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PSTs are usually placed in disadvantaged schools where students come from culturally
diverse and marginalized socio-economic backgrounds (Martinez, 2014), and where learners

often lack basic skills, quality nutrition, resources and health care. The aim of this study was

to explore PST identity construction. We had noticed that PSTs were struggling once they

were placed in institutions for their service learning. Many commented that they felt there

was a theory/practice gap between what they had learned in the SLTE programme and the

knowledge, awareness and skills which they needed to survive and successfully teach English

as a Foreign language in the schools where they were placed. Furthermore, many commented

that they felt isolated and required a greater support network to succeed.

Teacher identity is “socially constructed, contextually situated and continually emerging
(and changing) sense of self which is shaped by a variety of factors” (Cheung, Said, & Park,

2015: xii). It is associated with teacher learning and professional engagement. Given that tea-

cher learning is complex, dynamic and continuous, it is crucial to comprehend that professional

development is linked to PSTs’ personal histories and future aspirations (Freeman & Johnson,

1998; Johnson, 2009). For Smith & Sparkes (2008), teacher identity formation may be exami-

ned from a variety of perspectives. These include a focus on an individual’s inner world from a

psychosocial perspective; a focus on individual and social aspects from an intersubjective pers-
pective; a focus on social and cultural contexts from a storied resource perspective; a focus on

social and relational processes from a performative perspective; .and a focus on how identity

develops within discourse and ongoing dialogues which are bound to sociopolitical and cultural

contexts through a dialogical perspective.

This investigation employed a dialogical perspective given that although traditional views

of teacher learning see it as the application of theory to practice; current understandings see it

as more as theorization of practice through dialogical and collaborative inquiry (Richards, 2008)

Universidad Autónoma de Chiapas