Professional self-understanding among preservice teachers: Critical experiences in institutional culture
TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION, vol.183, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Publication Type: Article / Article
- Volume: 183
- Publication Date: 2026
- Doi Number: 10.1016/j.tate.2026.105843
- Journal Name: TEACHING AND TEACHER EDUCATION
- Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, IBZ Online, Periodicals Index Online, Educational research abstracts (ERA), Psycinfo
- Keywords: Critical incident technique, Institutional culture, Preservice teachers, Professional self-understanding, Transformative learning
- Anadolu University Affiliated: Yes
Abstract
This study examines how preservice teachers retrospectively construct the significance of critical experiences for their professional self-understanding within teacher education. Drawing on transformative learning as a focused interpretive lens, the study analyzed 142 written narratives elicited through an adapted Critical Incident Technique design. The findings show that participants organized consequential experiences as either discrete episodes or temporally extended narratives. These temporal forms reflected different ways of retrospectively organizing the significance of experience rather than distinct developmental patterns. Across the narratives, pedagogical friction, symbolic recognition, and field engagement figured prominently in participants' accounts of agency, professional belonging, and responsibility for learning. The study highlights the contextual and temporal nature of professional self-understanding and demonstrates the value of critical experiences for examining preservice teachers' professional meaning-making in teacher education.