becoming a teacher
To learn to teach is also to tell a story of what learning to teach ‘does’ to and for [pre-service] teachers. In this effort [ie. to tell the story], the narrative impulse bumps up against the work of not quite knowing if the story can do justice to the emotional experience of learning itself.
(Britzman 2003, p. 10)
Deborah Britzman titles her book about the process of learning to teach, Practice makes practice, in order to highlight the sense in which learning to teach is an ongoing process – she constantly refers to it as a process of becoming. Her argument is that there is no sense in which ‘practice makes perfect’ (whatever ‘perfect’ might mean) when one is learning to teach. Certainly, a sustained commitment to striving for improvement is crucial for the professional English teacher.
However, for some English teachers, the quest for perfection can lead to a continuing state of self-flagellation when this ‘perfection’ is unable to be realized. As Mark Howie writes, ‘To teach is to live with guilt,’ as the ever-dissatisfied teacher seeks to overcome his/her perceived weaknesses and imperfections. (See Mark’s STELLA narrative,  ‘Slow learner’)
Learning to teach is a process that starts well before pre-service teachers begin their formal teacher education studies (be that a diploma or a bachelor degree), and all practicing teachers will attest that it is a process that certainly does not finish at the conclusion of these formal studies.
Britzman is one of many educators who advocate teachers using writing, especially reflexive narrative writing about practice - ie. reflecting not just on the self but also on the institutions, cultures and contexts which mediate this practice. She explains how this sort of writing can be used to prompt and focus a teacher’s professional learning.
(See Dennis Atkinson’s 2004 article, ‘Theorising how student teachers form their identities in initial teacher education,’ in British Educational Research Journal, 30.3, June, pp. 379-394, for a discussion of reflexive narrative writing. See also Parr & Bellis, from the options on the next page.)
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