How Novice Teachers of Different Education Backgrounds Perceive Their Professional Identity

The article deals with one aspect of a larger scale and long-tam phenomenological research to explore the teachers' perception of their professional identity. This article answers the research question - how the perception of professional identity is connected with novice teachers' educational background. The research sample was novice teachers - master students of the professional master study programme,,Teacher" and stratified purposive sampling was used to choose nine extreme cases - the most representative three novice teachers having obtained teacher's qualification via concurrent model, consecutive model and alternative pathway "Mission Possible" each year. Reflection-on-action was used to collect in-depth data. The data of 45 reflection samples applying the reflection tool MAX (Motivation - Acquisition - Extension) and narrative essays were analysed in the context of professional identity and educational background in the period of three years. Novice teachers with diverse educational backgrounds demonstrated different features of how professional identity was perceived and reflected upon. Three most characteristic features for each group were identified and one feature was common for all groups - self-analysis.