An Inquiry Into the Development of Teacher Identities

An Inquiry Into the Development of Teacher Identitiesin STEM Career Changers

Jeanne M. Grier Æ Carol C. Johnston

Published online: 23 October 2008

� Springer Science+Business Media, B.V. 2008

Abstract National shortages of math and science teachers have led to a variety of

strategies and programs to attract second career professionals into teaching. This

qualitative study explores the development of professional teaching identities in six

STEM career changers in a post-baccalaureate pre-service teacher credential pro-

gram in California. Findings suggest the career changers relied upon skills

developed in their previous careers to navigate through a new profession; however,

returning to the life of a student again was difficult. Additionally, the career

changers in this study valued interacting with their traditional aged peers in the

program as these relationships were beneficial to their own socialization into

teaching as they developed their teacher identities.

Keywords STEM career changers � Teacher certification � Teacher identity

Introduction

Recruitment of science and math teachers from science and engineering fields has

been a successful means of overcoming shortages of teaching professionals in these

disciplines. Career changers bring a wealth of experiences, both personally and

professionally, to the classroom. Their maturity brings confidence in their abilities

to manage a classroom, understand student learning in the context of school

J. M. Grier (&)

CSU Channel Islands, One University Drive, Camarillo, CA 93012, USA

e-mail: [email protected]

C. C. Johnston

Mount Saint Mary’s College, Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA

e-mail: [email protected]

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J Sci Teacher Educ (2009) 20:57–75

DOI 10.1007/s10972-008-9119-2

culture, and to access content knowledge. Earlier studies have highlighted

similarities with their more traditional peers in terms of the needs in preparing

these second career teachers (Chambers 2002; Johnston and Grier 2006; Powell

1997; Resta et al. 2001). This study explores whether common professional traits

translate into teacher identities as evidenced by lesson planning and classroom

observations of second career teachers. In addition, this study raises the question of

whether or not separate credential programs specifically tailored for career

changers are needed.

Literature Review

Reasons for Career Change

Several studies reported the varied reasons that candidates have changed to a career

in teaching. Many career changers reported a strong sense of commitment and a

need to feel that they are ‘‘making a difference.’’ There was often cited a desire to

‘‘pay back’’ to society for the opportunities given to them (Chambers 2002; Freidus

1994; Johnston and Grier 2006; National Executive Service Corps 1990). A large

number of those leaving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

(STEM) careers for teaching, were especially interested in finding more ‘‘mean-

ingful work’’ (Resta et al. 2001).

Some career changers reported a desire to change the way science and math are

taught, believing that their own educational experiences were not always inspiring.

These teachers were viewed as being open to educational reform and were

particularly interested in making science and mathematics instruction more relevant

to students’ lives outside of the school setting (Freidus 1994).

Many career changers felt a loss of identity because of their societal perception

that one should not leave a successful career in a STEM field to become a teacher

(Freidus 1994). There were conflicts for career changers due to the social

stereotypical image of the teaching profession. Many, especially women, who left

STEM careers to teach felt a loss of identity. According to Freidus (1994):

This [the social image of teachers and teaching in today’s world] is

particularly anxiety-producing to women who often recounted stories of

how when engaged in prior careers, their response to the question: ‘‘What do

you do?’’ would elicit interest and conversation. Now the response, ‘‘I am a

teacher.’’ elicits silences or comments like ‘‘How nice.’’ (p. 4)

Skills Brought from Life and Professional Experiences

Career changers brought to teaching from their previous life and professional

experiences many people-oriented skills and were often very self-confident. They

believed that they would have fewer difficulties with classroom management and

often displayed this during their student teaching. They expected to be able to

relate to their students in the classroom and through extracurricular activities

58 J. M. Grier, C. C. Johnston

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(Gomez et al. 2000). Career changers were very eager to share with colleagues

and to develop strong interpersonal relationships (Freidus 1994). Resta et al.

(2001) described an expectation of collegial support from colleagues and school

administrators. Their previous work experiences provided them with good

communication skills, enabled them to manage multiple projects, and fostered a

strong work ethic (Chambers 2002).

Chambers (2002) also found the career changers to be more tolerant of diversity

and more likely to adopt methodologies that were more student-centered and helped

to make connections between content in the classroom and the outside world.

Participants in the Chamber’s study reported that their age and experiences enabled

them to handle problems and to change their perspectives.

Attitudes Toward Students

The teachers in Powell’s study (1997) believed that they could be a positive

influence on students’ aspirations to become scientists. However, this created

frustrations stemming from how to reach lower achieving students who had little

interest in science (Chambers 2002; Gomez et al. 2000; Johnston and Grier 2006;

Powell 1997). Resta et al. (2001) described second career teachers ‘‘understand[ing]

the realities of the workplace within the global economy and want[ing] to do their

best to prepare students to be successful adults’’ (p. 62). Making science relevant to

students presented many challenges, especially within classrooms that lacked

resources. Both participants in Powell’s study (1997) ‘‘felt that the resources and

facilities at their schools for teaching science limited their potential to realize their

initial teaching goals’’ (p. 347).

