DSpace at VNU: Identity in activity: Examining teacher professional identity formation in the paired-placement of student teachers

DSpace at VNU: Identity in activity: Examining teacher professional identity formation in the paired-placement of studen...

Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Teaching and Teacher Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate Identity in activity: Examining teacher professional identity formation in the paired-placement of student teachers Dang Thi Kim Anha, b, * a b Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Level 7, 100 Leicester Street, Carlton VIC 3010, Australia Faculty of English Language Teacher Education, Vietnam National University, 144 Xuan Thuy Street, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, Viet Nam h i g h l i g h t s < The study examined teacher learning in a paired-placement context < The teachers experienced qualitative shifts in their teaching identities < Activity theory was effective in revealing the complexity of their learning < Paired-placement is a promising model for reforming the practicum a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Received 31 March 2012 Received in revised form 16 October 2012 Accepted 22 October 2012 This paper examines the evolution of the professional identities of student teachers (STs) in a pairedplacement teaching practicum in Vietnam The study draws on activity theory, its notion of contradiction, and Vygotsky’s concepts of ZPD and perezhivanie, to identify the factors driving the intricate learning process Opportunities for learning were initially manifested in conflicts within the teacher pair, for example negotiation of their multiple identities, as friends, students and teachers in training However, within the framework of planned and supervised collaboration, the STs resolved most of their conflicts constructively and experienced qualitative development in their teaching identities Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved Keywords: Teacher learning Identity Paired-placement Teacher collaboration Activity theory Contradictions Perezhivanie ZPD Introduction During their practicum, student teachers (hereafter ‘STs’ or simply ‘teachers’) commonly teach individually, under a supervising teacher On the first day of school the ST is expected to assume responsibilities similar to those of experienced teachers despite limited experience and preparation (Westheimer, 2008) STs often encounter problems in transferring teaching theory into practice Many experience isolation and lack of support, and lack of knowledge about their students, having to focus on survival rather than learning (Bullough et al., 2003; Johnson, 1996; Westheimer, 2008) One response to these challenges is paired ST placements during the practicum Studies on paired placements (e.g Bullough et al., * 332 Barkly Street, Brunswick VIC 3056, Australia Tel.: ỵ61 430113068 E-mail addresses: t.dang6@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au, dangthikimanh@gmail.com 0742-051X/$ e see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2012.10.006 2002; Gardiner & Robinson, 2009; Heidorn, Jenkins, Harvey, & Mosier, 2011; King, 2006; McKeon, 2006; Nokes, Bullough, Egan, Birrell, & Hansen, 2008; Smith, 2004; Sorensen, 2004; Vickery, Sharrock, Hurst, & Broadbridge, 2011) highlight multiple benefits, and invite further investigation into this mode (Gardiner & Robinson, 2009; Sorensen, 2004) Prior research suggests the STs gain from the tensions, dialogue, reflections, and increased support that result from being placed with a peer (Bullough et al., 2003; Nokes et al., 2008) The question left open is how the factors specific to pair-work mediate teacher learning and identity formation The purpose of this study is to better understand teacher professional development in a paired-placement context It focuses specifically on how two teacher students in Vietnam, Hien and Chinh, develop their professional identities in the collaborative setting, and how factors specific to pair-work mediate this process It uses activity theory and its notion of contradiction (Section 2.1), Vygotsky’s concepts of ZPD and perezhivanie (Section 2.2), plus 48 Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 studies of teacher identity (Section 2.3), to help elucidate the learning process Given the focus and theoretical framework, the following questions framed the investigation:  What contradictions were identified in the teachers’ joint-activity systems?  To what extent were the contradictions resolved or not in the course of the study?  What are the implications of the trajectories of contradictions for teacher development in the paired placement context? Theoretical framework 2.1 Activity theory 2.1.1 Key tenets Activity theory has origins in Kant, Hegel, Marx and Engels, and the Soviet Russian socio-cultural psychology of Vygotsky, Leont’ev, Luria and Ilyenkov It explores the ways sociocultural historical contexts shape human activity It is an evolving theory that has proven fertile in educational research There are various strands within the tradition, derived in part from divergent readings of the foundational Russian works (see Bakhurst, 2009; Engeström, 1999; Smagorinsky, 2009) For Bakhurst activity theory is not an “unproblematic, coherent, theoretical paradigm” He promotes “self-critical dialogue” between its different “styles of thinking” (2009, p 209) The research design of the present study draws largely on Engeström (1987, 2001, 2008a, 2008b) The study uses third generation activity theory, elaborated below, to analyse teacher learning in the paired-placement context It also draws on other activity theorists including Roth and Tobin (2002), Grossman, Smagorinsky, and Valencia (1999), and Smagorinsky, Cook, Jackson, Moore, and Fry (2004) These different theorists share several broad tenets relevant to the study First, human consciousness develops within practical social activity settings in which relations between human agent and environmental objects are mediated by tools and signs (Engeström, 1987; Grossman et al., 1999; Roth & Tobin, 2002; Smagorinsky et al., 2004) The teacher is not solitary but part of a larger social setting (Smagorinsky et al., 2004) Their principal mediating artefacts are pedagogical tools The process whereby “a person adopts the pedagogical tools available for use in particular social environments”, and “through this process internalizes ways of thinking endemic to specific cultural practices”, is known as “appropriation” (Grossman et al., 1999, p 15) Degrees of appropriation range from lack of appropriation, appropriating a label, appropriating surface features, appropriating conceptual underpinnings, to achieving mastery (pp 16e18) Appropriation of tools when happening involves adaptations and modifications (Athanases et al., 2008; Newell & Connors, 2011) rather than straight-up internalization In the present study, Hien and Chinh demonstrated different levels of appropriation of pedagogical tools, such as video clips for teaching English Second, the unit of analysis is the collective activity system (Engeström, 1987, 1999; Roth, 2012) In the present study the unit of data collection and analysis is the teachers’ (joint) activity system of teaching English, in which they are also learning “to be someone who teaches” (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011, p 317) Third, the driving force of change and development in activity systems is internal contradiction, as powerfully conceptualized by Ilyenkov (1977, see also Engeström, 1987, 2001; Roth, 2012; Roth & Tobin, 2002) In a parallel approach Smagorinsky et al (2004) see tensions that “require a socially contextualized intellectual resolution” (p 22) as potentially productive for teacher identity formation 2.1.2 Third generation activity theory Third generation activity theory develops conceptual tools for understanding dialogue, multiple perspectives and voices, and networks of interacting activity systems (Engeström, 2001) The third generation model includes at least two activity systems with a potentially shared object (Fig 1) The subject of an activity system is a person or group with agency (Engeström, 2001) In the present study the subject is the ST whose activity is influenced by the sociocultural historical context within which he/she teaches and learns to teach Object describes the orientation of the activity, derived from motivation to achieve an outcome There is no objectless activity (Engeström, 2008a) The ST’s motive could be to perform a student teaching task successfully for assessment purposes, or to promote student learning The mediating tools/artefacts used by the STs include lesson plans, rehearsals, video clips, and other pedagogical tools The study conceptualizes planning and