Undergraduate students’ and teachers’ perceptions of professional development and identity formation: A case study in Greece

In this paper, we explore the formation of teachers’ professional identity by investigating the views of undergraduate students and in-service teachers and examine whether the development of their professional identity occurs during the undergraduate studies or is it a lifelong process. An empirical study was carried out in the University of Patras Department of Primary Education, Greece. Our research data revealed that students were acquainted with the issues of professionalism and identity formation and teachers greatly attributed to the attainment of their further professional development, which was accepted as an on-going process. The importance of professionalism and professional identity were highlighted by both groups and their answers in many cases tended to be similar, according to the statistical analysis.