Teacher Identity Development

Teacher identity is based upon the core beliefs one has about teaching and being a

teacher that are constantly changing and evolving based upon personal and

professional experiences. Although some researchers call for a distinction between

teacher identity and teachers’ functional roles (Mayer 1999), the two concepts are

not mutually exclusive and overlap considerably (Walkington 2005).

Wenger (1998) presented identity through the processes of engagement,

imagination, and alignment. An individual can be engaged in a community of

practice and assume an identity related to the work or even their peers. Van Maaren

and Barley (1984) described three ways that identity can be demonstrated in

practice. First, professional vocabulary may be used. Second, a skill that is

considered ‘‘esoteric, scarce, socially valued or unique’’ (p. 301) may be

demonstrated. Third, a responsibility for the work of others can be taken.

Imagination can be an indicator of ‘‘identity’’ when the opportunity to ‘‘try new

things, take liberties, reflect, assume the existence of relations of mutuality and

position ourselves in a completely different context’’ (Wenger 1998, p. 194) is

present. Alignment is responsible for identity when individuals begin to use not only

the vocabulary but also take on the perspective of the collective community.

Development of Teacher Identities in STEM Career Changers 59

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Research Questions

The following research questions guided this study: What professional teaching

goals and identities do these career change candidates bring with them into the

credential programs? What are the common elements or traits these math and

science career change candidates possess? What is the process by which they

develop their teacher identity? For the purposes of this study we defined a career

changer as having work experience in a STEM field prior to entering the credential

program.

Methodological Design and Analysis

Because our intent is to identify common elements, traits, and identities of career

change science and math teachers, the research is qualitative in nature and data

consists of interviews, field observations, and analysis of curriculum products for

each participant. A qualitative and naturalistic design (Lincoln and Guba 1985) was

employed in order to understand the perceptions and teaching of the second-career

professionals. Qualitative research provided a richness of information from the

perspective of the credential students in our study.

Data were collected using a variety of qualitative methods including open-ended

interviews and non-participant observations. One in-depth hour-long audio-taped

interview was conducted with each participant to elicit background information and

their perceptions of teaching, the credential program and students. Two to four field

observations during either student teaching or in their own intern classroom were

made of each candidate and extensive field notes taken. Additionally, the following

data for each candidate were included in the analysis: lesson and unit plans

submitted to their electronic portfolios, employment resumes, and academic

transcripts. It should be noted that the two authors of this study contributed data as

both faculty and field supervisors. Additionally several program faculty and field

supervisors were also interviewed about each participant to provide additional

insights into their program of study and as a method of data triangulation.

Qualitative data for each participant were coded into topics independently by

both authors. Independently coded topics for each participant were shared,

discussed, and mutually agreed upon by the authors. Topics across participants

were then organized into categories based upon predetermined topics from the

research questions and emergent topics from the data set. After the first round of

analysis, the data were categorized into three relevant sections: Becoming a

Teacher, The Act of Teaching, and Awakenings. To further organize the data we

created a matrix with the three categories and their representation in the

participants’ data sets. The categories that were represented by data from three or

more participants were analyzed further for patterns, combined and compared for

similarities and differences, and the resulting themes of ‘‘Identities and Reasons for

Becoming a Teacher’’, ‘‘Common Traits Amongst the Career Changers’’, and

‘‘Transition to Becoming a Student and Developing a Teacher Identity’’ were

created.


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Context: The Credential Program

To provide a context for the curriculum and course of study these transitioning

professionals are experiencing, a brief description of the credential program is

provided. According to Kvale (1996), making context explicit is important in the

process of generalizing findings in similar settings. The teacher credential program,

at a start-up university, has been enrolling elementary students since 2002. The

Single Subject (secondary) program enrolled the first cohort of students in spring

2004. The credential program is typical of many California teacher preparation

programs in that candidates enter with an undergraduate degree and verified subject

matter competency either through a course-based waiver program or passing a state

subject matter exam. The credential program is designed to prepare teachers for

diverse classrooms in middle and high school settings in California and currently

prepares teachers in the subject areas of mathematics, science, and English. The

program consists of six courses: one general methods class, two subject-specific

methods classes, one secondary literacy class, and two classes on access to

learning—one for special needs learners and one for English Language Learners.

Each semester the students are enrolled in classes they are also required to have a

supervised field placement in a middle or high school setting. Classes are taught in

the first 8 weeks of the semester while students are participants/observers in a middle

or high school with a cooperating teacher in their content area one day a week.

During the last 8 weeks of the semester, full-time students transition into student

teaching with the same cooperating teacher’s classes while part-time students

continue as participant/observers one day a week. All students complete two 8-week

supervised student teaching assignments: one in a middle school and one in a high

school. During each student teaching experience candidates are observed a minimum

of six times by a university supervisor. Classes and other program requirements are

identical for both traditional and career change candidates.