teaching in pairs as a joint-activity system, that is the interacting activity systems of two individual teachers, embedded in their broader sociocultural historical context Their common object could be (teaching) the students This framework enables the researcher to analyse how the individual teacher’s professional learning emerges from within each individual system, and interacts with the other system In Fig the mediated relationship between subject and object occurs within a sociocultural setting that includes community, rules and division of labour Within the paired-placement model, community refers to the teaching pair, other STs in the cohort, supervising teacher, and classroom students In impacting upon student teaching activity this community could support or hinder professional learning Rules refer to explicit and implicit regulations, norms, and conventions that constrain actions and interactions within the activity system (Engeström, 2008a) Here, they Mediating tools/ artefacts Mediating tools/ artefacts Potentially shared object Object Subject Rules Community Division of labour Subject Object Division of labour Community Rules Fig Two interacting activity systems: minimal model for third generation activity theory (Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research, 2003e2004) Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 include the professional and cultural rules regulating co-working activity and social relationships between the paired STs as both friends and colleagues Division of labour refers to work relationships and power relationships between members of the community, including between the ST pair Activity systems emerge and can be transformed over time Contradictions within activity systems generate disturbance but drive change and development (Engeström, 2001) on a collective basis, through innovations in activity designed to resolve those contradictions Third generation activity theory has been applied by Engeström himself and others to research in different settings, including formal school settings (e.g Cross, 2009; Engeström, 2008b; Junor Clarke & Fournillier, 2012; Tsui & Law, 2007) 2.2 ZPD and perezhivanie 2.2.1 Zone of proximal development (ZPD) and contradictions Vygotsky introduced the concept of ZPD to elucidate the role of social conditions in the development of thinking (Moll, 1990, p 12) He saw thinking as a characteristic not just of the child but of the child-in-social-activities with others (Moll, 1990) What children can perform collaboratively or with assistance today, they can perform independently and competently tomorrow ZPD is: the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers (Vygotsky, 1978, p 86) Moll (1990) states that children “internalize and transform the help they receive from others”, using this guidance “to direct their subsequent problem-solving behaviours.” Therefore “the nature of social transactions is central to a zone of proximal development analysis” (p 11) In the present study Vygotsky’s ZPD is used to examine what the STs could accomplish by performing collaboratively or with assistance today as an indication of what they could perform independently tomorrow Paired placement, as a teaching/ learning strategy, can be understood as an institutional embodiment of ZPD Arguably, paired placement here either enlarged the ZPD (as is apparent in Hien’s case) or provided scaffolding for activities within the ZPD (as is apparent in Chinh’s case) In Vygotsky’s work ZPD indicated a change of analytical focus, from sign-mediated activity to socially mediated activity, and from the individual-as-such to the individual-in-social-activity (Minick, 1985; Moll, 1990) However, he retained “the significance of sign and tool mediation in understanding human learning and development” (Moll, 1990, p 5) This change in theorization helped to ground the later shift to activity under Leont’ev In further developing Vygotsky’s ZPD, Engeström defines it as “the distance between the present everyday actions of the individuals and the historically new form of societal activity that can be collectively generated” (1987, p 174) New forms of societal activity are generated by contradictions Contradictions are not the same as problems or conflicts They are “historically accumulating structural tensions within and between activity systems.” (Engeström, 2001, p 137) Within an activity system, they include tensions within each of its components and tensions between its two or more constituent components (Engeström, 2008a,b) Tensions are not necessarily obstructive They can be potentially productive in creating an environment conducive to professional learning In the present study the collective journey of the STs through their ZPD is mapped in terms of contradictions in their joint activity system, and how those contradictions were resolved or not over a period of time This trajectory shaped the potential and process of development Contradictions were manifest as tensions in 49 the negotiation of STs’ multiple identities (see Section 2.3) within paired placement, for example, friends versus colleagues, or students versus teachers 2.2.2 Perezhivanie Together with ZPD, Vygotsky developed the interrelated concept of perezhivanie in the last years of his life (Mahn & JohnSteiner, 2008) Perezhivanie describes “the affective processes through which interactions in the ZPD are individually perceived, appropriated, and represented by the participants” (p 49) Vygotsky’s Russian notion of ‘perezhivanie’ has been roughly translated as ‘emotional experience’ (Vygotsky, 1994), or ‘intensely-emotionallived-through-experience’ (Ferholt, 2010, p 164) Smagorinsky refers to ‘meta-experience’; that is, ‘how one experiences one’s experiences’, noting that “people frame and interpret their experiences through interdependent emotional and cognitive means, which in turn are related to the setting of new experiences” (2011, p 337) Vygotsky used perezhivanie in studying the relationship between child development and its setting, writing of finding “the particular prism through which the influence of the environment on the child is refracted”: the child’s emotional experience [perezhivanie], in other words how a child becomes aware of, interprets, [and] emotionally relates to a certain event This prism determines the role and influence of the environment on the development of, say, the child’s character, his psychological development, etc (Vygotsky, 1994, p 341, emphasis in original) The “prism” encompassed both the child’s cognition (“aware of, interprets”) and emotion (“emotionally relates to a certain event”) Vygotsky noted that “if children possess varying levels of awareness the same event will have a completely different meaning for them” (1994, p 343) Their responses were affected by differing emotional experiences, which in turn related to the cognitive meaning they made of the situation When the situation changed, sometimes one component of personality played a primary role, sometimes another In analysing how an environment influenced child development, it was important to identify which characteristics were decisive in determining the child’s relationship to the situation (Vygotsky, 1994) In the present study, these characteristics include the various components of teacher identity, and the tensions between them 2.3 Teacher learning as identity formation Learning to teach is “learning to think like a teacher, learning to know like a teacher, learning to feel like a teacher and learning to act like a teacher” (Feiman-Nemser, 2008, p 698, emphasis in original) For Kelchtermans and Hamilton (2004 in Akkerman & Meijer, 2011) it moves beyond learning to ‘know how to teach’ to learning ‘to be someone who teaches’ (p 317) Teacher identity development is an important component of learning to teach (Alsup, 2006) In a critical review of the research Akkerman and Meijer (2011) describe teacher identity as unitary and multiple, continuous and discontinuous, individual and social The identity of someone who teaches is an ongoing process of negotiating and interrelating multiple Ipositions in such a way that a more or less coherent and consistent sense of self is maintained throughout various participations and self-investments in one’s (working) life (p 315) The definition suggests the dynamic nature of teacher identity, its social origin, and the tensions in its construction “The presence of multiple, possibly conflicting I-positions” is especially helpful in 50 Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 understanding identity “when teachers face dilemmas or tensions throughout their work” (p 311) The natural desire for a consistent and coherent sense of self motivates the self to create a dialogical space between different I-positions Thus “the self is also a