The influence of an internship in South Africa on Norwegian preservice mathematics teachers' development of a professional identity

Abstract

This paper reflects on how the future development of teacher identity by four Norwegian preservice secondary mathematics teachers may be influenced by a nine-week internship in South Africa. It was clear from interviews with the students, completed during their internship, that they were aware of differences in the educational- and school culture regarding, amongst others, teacher authority, students’ motivation, and resources. We apply the term ‘willingness to learn’ to capture extracts from the interviews concerning the students’ impression of one such cultural difference, important for their experiences. Based on the interviews, we summarised the students’ impressions concerning the relations and interactions between teacher and pupils. The students’ reflections were interpreted in the perspective of teacher identity.