A cohort model is used in the program for full-time students. Students in all

subject areas enter the program each semester and take classes together with the

exception of the two subject specific methods classes, which are separated by

discipline. Part-time students begin two courses with one cohort but overlap courses

with other cohorts to complete the program. Students can complete the program

full-time in two semesters or part-time in up to six semesters. Students who are

hired to teach in local schools without a credential are called teaching Interns and

can complete the program in as few as three semesters. Students may begin the

program as full-time or part-time students and then be hired as an Intern while

completing the credential program or come into the program with a teaching

position already secured. For the first semester as an Intern in the credential

program, the student is required to be part-time and take only two classes and a

supervised field placement.

Context: Participants

In this study, we identified six career changers: four female and two male; three in

mathematics and three in science—each with a specialization in chemistry. At the


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time of this study these career changers included one who had completed the

credential process, three in their final semester of student teaching, and two who

were in the middle of completing program requirements that allow them to apply for

certification. Two of the six were interns completing the certification program as

part-time evening students while teaching full-time as secondary teachers in local

schools. Four of the study participants were Interns by the time they completed the

credential program. Table 1 describes the study participants, their previous career,

time between leaving their STEM career and entering the credential program, stage

in the credential process, and certification content area. Participants are presented

according to the order they entered the credential program.

Results and Discussion

STEM Identities and Reasons for Becoming a Teacher

The six teachers in our study are introduced in the following paragraphs. The three

science participants, Wendy, Daniel, and Phillip, were all seeking positions for

teaching chemistry. The other three participants, Gayle, Kathleen, and Connie, were

preparing to become math teachers.

Wendy

Although she had spent several years in the chemical engineering profession,

Wendy identified her most significant career prior to entering the credential program

as being a business owner and instructor for a martial arts studio. Wendy identified

herself as having a high IQ and believed that she could face new challenges with

Table 1 Participant Information

Name Previous work experience Time between

STEM career

and program

Stage in the credential

process

Subject

emphasis

Wendy Chemical engineer—aerospace

industry

5? years Completing her first year

teaching (was an intern)

Chemistry

Connie Engineer/Marketing—aerospace

industry

1 semester Intern in final semester of

program

Math

Daniel Enology/Marketing—food

industry

5? years First semester of student

teaching (became an

intern)

Chemistry

Gayle Engineering/Marketing—

electronics industry

5? years First semester of student

teaching

Math

Kathleen Engineer/Research and

Development/Computing—

aerospace industry

1 semester First semester of student

teaching

Math

Phillip Pharmacological research

assistant

2 years Intern in final semester of

program

Chemistry


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ease. Wendy pursued teaching to blend her two previous professions as an engineer

and a teacher of martial arts to fulfill her needs for intellectual challenges.

Connie

Connie’s STEM identity was as a design engineer in the aerospace industry. She had

become disillusioned with engineering after being moved into marketing. She

described a ‘‘dark-side’’ to this field and expressed discomfort at having to hide

information from customers. ‘‘I did not enjoy hiding facts from my customer.

Especially spending so many years in engineering, you know the best thing to do is

just to come clean. If you are trying to hide your mistakes, then you cannot really

redesign the system to compensate for that.’’ An experience as a ‘‘Solar System

Ambassador’’, invited to classrooms to share lessons on the solar system, led her to

pursue a career in teaching.

Daniel

With a bachelor’s degree in enology and a master’s degree in food science with a

specialty in sensory evaluation and a minor in statistics, Daniel had worked with

many large corporations in project management. Daniel talked much about his

interactions with chemists in his former career, but did not identify himself as a

chemist. Rather, he viewed himself as a sensory expert with the people skills that

led him to success with marketing. Daniel had received encouragement from his

friends and family to pursue a career in teaching and left his STEM career to be a

full-time parent to his young children, ‘‘We were not happy with the way the kids

were developing and [my being] the lower income made it a fairly straight forward

decision about who was going to get them through kindergarten, first grade, second

grade, and onward.’’

Gayle

Despite having migrated to marketing prior to pursuing a teaching career, Gayle had

a strong STEM identity as an engineer. She described how she loved everything

about her STEM career except for the impact it had on her family. Her enthusiasm

for teaching was closely tied to her love of the subject of math. She also mentioned

that teaching was a better fit with family life. She had spent most of her previous

professional career working in Switzerland, which she described as not having the

childcare systems that are available in the United States. ‘‘In Switzerland…women

stay home with their kids. It is very difficult to be a working mother there.’’

Kathleen

Kathleen also thrived on the challenges associated with her STEM career in research

and development in the computer industry. She considered herself to be intelligent,

creative, and analytical. She was driven to teaching by a need to ‘‘give back to the

community.’’ Kathleen expressed appreciation to her husband for his understanding


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about her becoming a student again. Recognizing the impact this decision had on

her family, Kathleen stated, ‘‘This lifestyle has made my family life better. I’m

closer with my sons. I’m much more appreciative of my husband for letting me just

walk out on the job. How many spouses would be okay going from two incomes to

one?’’

