Abstract

In this talk I will explore how a group of primary PGCE students negotiate identities as teachers of science. In particular, I am interested in the affordances and constraints for their identity constitutions that are created in the intersections between discourses about science teaching and discourses about primary teaching. The talk draws on interviews with eleven primary PGCE students, analysed using a conceptual framework crafted around Gee’s (2005) conceptions of discourse and identity. The analysis brings to the fore how the learning to teach primary science does not only involve issues related to science knowledge and self-confidence, but also a whole range of interrelated socio-cultural factors, such as the student teachers’ educational biographies, the extent of their identification or dis-identification with science as a subject, and cultural perceptions of the science teacher and the primary teacher respectively. The findings suggest that coming to terms with the competing demands on the science teacher and the primary teacher can be a major challenge for the aspiring primary teacher.