negotiated space” (p 312) From an activity theory perspective, Smagorinsky et al (2004) likewise view teacher identity formation as a process of negotiation between different conceptions of teaching STs see themselves as students in university settings but as teachers in school settings, triggering tensions in their self-construction of teaching identity Further: Learning to teach is thus in part a process of constructing an identity in the midst of systems of relations During student teaching, there are multiple systems of relations involved in overlapping, often conflicting activity settings that make this identity formation quite challenging (Smagorinsky et al., 2004, p 10) In a similar vein, Grossman et al (1999) argue that activity theory can help: understand how prospective teachers and those around them define the problems they face and how they engage in solving these problems, using the resources around them This process contributes to the identities that they develop as teachers (p 12) 2.3.1 Teacher identity and perezhivanie These accounts of teacher identity parallel Vygotsky’s account of perezhivanie Both constructs refer to relations between subject and environment, such as how one engages with the settings (Grossman et al., 1999) or multiple systems of social relations (Smagorinsky et al., 2004) Perezhivanie varies depending on which characteristics of personality are at play in the given situation; the teacher adopts identities, and shifts between them, in response to relevant others such as colleagues, to time and to context (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011) Perezhivanie is especially relevant to the present study in three ways First, it helps to explain how the individual STs constructed different meanings of the same planning and teaching event, depending on how they each emotionally related to that event, reflecting Moll’s (1990) view that: “Change within a ZPD is usually characterized as individual change” (p 12) Vygotsky considers “emotion and human development to be reciprocally related to one another” (Smagorinsky, 2011) Second, it identifies both emotional and cognitive dimensions of teacher development: in research into teacher development, the former is often overlooked How the STs were aware of, interpreted and emotionally related to pairedplacement events all influenced their actions in their environment Third, the concepts of perezhivanie and identity together shed light on professional development within paired placement The teachers’ identities influenced how they cognitively and affectively experienced their experiences Likewise, their cognitive and affective response to experience could affect their identity formation, strengthening, weakening, or transforming certain identities Their identities thus help to explain the ‘prism’ through which the context affected learning Akkerman and Meijer (2011) note studies of changing teaching identities have yet to identify ‘what’ is shifting and what determines the direction of shift Beijaard, Meijer, and Verloop (2004) call for research into the role of context in professional identity formation, and research perspectives other than cognitive ones The role of affect in teacher identity formation has been acknowledged, either explicitly or implicitly (Alsup, 2006; Smagorinsky, Lakly, & Johnson, 2002), but still seems under-researched In adopting an activity theory perspective plus Vygotky’s ZPD and perezhivanie, to illuminate two teachers’ professional development over time, this study contributes to filling in those gaps Method The present study is part of a larger research project concerning the learning-to-teach-English practices of a cohort of 10 pairs of Vietnamese student teachers (see Dang, 2012; Dang & Marginson, 2012) The present study focuses solely on one of the ten dyads, Hien and Chinh (these are pseudonyms to ensure participant anonymity) They were selected because their pair interactions were sufficiently complex and varied to allow a wide range of developmental aspects to be explored Hien and Chinh were representative of the cohort in terms of gender, background, including prior teaching experience, and length of participation 3.1 Context and participants 3.1.1 Context The larger research project was conducted in the settings of a ST practicum at a university in Vietnam The teachers, all females in their early twenties, had been selected as high achieving students of English for a special four-year course in English Language Teaching (ELT) The practicum, in their final year, consisted of 15-weeks teaching English to second year university students The STs worked in pairs for planning and teaching lessons They were paired by ballot All lessons were observed by one of the university supervisors, and the other STs in the cohort Lessons were followed by feedback sessions involving the supervisor and STs This model of teacher education (TE) had been used at the university for eight years prior to the research Most participants, including Hien and Chinh, chose to be teachers because in Vietnam teaching is seen as a noble profession and highly suitable for women In the Confucian tradition the teacher is a benchmark of morality, the most important source of knowledge, and the highest authority in the classroom English teaching has gained popularity since the country opened itself to the world in the 1986 Doi Moi reform, which replaced central planning with a regulated market economy Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in 2007 The growth of international business, including transnational education, has multiplied English-related jobs and demand for English teaching skills English now enjoys special status as means of communication and 99.1 per cent of junior secondary schools teach English (Do, 1999; Nguyen & Nguyen, 2007) 3.1.2 The teaching dyad: Hien and Chinh Hien and Chinh had been friends for three years, though not very close Hien lived in the city with her family Chinh was from the countryside and lived away from home They had worked together in group and pair projects in the first three years at university Each emphasized they had worked well together, peacefully, with little argument Consensus was easy to reach However they had not found the outcome productive, and had different views of collaboration Hien emphasized the need for partners to be critical in order to improve the quality of ideas Chinh, however, preferred harmony and described herself as happy when there was little argument Their personal histories were also different 3.1.2.1 Hien Hien appeared cheerful, friendly, confident, and articulate She had long lived in an environment where people appreciated the English language Her elder sister was fluent in English and worked for Sony Ericsson Hien attended a Hanoi Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 school for talented students specializing in foreign languages and participated in the national contest for high-achieving students in English She had prior experience teaching English as a one-on-one tutor for school students and a classroom assistant at an international foreign language centre She seemed confident when recalling her teaching experience: At the beginning, some of my students did not like to learn, did not want to learn English, but I was able to create a relaxed atmosphere Now almost all of my students like English better (Hien, Pre-interview, p 15) 3.1.2.2 Chinh Chinh looked calm but became emotional in several interviews Her family was not well off financially Chinh eased her parents’ burden by working as a part-time teacher assistant for a foreign language centre in Hanoi She supported herself by private tutoring Like Hien she participated in the national contest for high school students gifted in English and won a prize However, her transition from high school to university was painful Unlike Hien, who knew English pronunciation from a very young age, before Chinh entered university she experienced listening, speaking and writing as alien She described her experience of entering the TE program as frightening: It was really scary, because all I had was grammar In the Fasttrack program, you need to learn Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing (Chinh, Pre-interview, p 16) Chinh believed teaching was often a matter of accommodating students and their emotional needs Having fun was an important motivator But Chinh found motivation a challenge: “It is hard to make them like foreign languages” (Chinh, Preinterview, p 19) 3.2 Data collection As noted, the unit of analysis is the joint-activity system in each teaching round In the practicum Hien and Chinh taught four lessons Each round comprised co-planning and co-teaching one lesson To plan each lesson Hien and Chinh met face-to-face, and communicated via Internet chat tools and