Phillip

Phillip had been employed as a scientist in the pharmaceutical chemistry field, but felt

that it was not a good fit for him. He did not identify with his stereotypic view of the

‘‘nerdy’’ scientist that he found his peers to fit. Phillip also alluded to integrity issues

in questioning the satisfaction he derived from his former employment. ‘‘[My work

has] always been for the corporation. If they make more money, well, how does that

affect me?’’ He further explained his feelings of disillusionment with his STEM

career: ‘‘I just thought that I wanted to be a chemist until I was one. And I didn’t like it.

It was kind of boring.’’ Phillip had become interested in teaching after talking about

the profession with a stranger he had met while working at a home-improvement

store. He expressed the belief that teaching would be a fun way to earn a living.

Common Reasons and Identities

Pursuit of intellectual challenges for the career changers fit nicely with teaching. For

example, all had discussed a love of learning and an enjoyment for challenges.

Wendy had even cited that she had chosen to pursue teaching after being a small

business owner following a STEM career. She missed the intellectual challenge

from her technical work and believed that she would find teaching to blend nicely

the things she liked from both of her previous employments. Kathleen mentioned a

love for solving problems and talked about thriving on challenge. She also expected

teaching to satisfy these desires and wanted to ‘‘instill in kids today that sense of

excitement or enthusiasm about discovering and learning about new things.’’

Interestingly, Daniel, who was the only one who had not strongly identified himself

as a scientist in his former career, was the only participant who did not discuss a

pursuit of intellectual challenges.

STEM identities for some career changers led to some tensions. Both Wendy and

Phillip, for example, described themselves as being very intelligent. Wendy’s

identification as a member of Mensa led her to believe that it would be easy to teach

the bright students, but that she would have to break things down for the other

students. ‘‘I’ve had to go back and think about how I learned it, so that I could break

[lessons] down into baby steps.’’ Similarly, Phillip was concerned that he would be

unable to break things down to easy steps. ‘‘I think that there is just not enough

background there for [students] to accept things on faith. They’re not used to

working with anything scientific really. I mean models, or anything. I don’t know. I

think the greatest obstacle is that maybe I know too much.’’

Daniel received much support and encouragement for making a career change

into teaching. He related the story of those around him getting him to think about

teaching: ‘‘I think people around me were saying, ‘you really ought to think about a


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job in teaching, I think you would be good’—like my sisters and my wife and

several of my friends from scouting.’’ However, for many, the choice to pursue a

career in teaching was not fully supported by friends and family. Three of the

female career changers in the study specifically described how others questioned

their decision to leave a prestigious position to become a teacher. Kathleen, for

example, described the reaction of some of her friends regarding her decision to

leave engineering. ‘‘All my friends think I’m crazy to have left engineering, [saying]

‘To do what?’ and ‘How much will you be making?’ So, in that sense I’m torn.

Because for so many years, I’ve defined myself in terms of my income.’’ In addition

to the money issues, the loss of former identities was accompanied by a loss of

support. ‘‘You’re giving up a big fat identity that had a lot of built-in approval

systems. You knew where to get praise. You were getting paid. There was a lot of

recognition for what you were doing.’’

Despite these losses of support, these participants expected to derive personal

satisfaction from their new careers. As discussed in the literature review, a need to

‘‘give back’’ to society was often cited. Kathleen stated this directly in discussing

her transition from engineering to teaching. ‘‘Although I love engineering and I still

dabble in technology, it wasn’t personally fulfilling to me…. Financially, I was

fulfilled and I liked working with other engineers, but I want to give back to the

community.’’ Connie was focused on the specifics of how she intended to

contribute. ‘‘I am hoping to teach [students] some responsibility skills.’’ This was

also reflected in her lesson plan that addressed life skills, such as budgeting incomes

from fictitious jobs that her students were asked to explore.

Common Traits Amongst the Career Changers

All of the participants in this study exhibited strong people skills that were

attributed to both their previous work experiences and to their life experiences and

maturity. They mentioned in their interviews the need for being flexible in their

teaching. They also attributed their work and life experiences to their patience and

resilience when facing myriad obstacles in both the credential program require-

ments. Several mentioned that they felt that their traditional peers were more prone

to becoming frustrated and whiney about the program and their students.

Enthusiasm for their newly chosen field was another common trait. All expressed

in their interviews that they expected to enjoy teaching and be able to feel good

about making a contribution back to their community. As the teachers in Powell’s

study (1997), many also talked about how they might be positive influences on

students’ future career choices. Most also mentioned some form of disillusionment

with their previous careers, often as related to having a quality family life.

STEM work and life experiences helped the career changers to feel confident in

their abilities to make real world connections. Kathleen, for example, mentioned

that she wanted to ‘‘infuse technology with students who want to learn it.’’ Kathleen

and Connie expressed the most concerns about being able to manage the classroom,

despite their confidence in abilities brought from their STEM careers. Daniel, like

all of the others, felt his maturity led to greater confidence. ‘‘I sort of feel a little bit

less riled than [the younger teacher candidates] tend to be.’’ Daniel, however,


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became more concerned about classroom management after he began his formal

student teaching. He began to realize the differences in managing people in the

workplace and managing a classroom.

