50 Furthermore,
P3’s teaching concept focused more on facilitating and accompanying the students as stated below:
During teaching practice program, I tried to be my student’s friend because
I believe that if they can open up to me, they will enjoy the subject. Therefore, they will understand the materials. After explaining the material,
I came to students who felt confused. Hence, they felt free to ask me. .... [8.P3]
Based on the interview result, P3 described that teaching is more on giving students opportunity to undergo the process and get full assistance from the teacher. P3
explained that after she finished explaining the material, she always walked around the class in order to make sure all of the students understand the material in which
became her teaching concept during the teaching practice. This is in line with Rubio 2009 who states that effective teachers do not teach in front of the class doing a
good demonstration, but they teach to promote and enhance learning. Furthermore, after finishing her teaching practice, P3 described herself as a
teacher who can be a friend for her students as mentioned below: I considered myself as their friend. Javanese proverb says that
“guru digugu lan ditiru”, but I cannot put myself as a teacher who had to give right
example and should become a role model. I liked laughing with them, facilitating and helping them to learn. [15.P3]
Although she did not deny that being a teacher should become a role model for her students, she emphasized that she
enjoyed being a student’s friend more. During the teaching practice, she always put herself as her students
’ friend who facilitated them, so they could material well. Furthermore, being
students’ friend also created fun classroom atmosphere. In conclusion, P3 mentioned the characteristics that led
her to adapt her personal ’s uderstanding about who a teacher is and what a teacher
51 does. Furthermore, the characteristics indicated that she tended to transform her
identity from a spiritual guide to a learning facilitator.
C. Factors of Pre- service Teachers’ Identity Transformation
This section discussed the findings of the second research question. It was about factors which contributed to participants
’ identity transformation. Gee 2000, Beijaard et al. 2000, and Lerseth 2013 state that there are seven factors that
contribute to the pre- service teachers’ identity transformation. Based on the
interview to the five participants, the researcher found seven factors as the major and minor factors which contributed to their identity transformation, namely
mentoring teacher and supervisor, tensions, past teaching experience, pre-service teachers’ pedagogy, content area knowledge, identity recognition, and pre-service
teacher relationship with students. Hence, the researcher divided the factors into two catagories namely major factors and minor factors of pre-
service teachers’
identity transformation. 1.
Major Factors of Pre-service Teachers’ Identity Transformation
In this section, the researcher would like to discuss the major factors that contributed to pre-
service teachers’ identity transformation. There were three major factors, namely identity recognition, relationship with the students, and pedagogy.
52
a. Identity Recognition
One of the important things in teacher preparation is pre- service teachers’
understanding of themselves. Moreover, it is also critical to take prior identity development and see how it merges with new development through experiences
which are happening now. In relation to this, Gee 2000 argues that identity related to what kind of person. Specifically, identity recognition, in this case, refers to how
pre-service teachers and other people acknowledge them as teachers during the teaching practice.
In relation to this, P2 emphasized that her identity recognition affected her during the teaching practice program and became the first main factor which
contributed to her identity transformation as she stated below:
My identity recognition affected me during my teaching practice because when my students or other teacher called me as
“miss X” or “Bu X” it meant that I should consider myself as a teacher. As a consuquence, I should have
good attitude. Therefore, it affected my mind. Then, after I asked my students to write their opinion about myself, they told me that I was a loving teacher.
One of the students also told me that I never got angry with the students. Then, as a teacher, I also had to motivate my students to love the subject.
Thus, caring about the students was very important. [10.P2]
During the teaching practice, P2 realized that when the students or other teachers called her ‘Miss X” or “Bu X”, she had to act as a real teacher. It affected her mind
because she thought that she had important role, and therefore, she had to have good attitude in order to become a right figure for her students. This is in line with Gee
2000 who states that it is important to understand how a person identifies himself or herself because who a person is related to how he or she acts. Therefore, P2
thought that she had to manage herself in order to be a good role model for her students.