emails Teaching tasks were shared The data consist of individual semi-structured interviews in Vietnamese with each ST prior to the practicum (pre-interviews) and after each lesson (post-teaching interviews); video-recordings and observations of the lessons; field notes of observations during the lessons; and artefacts like lesson plans, instructional materials and other documents (see summary in Table 1) Post-teaching interviews were conducted within 48 h of each lesson to strengthen data reliability (Nunan, 1992) The semi-structured interview format enabled open-ended questioning around the themes of the research All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim Field notes, instructional materials, and lesson plans were used as stimuli in interviews and to enhance reliability, triangulating findings from interviews 3.3 Data analysis 3.3.1 Analysis of each teaching round The primary data source was the interview transcripts The interviews provided much insight into ST learning, and into relations between the STs and their context At times in interview the STs were asked to recall relevant biographical details (see Table 1), generating data that helped to explain their experiences in the practicum 51 Table Data sources and focus of data collection and analysis Pre-service teachers Data sources Focus of data collection and analysis Pre-interviews with individual teacher (N ¼ 2) Experience as language teacher/tutor Experience as language learner Personal background Previous group/pair work experience Perceptions of the paired placement experience: lesson by lesson, both planning and teaching stages Joint activity system of co-teaching and its evolution Systemic contradictions in the joint activity system Trajectory of contradictions Relevant biographical details Pair interaction during the lessons Uses of teaching tools Social context of teaching Pair interaction during the lessons Uses of teaching tools Social context of teaching Evidence of planned division of teaching tasks between the partners Evidence of use of teaching tools Evidence of pair interactions when planning lessons Post-teaching interviews with individual teacher (N ¼ 8) Classroom observations during paired placement (N ¼ 4; 240 min) Video-recordings of lessons taught by the pair (N ¼ 4; 240 min) Artefacts (lesson plans, instructional materials, email correspondence between partners when planning lessons, etc.) In data analysis the researcher first reviewed the videorecordings, observations, and artefacts for each teaching round to re-activate field knowledge and begin to reconstruct the observable components of Hien and Chinh’s joint activity system, such as identification of the artefacts they used Then the interview transcripts were analysed line by line using a directed content analysis procedure (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005, pp 1281e1283) with the support of Transana, a software package for transcription and qualitative analysis of audio data Initial coding categories were based on the subject, object, tools/artefacts, rules, community and division of labour in each of the four joint-activity system (i.e each teaching round), as advised by Barab, Evans, and Baek (2004) The analytical method was also informed by prior research into teacher practice using activity theory (Cross, 2006; Engeström, 2008a,b; Roth & Tobin, 2002; Tsui & Law, 2007; Yamagata-Lynch & Haudenschild, 2009) including research on pair-work (Cross, 2009; Storch, 2004) This prior research guided refinements in the coding of each sub-category (See Table for a summary of the coding scheme used to reconstruct the pair’s joint activity system.) The strategy of relying on prior research was important for two reasons First, there is much controversy over the use of cultural historical activity theory (Junor Clarke & Fournillier, 2012), a discussion which is beyond the scope of this paper Second, there are different methodological approaches to using concepts and principles from activity theory (see Barab et al., 2004; YamagataLynch, 2010) Indeed, as noted, there are various strands within the tradition Drawing on related studies, this study presents one such approach to research design For each teaching round, Hien and Chinh’s individual interviews were analysed separately, using the code scheme presented in Table They were then compared and contrasted to identify the misalignments perceived by the teachers Contradictions within the joint-activity system were then distilled, helping to explain the tensions or challenges in pair work (see Table for a summary of major contradictions and their occurrences) Because the analysis focused on identifying systemic contradictions and their trajectories within a limited time period, nuances, suggesting qualitative 52 Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 Table Codes and sub-categories to identify joint activity system Codes Sub-categories from the data set Level Sub-categories from the data set Level Subject Teacher’s prior teaching experience Years of teaching Classroom teaching One-on-one tutoring Adult students School children Years of learning English Exposure to CLT (Communicative Language Teaching) Exposure to grammar-translation method (Test and grammar oriented) Family background Rationales to become a teacher Transition to the TE program Experience within the TE program Working with pair partner Working in groups in general Teaching to improve students’ English Teaching as faithful to the lesson plan Collaboration as equal work share Collaboration as harmony Collaboration to improve quality of work Teacher’s experience as language learner Teacher’s personal background Teacher’s previous group/pair work experience Object Teacher’s conceptions of student teaching Teacher’s orientation towards the collaborative work Mediational tools & artefacts Resources to perform the perceived paired placed teaching tasks Subject content knowledge Pedagogical content knowledge Instructional materials Syllabus Tools for pair-work Division of labour Perceptions of self and partner’s roles and responsibilities in the pair-work Contribution to co-planning Contribution to preparation Contribution to co-teaching Power relationship between pair partners and others in the community In co-planning, preparation, & co-teaching stages Community Teachers’ identification of the broader community regulating the performance of the activity Pair partner Other peers University supervising teacher Students Others Knowledge of English grammar and vocabulary Knowledge of English pronunciation Knowledge of language skills English competency Lesson planning Knowledge about the students Language teaching skills Student engagement Teacher-led discussion Small-group work Student presentations Modelling Using instructional materials PowerPoint slides Video clips Games Handouts Course program Internet chat Email correspondence Face-to-face meeting Rehearsals Brainstorming ideas Improving ideas Searching for teaching materials Finalizing lesson plan Preparing handouts Carrying out ICT related tasks Preparing logistics Teacher talk-time Teacher control of lesson Teacher interruption (of each other) Teacher correction (of each other) Share of teaching tasks Who Who Who Who Who took the lead in planning? made major decisions? controlled the lesson? controlled the process? gave feedback? Teaching colleagues Previous (school) teachers Family Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 53 Table (continued ) Codes Sub-categories from the data set Level Sub-categories from the data set Level Rules Teacher’s perceptions of explicit and implicit rules that regulated the activity Professional rules Teaching correctly Start/finish on time Following syllabus Keeping face for partners Keeping face for students Students subject to teacher’s authority Indirectness with partner Avoiding confronting problems Co-teaching Giving feedback Equal responsibilities Equal roles Reaching consensus Polite turn taking Cultural rules Class rules Collaboration rules rather than quantifiable changes, were significant Hence ‘occurrences’, rather than ‘frequencies’ of the incidence of contradictions were deemed appropriate to this study Analysis of the different components of data was interactive and cross-referenced For example, findings from the interviews that revealed teachers’ interrupting each other during the lesson prompted further analysis of the video-recordings See Fig for a diagrammatic description of the pair’s joint activity system and identified contradictions The left triangle represents Hien’s activity system and the right triangle represents Chinh’s activity system of coteaching 3.3.2 Analysis across the teaching rounds Data from the four joint-activity systems were content analysed and cross-referenced to see if the