Finnish pre-service teachers’ identity development after a year of initial teacher education: Adding, transforming, and defending

Amidst the broad range of teacher competencies, professional beliefs and professional identity are two important domains of personal orientations that inform teacher quality. This study examines how pre-service teachers have negotiated their professional identity after their first year in initial primary teacher education. The study uses qualitative data from an online survey voluntarily answered by seventy-two Finnish pre-service teachers in Spring 2022. The data were thematically analyzed and further examined for additive, transformative, and defensive identity development using Ruohotie-Lyhty's (2018) framework of teachers' identity-agency. The study supports the notion of identity as social, multiple, and discontinuous.