Flexibility was described by all of the participants as a necessary component of a

successful relationship with students in the classroom. Connie, for example,

described how she often found herself making quick changes in the minutes between

classes by reflecting on how her actions and decisions affected student behavior:

…an area of my engineering experience that has helped me tremendously is in

thinking quickly. The next class is coming in. I have two minutes to think

about how I am going to revise this lesson. I guess students behave more or

less like a chemical reaction, because their behavior in class is a reaction to

your own action. So, I really had to evaluate what I did to set them off in the

previous class or maybe I shouldn’t have passed out [materials to the students]

before I made the announcement….

Although related to flexibility, resilience was another trait exhibited by all of the

participants. We drew upon Agarao-Fernandez and de Guzman’s (2006) definition

of resiliency: the ‘‘ teachers’ ability to sustain focus and goal-directed behavior,

have high expectations, believe that life has meaning, are goal directed, have good

problem solving and interpersonal skills, are flexible, and have a sense of personal

urgency.’’ (p. 219) All of the participants told stories that indicated having reached a

degree of resiliency from their previous STEM careers and life experiences.

Additionally, this resiliency for each of the participants was observed during field

supervision. Gayle, for example, talked about getting through frustrations. ‘‘The

best I can say is that you’ve been through things and know you’ve come through it.

So, if a classroom is totally falling apart, you just reset.’’

Disillusionment for their former careers was also discussed by five of the six

study participants. Particularly, they mentioned how these job-related disappoint-

ments played a role in their decisions to enter a credential program. Others saw a

need to make a difference based upon their observations that the family support for

education was not as strong as needed for children to do well in school. Kathleen,

for example, discussed her concerns:

My [cooperating] teacher does generally care for the students, so he is the

backup [for the parents]. What about those students who don’t have a teacher

than can be a backup for them? So, for me, a good teacher truly has the best

interest of the student. And I realize that just because math is easy for me, it

may not be easy for others….

Transition to Becoming a Student and Developing a Teacher Identity

The word ‘‘transition’’ implies a change from one state or status to another. And, as

teacher education research has shown, ‘‘change’’ is often not an easy or

straightforward process (see Fullan and Hargreaves 1992; Hollingsworth 1989). It

is often wrought with conflict of many sorts including one’s beliefs, knowledge,

relationships, and identity. One’s identity is closely tied to their role within a


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community along with their participation in negotiating meaning of the community

(Wenger 1998). As former STEM professionals, these career changers had

professional identities closely tied to a math or science discipline. As they

embarked on a new career path they had to make sense of their newly anticipated

role as a math or science teacher. According to Siskin (1994) math and science

teachers find their identities not in teaching, but in teaching their subjects; therefore,

content matters deeply. However, before they could enter the teaching profession,

these career changers enrolled in a teacher credential program and had to re-enter

into a community of students before they could reach their ultimate goal of entering

the teaching community.

To be a participating member of a community one must be able to negotiate the

meanings and reifications that a community brings to practice (Wenger 1998).

Wenger’s notion of negotiation consisted of two parts: participation and reification.

Participation is described as a ‘‘complex process that combines doing, taking, feeling,

and belonging’’ (p. 56). Reification is described as making abstract ideas concrete by

creating ‘‘points of focus’’ (p. 58) or issues for negotiation. The career changers in

this study were learning not only how to negotiate their introduction to the teaching

profession but also renegotiating their roles as adult students. They all were formally

participants in a teacher credential program—which was the intersection of the two

communities. The reification, or ‘‘points of focus’’ centered on the work products

they created as students either in their coursework or during student teaching.

Becoming a Student Again

Only two of the career changers in this study transitioned directly from a STEM-

related career into teaching. Daniel and Gayle had taken time off to raise their

children; Phillip and Wendy explored several different careers before pursuing their

credential; Connie and Kathleen left engineering for engineering-based marketing.

However, all of the subjects in this study had to transition back to becoming

students—adult credential students.

All of the career changers had to overcome an internal—and sometimes

externally expressed—sense of conflict as they entered a profession they did not

initially choose. In fact several of the career changers questioned why they had to go

through a credential program to teach in a field where they have already proved their

value and competence. Kathleen said:

When I left engineering to be a teacher, I thought, ‘‘They should just give me

the piece of paper and let me go teach!’’ (laugh) I honestly thought that! And,

although I am biased and I do think that I should be entitled to a more

streamlined credentialing program—and I don’t have a good reason why—

(laugh) because I was an engineer… I’ve paid my dues…. Looking back at it

know, I’m actually glad that the prerequisites and this first semester made me

slow down and made me think about what really is going on and help me focus

on the students and what is really important.