identified contradictions were resolved or not in subsequent systems (Table 3), mapping the evolution of joint activity and professional development over time Findings The findings are reported in the sequence of the research questions: contradictions; trajectories of development; and implications for teacher professional development Data analysis identified three main contradictions in the joint-activity systems, traced over the four teaching rounds, between: 1) subjects and objects of activity; 2) subjects and division of labour within the community; 3) the community and mediational tools (Fig refers to the contradictions, using the numbers 1e3) Hien and Chinh drew on different and conflicting identities in their co-teaching and co-planning activities The respective dispositions triggered contradictions that affected the way they perceived their experiences, cognitively and affectively As the contradictions became identified, with some partly resolved, there was continual reflection and change in the pair’s joint-activity systems Both Hien and Chinh worked within their jointly-created ZPD on the identified contradictions, leading to qualitative change in their professional development Chinh appeared to be developing a teacher identity in addition to her continued student identity Hien, on the other hand, appeared to be developing a mentor and colleague identity in addition to her continued teacher identity 4.1 Contradiction between subjects and objects of activity Hien and Chinh entered the practicum with conflicting conceptions of student teaching In their joint activity system, they worked towards different objects Throughout the four teaching rounds, apparently Hien’s object was student learning, coming from her strong teacher identity Hien’s object contradicted Chinh’s object of faithfulness to lesson plans, resulting from her disposition as a student Chinh’s object for her took priority over being flexible to students’ needs In the later teaching rounds the contradiction was partly resolved when Chinh began to realise the need to develop her role as a teacher and partly transformed her object to student learning From the first teaching round, Hien emphasized teacher authority, which she wanted She talked about being flexible with lesson plans and addressing students’ learning needs In the second round, this positioning shaped her definition of collaboration: “The bottom line [of collaboration] is to achieve the objective of the lesson.” In round three, her disposition as a teacher was also demonstrated in the way she helped one student in response to that student’s need “I had not expected to spend that much time helping her with her pronunciation”, said Hien She appeared confident and articulate about her role as a teacher, which seemed to derive from her successful prior teaching experience Table Contradictions and occurrences Contradiction Definition Occurrence Subject e object Conflicting perceptions of student teaching: student learning versus being faithful to the lesson plan Unequal division of roles and responsibilities, and unequal power relationship Tensions attributed to different levels of appropriation of pedagogical tools Lesson 1; Lesson 2; Lesson 3; Lesson (partially resolved) Subject e division of labour Community e mediational tools Lesson 1; Lesson (partially resolved); Lesson (partially resolved) Lesson 1; Lesson 2; Lesson 3; Lesson 54 Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 Desirable outcomes? - Student learning - Teacher learning about teaching - Good assessment results for the PSTs - Good collaboration Mediating tools/ artefacts: Lesson plans, instructional materials, other pedagogical tools… Mediating tools/ artefacts: Lesson plans, instructional materials, other pedagogical tools… Obj 1a Subject 1: ST: HIEN [1] Obj 1b [3] Obj 1b: TP: faithful to LP Obj 1a: SL - TC [1] [3] Subject 2: ST: CHINH [2] [2] Rules: Professional rules Cultural rules Class rules Collaboration rules Community: Pair partner Other peers Students Supervising lecturer ST=Student teacher TP=Teacher performance Division of labour: -Co-planning & Shared Object? Division of labour: -Co-planning & teaching teaching -Giving comments on -Giving comments on LP and lesson LP and lesson SL=Student learning LP=Lesson plan Community: Pair partner Other peers Students Supervising lecturer TC=Teacher collaboration Obj= Object Rules: Class rules Collaboration rules Professional rules Cultural rules =Contradiction Fig Joint activity system of Hien and Chinh (adapted from Engeström, 2001, p 136; Tsui & Law, 2007, p 1293) Unlike Hien, Chinh saw herself as a ‘student’ almost throughout the practicum This identity seemed to influence how she perceived and processed the emotional aspects of the experience In the first teaching round, she referred to the university supervising lecturer as a figure of authority in defining who she was in the practicum: Ms Vien (the University lecturer) said, why we are here, we are here to tutor, not to teach them We are here to try to help, help them (Chinh, Rnd1 Interview, p 20) She emphasized that teachers must be faithful to lesson plans Student teaching, as she saw it, was performing to the observers of the lesson, her classmates and the supervising lecturer In round three, Chinh still saw teaching from a student’s perspective She expressed her concern about being “blamed”, “reprimanded” and gaining a “bad reputation” if she taught something badly The perezhivanie seemed connected to her painful transition into the TE program, as described earlier Chinh’s focus appeared to be on controlling the lesson She was most comfortable when things went as planned Co-planning the lesson with Hien challenged Chinh’s disposition as a student Commenting on the lesson plan, she reluctantly said: “if it is to help them [the students], the major part should come to the front, and no need for a warmer”, indicating she was negotiating the two roles The dyad’s interactions during co-planning and coteaching appeared to scaffold Chinh’s development of a teacher identity In round two, in Chinh’s words, she “just sat and listened attentively, without noting down details”, so she could provide only “superficial” feedback to students Not until Hien started giving detailed comments, did Chinh comprehend “focusing on key areas for the students to improve later on” The incident suggests Chinh was experiencing a transition from student to teacher, with much awareness of it when her object inclined towards student learning In the last lesson Chinh showed better awareness of the issue, while still struggling between the two positions: I realized that I did not put myself completely in the position of a tutor It was because I forgot that I should be helping the students, not testing them That was why I went through the lesson so fast and went straight to the exercises (Chinh, Rnd4 Interview, p 21) The excerpt also suggests how her teaching identity influenced her teaching practice, and the meaning she made of the experience It shows Chinh’s increased understanding of Hien’s view that they should divert from the lesson plan if necessary to facilitate student learning From an activity theory perspective, with active pair-work, the object of Chinh’s activity was under transformation, and a new historical form of activity was in formation 4.2 Contradiction between subjects and division of labour in the community Hien and Chinh came to pair-work with different perceptions of it, a difference compounded by the contradictions between objects in their joint-activity system These differences created tensions in both co-planning and co-teaching, manifest in the unequal division of power and labour between the STs These contradictions recurred Both Hien and Chinh tried to resolve them tactfully Both STs developed in this process Hien learned more about how to collaborate and developed her identity as colleague/mentor in relation to Chinh, in addition to her continued teacher identity Chinh’s orientation still came from her identity as a student but she seemed to learn about co-teaching 4.2.1 Co-planning The contradiction involving unequal division of power and labour between the teachers arose in planning for the first teaching round They negotiated between their identities as friends and as colleagues Hien admitted finding herself dominant in the planning process She made final decisions regarding the lesson, while expecting Chinh to be critical and active in developing Hien’s ideas Chinh chose to be low-key Preferring harmony, a desirable trait of a Confucian culture, she expressed herself content because they did Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 not argue much She recognized, however, that their contributions to planning were unequal Hien was aware of the unequal division of labour and power, and