教育实习是师范生理论与实践相结合的重要时机。师范生在实习期间逐渐形成了他们的身份认同，他们通过实习了解自身的教学实践、个人价值观和教学信念。本研究考察了师范生是如何在实习过程中通过他们的专业实践来形成和塑造身份认同的。基于社会文化理论和实践共同体理论，采取解释性序列混合方法，以Cape Coast 大学毕业年级的师范生为研究对象。本研究访谈了11名师范生，通过内容分析法，研究他们身份认同的形成过程；随后对在线调查获取的522份问卷结果进行了数据分析，具体分析包括：描述性统计、独立 t 检验、相关分析、线性回归、方差分析、结构方程模型。

研究发现，师范生身份认同的建构过程是复杂的，涉及想象与实践之间的意义协商。在教育实习之前，师范生对教师身份的想象和他们自身的社会文化背景（包括家庭、社会和受教育经历等），都会在教育实习期间对他们的身份认同形成起着关键作用。研究进一步揭示了教育实习是与导师和其他同伴互动的机会。导师一方面通过积极的指导丰富了师范生对教师身份的理解，另一方面由于限制了师范生的能动性以致削弱了身份认同的建构。此外，实习指导可以显著预测师范生的身份建构；职业倾向在实习支持和教师身份之间的关系起部分中介作用；职业倾向对选择教育专业的动机与教师身份认同之间的关系起完全中介作用。本研究对于教师教育机构和教师教育者培养师范生具有重要的理论和实践意义，建议中小学校长和大学导师在教学实习期间支持和指导师范生，帮助他们塑造积极的专业身份认同感。

Teaching practicum is considered a learning field where pre-service teachers raise the opportunity to bridge theory to practice. As a result, teachers begin to form their professional identities, especially during practicum. The practicum plays a significant role in providing prospective teachers with awareness of their teaching practices and the personal values and beliefs that underlie them. This research examines how pre-service teachers' identity is formed while doing practicum and how it can be shaped through their professional practice. Through the lens of a sociocultural theory, incorporating communities of practice are used as a theoretical framework for this study. The explanatory sequential design of mixed-method was employed. The researcher surveyed pre-service teachers' perceptions of doing a practicum at the University of Cape Coast in their final year. A small sample of eleven (11) pre-service teachers was interviewed to understand further how their identity is formed during practicum. The data was analysed based on five hundred and twenty-two (522) responses retrieved from online surveys. The quantitative data were analysed using structural equation modelling, independent t-test, correlation, linear regression, ANOVA, means, standard deviation, frequencies, and percentages. In contrast, the qualitative data was done using content analysis as the analytical approach. The results were presented based on the research questions that guided the study.   

This study revealed that pre-service teachers' professional identity formation is complex and involves negotiating meaning between imagined and practiced. Before attending teacher education programmes, future identities and sociocultural backgrounds, including family, society, and former teachers, play a critical role in their identity formation during teaching practicum. The study further revealed practicum as a place for interaction with mentors and other students, promoting pre-service teachers' identities through positive mentoring and undermining them by limiting their agency. The findings also revealed that practicum support could significantly predict pre-service teachers’ identity formation. Also, professional orientation partially mediates the relationship between practicum support and teacher identity. However, professional orientation fully mediates the relationship between the personality factors and teacher identity. This study provided critical theoretical and practical implications for teacher education institutions and teacher educators in preparing pre-service teachers. The study recommends that supervisors and principals support and guide the pre-service teacher during their teaching practicum to help them shape a positive sense of professional identity.

Keywords: Pre-service teachers; identity construction; identity formation; practicum