Three of the former engineers had the most challenging time transitioning back to

the life of a student. Connie, Gayle, and Kathleen each expressed difficulty


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negotiating various aspects of being a student again including writing papers,

keeping up with assigned readings, and participating in specific classroom activities.

As Gayle said, ‘‘It’s hard to go back to school after you’ve not been in school for

awhile and go back to studying…. I wrote my first paper in 25 years. I didn’t have a

clue and it took me forever to write those first few papers.’’

Graduating with a bachelor’s degree more than 10 years ago and over 7 years as

an engineer, Connie had developed habits and work practices that made her

successful. However, she needed to reteach herself how to learn in a different way

as she entered the world of education and teaching. She said:

In engineering I am just so used to reading technical papers and now I’m

making that transition into reading textbooks. Where technical papers present

all the facts, every sentence is important, you know that’s why the words are

there. Not a word is wasted. All the skills you have learned 10–15 years ago.

Everything is out the window because you don’t have to turn in a term paper.

Kathleen initially struggled with her perceived value of some of the classroom

activities. She said:

I remember in the first general methods class we had to draw a picture of a

typical student. I went home and complained to my husband that I couldn’t

believe we were spending time drawing pictures! Then, as the semester went

on I realized that the students are our focus and we need to see them as people.

I get that now but I didn’t then and was pretty angry about it for a while.

Most of the career changers were ‘‘annoyed’’ by writing reflections and creating

lesson plans in the beginning of their teacher credential program yet, ultimately, the

assignments became valuable tools. Connie said she joked with other credential

students about being a ‘‘walking mirror’’ because she wrote so many reflections

while in the program. She said, now, she did enjoy writing reflections and kept a

teaching journal as an Intern. Kathleen initially did not find the experience as

humorous as Connie. Kathleen said:

I walked in taking those prerequisites and was just so frustrated and irritated

because I had to sit down in my first class and do reflections! ‘‘Oh my god!

What the heck is a reflection and why do I care because I’m a math teacher!’’

So, I’ve been kind of on this journey from the prerequisites to this first

semester of student teaching…. I do find it valuable because [a professor]

made us do a dialog journal where you start off the first four weeks journaling

and now go back and reflect on what you said. I’ve found that interesting

going back now and seeing what I wrote versus now. So, I do keep notes on

lesson plans. I write down a quick reflection on what worked and what didn’t

work.

Although there were several major frustrations expressed about becoming a

student again, the career changers ultimately found worth in not only the course

assignments and program requirements, but also with interacting with the more

traditional aged students. Several career changers expressed frustrations with many

of their traditional aged peers not being prepared for class discussions or ‘‘whining’’


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about the amount of coursework in the credential program. However, all six study

participants valued what they learned from their peers and realized how they could

influence them by example and with their previous career experiences. Gayle talked

about the need to keep the two populations of students together in the credential

program:

It was only in the beginning that you don’t bond to these younger people. They

have a whole different and good way of looking at things that you don’t have

anymore.

It was important for the career changers to establish relationships with their

student colleagues, as they were recognized as potential coworkers in their new

career field. Participating with this group of preservice teachers gave these career

changers insight on negotiating their newly chosen work lives and identities as

teachers. Valuing the exposure to traditional aged preservice peers is contrary to one

participant in the Abell et al (2006) study who chose an alternative route program

for the reason of not interacting with younger students in the traditional program.

The experience of becoming a student again is an essential period in developing

an identity as a teacher for these career changers. They had the opportunity to

engage and participate in the teaching community with low risk, develop

professional knowledge, and socialize and learn from their peers. This participation

and negotiation of this new teaching environment during the credential program

allowed for what Wenger (1998) called the ‘‘reification’’ process in developing their

new identities as teachers.

The Developing Teacher Identity

Although fully immersed in the community of students in a teacher credential

program, all of the career changers were developing their beginning identities as

teachers—especially those who were teaching interns. Each individual’s teacher

identity was developing as a product of the intersection of their teacher credential

program community and their student teaching field site community.

Engagement in the Teaching Community

As students in a credential program with a substantial field component, these career

changers had multiple opportunities to engage in teaching and in schools toward the

development of their teacher identity (Wenger 1998). As typical of many credential

students, the career changers in this study placed high value on their time spent in

schools as either observers or student teachers. These ‘‘apprentice of observation’’

experiences (Brown et al. 1989) were essential components of the socialization

process in learning to teach and therefore the development of their identity as a

teacher. It was during these times that credential students ‘‘participated’’ in schools

and in teaching and developed relationships and a real sense of the work life of a

teacher. Daniel had what he considered an exceptional mentor and model in a

cooperating teacher he was assigned to in his high school field placement. ‘‘It’s easy


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for me to get choked up about a guy like him because he is so dedicated to his kids

and he has wealth of knowledge.’’