attempted to resolve it by setting for herself a hidden rule In focusing on equal work sharing, she appeared to be developing a colleague/mentor identity in relation to Chinh She insisted Chinh take the lead: The first time, I presented my ideas first, I still remember that Then in the following rounds, I let Chinh speak first In fact I had ideas, but after several times working with Chinh, I realized that she was quite easy For example, any ideas I proposed she would ok immediately So I thought I would let her speak first, then we both improve the ideas But not me presenting ideas first (Hien, Rnd4 Interview, p 5) The journey to resolution was not smooth In round two, the contradiction seemed partially resolved when Hien let Chinh lead the planning However, after their face-to-face meeting Hien expressed her dissatisfaction with the agreed plan She actively sought advice from other people in improving the lesson She suggested major changes in the lesson plan and convinced Chinh to agree To Hien, her object of achieving good student learning took priority over the need to even up the pair work Her identity as a teacher again seemed to overwhelm her position as a friend Chinh “felt ashamed as Hien made most of the contributions” The contradiction recurred The contradiction seemed to be resolved in round three when both Hien and Chinh were equally engaged in planning, despite their lack of confidence in the subject matter, pronunciation Collaboration during planning lessened the challenges in teaching pronunciation Hien continued encouraging Chinh to lead coplanning She described herself as pleased with Chinh’s efforts in preparing the lesson and giving critical feedback on the pair’s ideas Chinh’s engagement with planning had improved Chinh appeared happy with the co-planning process, which she believed was equal The contradiction recurred in round four, when Chinh’s engagement subsided Chinh led the planning but failed to provide critical comments to develop the lesson Hien found the materials prepared by Chinh to be irrelevant They both looked for other materials Hien tried to accommodate Chinh’s involvement in the planning, but she still played the key role in decision making The trajectory of this contradiction in co-planning suggests the need for collective resolution, not a hidden, individually led resolution To achieve satisfactory identity formation, what was needed was mutual awareness and engagement in the collective resolution of the contradiction Given the social origin of identity, individuals with whom a person interacts are significant to the self They motivate a person to act and develop in specific directions (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011) The observation was true of both Hien and Chinh 4.2.2 Co-teaching Two major tensions emerged and recurred during co-teaching which seemed largely resolved in the later rounds The way Hien and Chinh handled these contradictions in the last round was cognitively and intellectually more advanced than in previous rounds when their responses were either emotional or spontaneous The first contradiction involved the unequal division of labour in co-teaching, manifest in the STs’ unequal share of teacher talk time In the first lesson, Chinh felt the teaching tasks were unequally divided She noted the part assigned for Hien took much longer than planned, which Chinh said made her uncomfortable She saw the division of teacher talk time as the indicator of whether the lesson contributions were equal She wanted to interrupt Hien but decided not to She seemed to be negotiating the tension between 55 her identity as a student (teacher) and identity as a colleague This contradiction was manifested in her interpretation of the student teaching requirements (fair share of teaching time) and her perception of pair-work (maintain harmony which prohibits interruption) In lesson four, Chinh appeared to be more conscious of the tension She handled it while increasing her presence in the lesson She finally interrupted Hien during a later section: I was afraid that if Hien had completed that section [on her own], it would be too long And so I asked: “Can I help you?”, knowing the answer would be “Yes”, because by asking that question, I expressed my need to interrupt, then Hien had to say “Yes” It was just because I wanted to avoid solo-teaching, meaning only one person teaching the lesson (Chinh, Rnd4, pp 29e30) Chinh had prepared her act by reading the part of the lesson that Hien was leading and carefully planning how best to interrupt Hien felt surprised by Chinh’s move but welcomed it By re-interpreting past experiences and taking action, Chinh seemed to have resolved the conflict between two identities and maintained some continuity in her identity formation (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011, p 313) The continuity was accompanied by a higher level of cognition whereby she demonstrated increased awareness of the experience The second contradiction was manifested in Hien’s correction of Chinh’s mistakes In the first lesson, Hien observed as Chinh was teaching, and intervened immediately when she felt Chinh’s instruction was unclear In the second round, the tension recurred However, when reflecting on the incident, Hien found it wrong to intervene while Chinh was in charge Her understanding of the purpose of the lesson (student understanding) conflicted with her perception of pair-work (the necessity to refrain when there are problems, typical of Vietnamese culture) Her emotional responses appeared to be “culturally mediated and appropriated” (Smagorinsky, 2011, p 338) Hien recalled the incident: The words Chinh gave have vowels before /s/ so the letter /s/ must be pronounced as /z/, but she taught it as /s/ I kept on wondering whether I should join in Finally, I decided to join in, but I think yesterday neither they [the students] not everyone else [my classmates] noticed that I intended to make a correction In fact I was trying to avoid correcting each other in front of the class e something absolutely to avoid Then I thought to myself, I looked at the students and they looked confused They really looked confused, so I thought I must speak up (Hien, Rnd2 Interview, p 7) She later explained: I think, first is to let the students trust the teachers I hate this thought but teachers mostly must not make mistakes In general, students will not fully trust teachers if they make mistakes However, if I point out my partner’s mistake in front of everyone, first she will lose face Second, the students will question about the tutors: first, the competence of the tutors; second, they would wonder what kind of cooperation it is that allows tutors to contrast each other right in class like that If the students find out that I pinpointed Chinh’s mistakes, I would not know what to Luckily people did not notice it I not want her to lose face in front of everyone I need to cooperate well (Hien, Rnd2 Interview, p 9) The excerpts suggest that Hien was facing a conflict between different rules internal to the teaching profession One rule dictates that teachers must teach correct information Another rule dictates that teachers should not be criticized in front of the students Keeping each other’s face in public also indicates good 56 Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 collaboration from a Vietnamese cultural perspective The incident also reveals Hien’s negotiation between her identity as a teacher and her identity as a cooperative friend/colleague/team member In lesson one Hien corrected Chinh’s mistakes; and it was not until the second round that she really grasped her dilemma, by engaging in the experience and (re)-interpreting it Although the tension between her two identities was not resolved, by reinterpreting her experience, she was able to access the conceptual tool that helped her make sense of the experience and reduce its ambiguity (Akkerman & Meijer, 2011) In response to the incident, Chinh expressed concern about how the students felt about the incident, and about her: I was not fully shocked but I found that the students would be suspicious and would think “as one tutor has corrected like this, then another has to re-correct for her Then it means she corrected us wrongly” I not know if they thought like that Maybe yes (Chinh, Rnd Interview, p 11) Chinh’s identity as a student teacher related to the emotional response that accompanied her teaching She seemed more concerned about her students’ judgement of the incident than about their learning In the last lesson, Hien’s internal conflict between the different professional rules was repeated Despite her belief that she should not correct her partner’s mistakes in front of the class to save Chinh from losing face, she corrected Chinh’s mistake in this