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Investigating Educator Identity-Construction : A Qualitative Study, Jonathan Dils Rogers

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation uses a qualitative approach to examine the sources informing professional identity development in pre-service teachers. The central questions which guided this study are grounded within a few separate bodies of literature: moral education, identity theory, teacher education, and educational policy.

The data of this study revealed a trend among participants: Pre-service teachers view teaching first and foremost as a moral act. The study found that the beliefs and attitudes held by pre-service teachers about the identity of educators can be conceptualized in sixteen separate ways, across three separate codes toward teaching. In addition to teaching as a moral …