53 Besides, the students also helped her acknowledge her identity. In this case,
her students considered P2 as a loving teacher who never got angry to the students. In addition, it made her realize that the students felt comfortable with her. Thus, it
showed that her students’ perception of herself affected her. She mentioned that it
motivated her to be better in becoming a teacher. She also mentioned that she had to care about the students more. Hence, it led her to motivate the students. Besides,
P2 also emphasized that her identity recognition became the most influential factor which contributed to her identity transfomation as she mentioned below:
The most influential factor was my identity recognition, especially my attitude as a teacher. It was because when I taught my students I needed to
be a good figure. It wa s like “guru digugu lan ditiru”. If I made mistakes I
would like to say sorry to them. .... [12.P2] P2 realized that her role as a teacher impacted her students’ mind. Hence, she tried
to be a good role model for her students. This is in line with Bashir, Bajwa, and Rana 2014 who state that teachers have long-lasting impacts on the lives of their
students, and the greatest teachers inspire students towards greatness. Similar with P2, P3 also considered that her identity recognition affected her
identity and led her to become students’ friend as she mentioned below:
.... I put myself as my students’ friend to make me felt comfortable with the
teaching learning activities. [10.P3] In this case, the recognition of her identity influenced the way she put herself in the
classroom practice. She realized that when she could put herself as students’ friend,
the students could enjoy the teaching learning activities. Similarly, P5, through her identity recognition, considered that she did not want her students to be afraid of
her as she mentioned below:
54 I was afraid that my students considered me as a killer teacher. I wanted the
students did not become afraid of me and keep away from me. Therefore, I tried to make them feel comfortable with me, but not spoil. .... [10.P5]
During the teaching practice program, P5 cared about the students and tried to be friendlly. Thus, her students did not become afraid and keep away from her. Hence,
it led her to create comfortable atmosphere. In this particular context, P5 emphasized that comfortable athmosphere referred to the situation where the
students were open to her, were not afraid of her, and wanted to follow her instruction. In other words, it was clear that P2, P3, and P5 knew how to act and put
themselves as teachers during the teaching practice. As mentioned previously, this is in line with Gee 2000 who argues that identity recognition helps someone to
recognize himsef or herself and affects how he or she acts.
b. Relationship with Students
Teacher’s relationship with students has important, positive and long-lasting
impacts for both students academic and social development and teacher’s teaching
technique. In relation to this, pre- service teachers’ relationship with the students
affacted their identity as teachers. In this case, three out of five participants mentioned how their relationship with the students affected their identity.
P2 considered that her relationship with her students bacame the next factor which affected her teaching practice and led her to transform her identity as stated
below:
I had good relationship with my students. .... They affected my teaching because every student has their own characteristic. Thus, the way how to
treat them was also different. [11.P2]
P2 realized that during the teaching practice, she needed to create and maintain
55 good relationship with the students, which meant that she had to be able to
understand her students’ needs and characteristics. It was because it helped her to understand and treat each student by considering each student’s characteristic in her
class. This is in line with Beijaard, Verloop, and Vermunt 2000 who state that when the pre-service teachers develop productive relationship with their students,
they get to know them and take particular interest in their overall development and progress. Moreover, Daniels and Perry 2003 also argue that teachers as well as
pre-service teachers, who show sensitivity to students ’ differences, include students
in the decision-making, and acknowledge students development produce greater motivation to their students. Hence, this relationship helped P2 to understand her
students more and led her to put herself as a spiritual guide. As P3 and P5 tended to transform their identity, they also considered that
their relationship with their students became another main factor which affected their identity as follows:
I got along with them well. Some of them were very close to me. By getting along with them, I had many opportunities to motivate them learn the
materials and therefore they could improve their performance. Then, I was also motivated to use or create useful learning media which could help them
improve their understanding.
[11.P3] P3 emphasized that her relationship with her students gave her many opportunities
to get closer with them and then they could improve their performance. In this case, the researcher asked further questions in order to get clear explanation of what she
meant by “get closer” and “improve their performance”. P3 described that during her teaching practice, she always put herself as
students’ friend. In this case, it made the students felt free to ask her some questions when they could not understand the