lesson, though in a subtle way She was able to provide correct instruction to the students but also keep her partner’s face The contradiction seemed largely resolved, in a way that resulted in less confusion about the act of correction and more awareness of the collaboration Hien’s increased understanding informed her affective reaction to the situation e from having no feeling in round one, ‘correcting immediately’, to feeling torn in round two, to being in control and knowing how to intervene in round four Her sense of identity as a teacher collaborator also increased during the process Her growing understanding and affect to the experience interacted with the learning event and enlarged her ZPD in the context Pair-work was both the context and driver of this process 4.3 Contradiction between community and mediational tools Observations and interviews suggested that Hien and Chinh were at different levels of appropriation of pedagogical tools The difference in levels of appropriation explained the contrasting meanings the STs made of common events, and triggered tensions in their joint activity The difference in appropriation seemed to relate to different identities they brought to pair-work The different perezhivanie they experienced was manifested in their different cognitive and affective response to the same experience The tensions however created opportunities for professional development, especially in Chinh’s case In lesson one both STs were aware their students were not interested in the lesson Each however gave different explanations, and approached the problem differently Chinh tried to make jokes to get close to the students She explained that jokes were intended to create rapport with the students to enable her to understand their difficulties She responded to the situation from a learner’s perspective, drawing on her own experience as a student to make sense of it Her approach was an affective one, trying to make the students feel good and engaged Hien dealt with the passive class in a more rational manner, and from a teacher’s position She believed the problem was caused by her wrong choice of learning materials She modified the tasks, providing suggestions and lowering the level of requirement The use of video clips in lesson three presented different meanings to Hien and Chinh Similar to Newell and Connors’s (2011) study, Chinh’s interview analysis suggested her pseudoconceptual (Vygotsky, 1987) understanding of how to use video clips in teaching English pronunciation Her basis for using the tool was grounded in making the lesson look professional: “students could see that we have a firm foundation to teach them pronunciation” Her focus was more on the credibility of the lesson and gaining students’ trust rather than on their learning In Hien’s interview, however, she demonstrated a more sophisticated understanding of the tool Hien liked the video files because she wanted the students to listen to native speakers of English to help them to communicate in English Although tools need to be adapted and tailored to local needs (Athanases et al., 2008; Newell & Connors, 2011), Hien and Chinh appeared to be at different levels of appropriation (Grossman et al., 1999) of this particular tool The differences created discomfort and tensions for the teachers at times but were conducive for teacher learning Chinh’s appropriation of pedagogical tools suggests she was closely focused on her own performance It was still the case in the last lesson: I was quite nervous at times In fact the situation was not that serious to be nervous about The lesson was to calm down Calmly dealing with the situation rather than making students wonder “Oh, dear! She is not okay today” I felt quite uneasy because I made so many mistakes, so that affected the smoothness of the lesson (Chinh, Rnd4 Interview, p 17) The excerpt however also demonstrates her increased awareness of the experience (“the lesson was to calm down”, and “the situation was not that serious”) in regulating her responses Chinh’s perception of lesson planning transformed dramatically in the last round as a result of working with Hien She moved from being faithful to the lesson plan to seeing the significance of being flexible to address students’ learning During planning, the materials Chinh had chosen were agreed to be irrelevant and were replaced by new ones During teaching, the lesson diverted from the original plan They synchronously and spontaneously changed the last activity They both took risks In her reflection of the events, Chinh commented: I think Hien just wanted to improve the work, the product That explained why we changed activity one, from the other reading text to this one Also that explained why our actual follow-up was different from our planned one (Chinh, Rnd 4, P 16) The decision to change the follow-up activity was like both of us taking a spontaneous leap at one snap, like taking full risk (Chinh, Rnd 4, P 31) Chinh became more aware of the rationale behind Hien’s changes in planning and teaching She had learned that lesson plans should not be rigid She said she was pleased that: Everything was changed a bit, a lot compared to the plan, but more effective, I think more effective than in the original plan (Chinh, Rnd 4, P 16) She realized that the lesson was more effective with the changes than it would have been if the original plan was followed Chinh was starting to mention the “effectiveness of the lesson”, indicating a shift towards Hien’s position Vygotsky “posited that children internalize and transform the help they receive from others and eventually use these same means of guidance to direct their subsequent problem-solving behaviours.” (Moll, 1990, p 11) Coteaching with Hien has provided scaffolding for Chinh’s activities within the ZPD, as Chinh’s final interview showed Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 Discussion The study offers several findings with implications for teacher education and for developmental research in the sociocultural activity theory tradition 5.1 Social relations, contradictions and ZPD Studies on teacher learning in collaborative settings emphasize that “when two student teachers disagree there is an enhanced rich potential for interaction and reflection” (Hargreaves & Jacka, 1995; Nokes et al., 2008, p 208) Nokes et al (2008) reported moments of tension arising from paired-placed partners’ incompatible personalities, philosophies of teaching, discipline strategies, and ideas about instructional activities They also documented dialogue and reflection as essential elements of teacher development in paired-placements The nature of the tensions in the present study is distinct from that documented in previous studies (Nokes et al., 2008), in that the findings show the STs experienced contradictions in their conflicting perceptions of student teaching (subject/ object), the unequal power relationship between them (subject/ division of labour), and differing levels of appropriation of pedagogical tools (community/tools) The present study confirms previous research in showing that pair-placements constitute an environment featured by tensions, a key element in teacher learning (Smagorinsky et al., 2004) One of the most valuable implications of the findings is the understanding of how the contradictions emerged, and (some) were resolved, leading to teacher development Within the pairplacement setting, the teachers operated within their dynamic ZPD The developmental trajectories of the contradictions they encountered indicate a process of development As ST awareness increased, for the most part their contradictions were recognised and fully or partially resolved For example, the ways Hien dealt with correcting her partner’s mistakes in lessons differed across rounds one, two and four She also demonstrated growing awareness of what collaboration meant in the contexts of Vietnam and of professional work Chinh’s conception of lesson planning changed during the study, as a result of working with Hien and her observations of Hien’s responses in different pedagogical situations Chinh moved from adhering to the lesson plan, as commonly done by beginning teachers (Edwards, 2005), to admitting satisfaction when the pair deviated from the plan in response to students’ needs Pair-work mediated both learning to collaborate with other teachers and learning to respond to students’ needs The other contradictions were not resolved but their trajectory indicates the developmental potential of activity systems (Engeström, 1987) In imagining child development and ZPD Vygotsky (1978) combines forward movement with repetitive cycle “Development, as so often happens, proceeds here not in a circle but in a spiral, passing through the same point at each revolution, while advancing to a higher level” (Vygostky, 