student teachers of the English teaching program, and a semi-structured interview, which was carried out by a cooperating teacher. The findings showed that during the practicum process student teachers experienced some crises due to the clashes that emerge from the theory learned at the university and the practice developed in the school’s reality. Moreover, the participants claimed that the cooperating teacher’s classroom management beliefs transformed their own beliefs, allowing them to reconstruct their teacher’s identity and overcome some identity crises by reflecting upon their teaching practices and perspectives regarding classroom management and, therefore, increasing their teacher efficacy.