Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions of Pedagogical Approaches to STEM Education; Design and Technology

The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of the impact personal narratives have in influencing the construction of pre-service design and technology teachers’ professional identity. Work presented explores how personal experiences impact on the personal development and pedagogical practices in relation to the subject they are training to teach. Drawing on their experience of learning Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects as pupils, this work explores the impact this has had upon the formation of their own self-identity as they train to become teachers of a STEM related subject discipline within secondary education in England.

To help ensure congruence between the ontological and epistemological position of the researcher, drawing upon the philosophical field of symbolic interactionism, the adopted research method is one that is informed by constructivist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006, 2014).

Embracing an abductive methodology, which encourages the consideration of all possible theoretical outcomes, reasoning begins after scrutiny of the data, rather than forcing one to emerge through the process of data analysis. The approach also encompassed the notion of reflexivity, which helps to sensitize the researcher to issues within the data set and helps to support the construction of theory.

Following analysis, findings suggest that pre-service teachers’ personal narratives play a key role in the formation of their identity as teachers of design and technology. Emergent themes under discussion include participants’ emotion and personal disposition, their attitudes and approaches towards learning, and the role perceived deficiency in subject knowledge plays in limiting personal growth and the development of identity.