1978, p 56) As Manning and Payne (1993) remark, “development is not simply quantitative increments but qualitative shifts as the unique past experiences and previous knowledge of individuals interact with the present learning event” (p 362) In cases where the two STs faced similar contradictions several times during the course of the study, without exception their successive responses indicate a progression through ascending levels of consciousness Their learning was not linear but spiral Their planning, teaching, and reflecting were increasingly sophisticated Consider Chinh Throughout the four teaching rounds her identity as a student was tied to her relationship with the supervising teacher This relationship, emotionally and cognitively, reflects a Confucian teacherestudent relationship typical in Vietnam This disposition retarded her 57 evolution as an independent practitioner She talked of being told to things and being nervous when making mistakes However, pair-work over the four rounds challenged this positioning and triggered qualitative shifts in her professional identity She started to see the need to respond directly to students’ needs (lesson two) and realised she should exercise her role as a tutor (lesson four) In the last lesson, she also self-regulated her emotions more effectively e “the situation was not that serious to be nervous about The lesson was to calm down” e indicating a shift in cognition and a stronger teacher identity The study also underlines the value of investigating teacher development in terms of social transactions Vygotsky emphasized the central role of social transactions to a ZPD analysis (Moll, 1990) Social transactions showed repeatedly in the data; for example Hien’s development of her mentor/colleague identity when interacting with Chinh during co-planning or when correcting Chinh’s mistakes The finding is consistent with Cohen’s (2010) that colleagues are key actors in the formation of professional identity via collaborative exchanges 5.2 Identity formation, perezhivanie and ZPD Student teaching in a pair-placement setting entails a complex system of relations: with teaching tasks and students; with supervising teacher and observing peers; and with the pair partner Each relationship is associated with perceived rules and ST responsibilities For example, as pair-partners, the STs need to sustain and demonstrate collaboration, as in keeping their partners’ face in public, and their equal contributions to pair-work Learning to teach is a process of constructing an identity in the midst of this system of relations (Smagorinsky et al., 2004) It means becoming a different person with respect to the responsibilities enabled by the according systems (Lave & Wenger, 1991) An analytical framework derived from activity theory provides one apparatus for making sense of ST experience Pair-placement provided an environment in which professional identity was formed while also crystallising the tensions between emergent and established ST identities For Hien there were tensions between her established role as a teacher, with successful prior teaching experience, and her emerging identity as a colleague of Chinh These roles linked to her emotional and cognitive perceptions of the teaching tasks, relations to the students, and perceptions of teacher collaboration Her contradiction between professional and cultural rules camouflaged the negotiation of her conflicting identities when working with Chinh With Chinh, as discussed, her identity as a student (teacher) was largely tied to her relationship with her supervising teacher This disposition seemed to frame her affect and cognition in the practicum in a certain way The pair interactions in co-working created a context in which Chinh’s disposition was challenged Her identity as a teacher was emerging, amid negotiation between her identities as student and colleague As colleagues, the pair ought to work towards a shared object, delivering a successful lesson As suggested by Akkerman and Meijer (2011), Chinh implicitly constructed and negotiated her identity in relation to the various people she encountered, and her community of engagement Smagorinsky et al observe, “one’s identity is not simply the emergence of internal traits and dispositions but their development through engagement with others in cultural practice” (2004, p 21) The present study over four consecutive lessons also reveals how the teachers brought prior elements into the observable systems of relations As noted, Smagorinsky emphasizes that emotion and human development are reciprocally related to one another (2011) In the present study the teachers’ different identities served as ‘prisms’ in examining the affective and cognitive relations between the STs 58 Dang T.K.A / Teaching and Teacher Education 30 (2013) 47e59 and pair-placement environment As in Vygotsky’s (1994) analysis of the three children in his lecture on ‘The problem of environment’, Hien and Chinh responded to the same teaching context differently They demonstrated different levels of understanding and made different meanings out of the situation The differences were attributed to the varying prior elements Hien and Chinh brought to the situation and the different identities they drew on They had different relations with the settings, demonstrating distinctly different perezhivanie, which affected their learning differently While Hien was confident in her established role as a teacher, Chinh was often nervous and worried about being reprimanded in her identity as a student By investigating the negotiation of their multiple identities in context it becomes possible to understand why they responded differently in pair-placement and achieved different levels of cognition Conclusion This paper began by noting the multiple difficulties for STs in the traditional practicum Like other research this study in Vietnam suggests that pair-placement is a promising model for practicum reform It begins to elucidate the process of how teachers mediate learning to teach in a collaborative setting Conflicts within the collaboration, for example as manifest in the negotiation of teachers’ multiple identities as friends, students and becoming teachers, opened up initial opportunities to learn Findings from this study suggest that an individual teacher’s identity influences her/his cognitive and affective perception of an event Paired-placement created an environment whereby the student teachers’ conflicting identities, associated with different cognitive and affective perceptions of the experience, were challenged, leading to contradictions The contradictions in turn enabled the student teachers to work to resolve these contradictions Through planned and supervised collaboration the STs resolved most of the conflicts, leading to qualitative change in their teaching professional identities, though in each individual case it was rather different From an activity theoretical perspective, shared community, past experiences, division of labour, and potentially shared objects were all part of this process The study suggests that more attention needs be paid to the process of collaboration in paired placements, so as to optimize the resolution of conflict, and to the conditions that affect teacher learning in pairs The present study also highlights “the complexity of learning when thought, emotional experience, and practical action are brought together in the analysis” (Mahn & John-Steiner, 2008, p 47) It has done so by combining in its theoretical framework activity theory and the concepts of contradictions, ZPD and perezhivanie Both “meaning making and affective aspects of social interactions affect learning in the ZPD” (p 50) In addition, the accounts of Hien’s and Chinh’s identity construction have shed light on the how and what in the shift of teacher identity formation, a gap previously identified by Akkerman and Meijer (2011) The study suggests a new line of inquiry into teacher learning in collaborative settings capable of many further applications Acknowledgements This research was funded by a doctoral scholarship from The University of Melbourne The preparation of this manuscript was supported by a grant from Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne References Akkerman, S F., & Meijer, P C (2011) A dialogical approach to conceptualizing teacher identity Teaching and Teacher Education, 27(2), 208e319 Alsup, J (2006) Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating personal and professional spaces Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Athanases, S., Abrams, J., Jack, G., Johnson, V., Kwock, S., McCurdy, J., et al (2008) Curriculum for mentor development: problems and promise in the work of new teacher induction leaders Journal 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