By the end of this study, four of the six career changers made great efforts to

become ‘‘Interns’’ and accepted teaching positions prior to completion of the

credential program. These individuals appeared to not want to just identify with the

community of students but felt ready to ‘‘belong’’ to and engage in a newly chosen

community of teachers. For Phillip, even though he had other positions as a research

scientist he found teaching to be more fulfilling. ‘‘I say to myself that I love my job

everyday, at least two times a day….and I’m the guy who doesn’t like jobs.’’

Use of Teacher Language and Vocabulary

As former STEM professionals each of the career changers were competent in their

disciplinary content knowledge as evidenced in their lesson planning, classroom

observations, and their subject matter competency exams and were beginning to use

the language and vocabulary learned in the credential program coursework.

Multiple lesson plans for each individual demonstrated their use and proficiency of

the concepts of: anticipatory set, learning objectives, teaching methodologies,

assessment, and closure. Classroom observations of each individual clearly revealed

their competency and understanding of these elements in the teaching cycle.

However, for several of the career changers, the newfound ‘‘teacher’’ vocabulary

was able to explain concepts they’d never known how to describe before. Wendy

had described science as ‘‘messy’’ and then clarified the concept with the word

‘‘inquiry.’’ Both Daniel and Phillip had notions about learning and ‘‘prior

knowledge’’ but, as Daniel said, he ‘‘never had words to describe it.’’

Skills of Value

Lesson planning was not typically considered a ‘‘unique’’ skill in the profession of

teaching, however, for these career changers it was an activity that represented

teaching. In the credential program, students are required to produce detailed lesson

plans that outline not only the lesson sequence but also the lesson content in detail.

Approximately 30% of the lesson plans credential students created in the program

were detailed plans. The ability to create a detailed plan that was useful to the

student teacher and that represents their lesson planning competency was one of the

goals of the program. Gayle had talked about how ‘‘annoying’’ and ‘‘irritating’’

writing detailed plans were and Kathleen expressed similar feelings. However,

Kathleen had learned to use the skills learned in planning in a useful way for her

own teaching. She said: ‘‘it’s like second nature. I may not write as many as I’m

supposed to, but, it’s all in the back of my head—the anticipatory set, what I’m

going to do, how I’m going to do it.’’

Responsibility and Imagination As a Teacher

All of the career changers demonstrated an authentic caring for their students and

student learning that was manifested in two distinct ways: viewing student learning


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as their responsibility and through making content connections in their lesson plans

and teaching by using real-world examples.

Phillip came to the realization that not all students learn the same way and he

may need to teach ‘‘each thing five different ways, five different times.’’ Phillip also

talked about his intrinsic motivation to be a good teacher:

When I don’t have a good plan or a good lesson or closure, the motivation

comes from inside….where I say to myself that I have to do better, or I have to

do more or I’m not doing enough or this is messed up.

All six of the career changers made use of real-world examples in their lesson

plans that were also reflected in their teaching. Some of the examples and activities

directly related to their previous career but the majority of real-world examples

were used to help make the content relevant to their students’ lives and futures.

Although many of the lesson plans were structured around lessons found on the

Internet or from methods courses, these candidates tended to choose lesson activities

that required students to see the connections between science and math in the

classroom and real-life experiences. All of the participants created lesson plans that

had many applications to everyday life. In the interview, Phillip discussed bringing

in these experiences by asking students, ‘‘Has anybody ever—has this ever

happened to you—have you ever been to Six Flags on a ride where the floor drops

out?’’

Connie talked about the difficulty of finding appropriate examples for a wide

range of her students’ algebra skills as compared to her prior work in engineering:

It’s really hard for me to bring in real-life examples where there are real life

applications of these basic math skills because everything I have done in

engineering was taking integrals and derivatives and working in imaginary

numbers and complex analyses. That probably won’t go so well with the

students that can’t even add integers. That’s has been the greatest obstacle, but

I do realize those are the students that really need to see math out in the real-

world because they need to see that connection.

Kathleen recognized the responsibilities of a teacher were much different than

when she was a student.

When I went to school [the teacher] was just a talking head. There was no

anticipatory set. You just shut up and listened and took notes. I didn’t realize

there was so much more to teaching in trying to keep the student engaged,

about how to deal with 30? students of varying levels, abilities, and English

skills sets. It’s quite challenging.

By incorporating real-world examples and stories from their previous careers the

career changers were taking responsibility for student learning while also using

what Wenger (1998) referred to as ‘‘imagination.’’ They took the opportunity to

meld their STEM knowledge and identities into their teaching and teacher identities

by finding the intersections between the two communities and represent this as

content to their students.


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Alignment With Professionals In the Community

All of the career changers in this study were very eager to take on the role of

teachers, as this was their newly chosen profession. They had learned foundational

educational concepts in their coursework and practiced them during their student

teachings. Kathleen described how she implemented SDAIE (specially designed

academic instruction in English) strategies in her middle school student teaching:

‘‘we used a variety of different colored markers and tried to motivate students by

changing our tone. I also try to walk around the classroom so I’m not just standing

still. I may use one board in the back and then move to the front.’’ Kathleen’s use of

the plural refers to the team teaching she did with her cooperating teacher.

All of the career changers demonstrated the ability to incorporate state content

standards into their lesson planning which is an important milestone in becoming a

teacher today in the era of assessment and accountability. Phillip and Wendy had

very differing views on how standards should be used the classroom. Wendy viewed

the state standards as a guide and expressed a teaching philosophy that is aligned to

current science education reforms in calling for inquiry teaching (National Research

Council 1996). Phillip took the standards very literally as a ‘‘definite path’’ and

relied on district level documents such as pacing calendars and benchmarks to

inform his teaching. Whether the influence and alignment is with an individual

cooperating teacher, a school district, or a national movement, these career changers

had aligned their perspectives and philosophies with others in the education

community thereby shaping their teacher identities.

Summary and Implications

With the national shortages of science and mathematics teachers there is an urgency

to fill these positions as soon as possible (NESC 1990). Career-change STEM

professionals are excellent candidates to fill these needs, however, as this study

suggests, STEM career changers greatly benefit from the teacher preparation

program and coursework required for all potential teachers. Darling-Hammond

(2001) pointed out that recruits from short-term alternative programs had difficulty

with curriculum development, methods, management, and motivation. Another

argument for immersing career-change candidates into traditional programs is

indicated by studies that showed that nontraditionally prepared former scientists and

engineers did not necessarily fit in with school cultures and colleagues (Curley

1998). This teacher credential program provided mediated experiences for

candidates to develop their initial teacher identities and participate in their new

profession without having to negotiate the language and concepts while in a ‘‘job-

like’’ accountability environment—at least until they chose to take teaching

positions as Interns after their first semester in the program.

The reasons for the six participants in this study making a career change into

teaching is in agreement with previous research findings (Chambers 2002; Freidus

1994; Resta et al 2001) that state the need to ‘‘make a difference’’ and find more

‘‘meaningful work’’ as essential components of their decisions. As previous


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scientists and engineers, five of the six career changers in this study had become

disillusioned with their previous work experiences and two of the six were looking

to find more ‘‘family friendly’’ careers.

Each of the career changers brought to the teacher credential program and to their

new career and teacher identity, remnants of their STEM identity. They valued

intellectual challenges, displayed flexibility and resiliency in a changing environ-

ment, and were confident in their abilities to make real-world connections for

students in the learning activities they designed. Each participant called on their

identity and resources as a STEM professional to gain validity with their students.

The collection of lesson plans and field observation data from each participant

showed a variety of ways (stories, hands-on activities, guest speakers, etc.) to make

connections between their previous STEM career and student learning. Each career

changer in this study was developing a teacher identity based inpart upon their

previous STEM experiences. This is aligned with previous research on belief

systems (Nespor 1987; Pajares 1992) and personal histories (Belenky et al. 1986;

Bullough 1998; Eick and Reed 2002) as influencing teaching practices.

Recent conference presentations on alternative certification of STEM teachers

(Chinn 2006; Kern et al. 2006; Schulz 2006) have indicated that nontraditional

teacher candidates including career changers are attracted to alternative certification

programs to satisfy credential requirements at a faster pace. However, while the

participants in this study initially had misgivings about the credential program, they

later found merit in what they had been asked to do in their teacher preparation. This

ability to reflect back and see the value in tasks, such as those aimed at helping

teachers to understand diversity issues, may have resulted from these second career

teachers’ maturity and flexibility but also from their credential coursework and

assignments requiring reflection. As new teachers, reflection—a new skill to all of

these career changers—is indeed valued in the teaching community (Calderhead

1989; Ducharme and Ducharme 1996; and Schon 1983).

As students, second career STEM professionals need to be supported as they

transition back to writing papers again and interacting with the traditional teacher

candidates. And although three of the participants in this study expressed their

stress, concern, and even annoyance with their lives as students, all of the

participants valued the skills of and the relationships developed with the variety of

other students in the program. They recognized that their student peers in the

program were going to be their peers as teachers in schools. Had they not been

required to enter a credential program they would not have had the opportunity for

this type of socialization into the profession of teaching. This concurs with Melville

and Wallace’s (2006) narrative study findings of a teacher who was not socialized

into his profession and was outcast from his science department and left teaching

after one year.

If we are to fulfill this immediate math and science teacher shortage with a long-

term solution, all future teachers need to be socialized into the profession with a

strong pedagogical foundation in addition to their content expertise. It is not enough

to get them into the classroom we must also provide them with the resources and

tools to be successful so that they will remain in the profession. It is our belief based

upon the findings of this study that teacher preparation programs are essential in the


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process of teacher identity formation and provide a site for the intersection of

teaching as a profession and one’s previous life—either as a traditional student or a

STEM career changer. As an educational community we must also value the

apprenticeship model that the field-based components of teacher credential

programs provide—not only for the socialization of the individual teacher

candidate—but also for the modeling and mentorship of a future generation of

student teachers, who these candidates will ultimately mentor as cooperating

teachers.

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An Inquiry Into the Development of Teacher Identities

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