Professionals in a few months? trainee teachers' perceptions of their profession

This article is concerned about investigating student teachers' changing perceptions of what it is to be a teaching professional. Following detailed study of recent educational research and college-based discussion of paradigms of teacher ‘professionalism’, over 50 South Bank University students were asked to prioritise specific teaching attributes, both before and after their Final Teaching Practice. Utilising a variety of methodologies, students' assessment of the rationale behind changes in personal reflection on the eve of their becoming acknowledged ‘professionals’, will be analysed. By endeavouring to provoke frank personal assessments of their own levels of professionalism, this study hopes to illustrate how increasing social and political expectations and the resulting increase in teacher accountability, along with students' imminent award of teacher status, combine with other factors in impacting on new teachers' perceptions of what constitutes a ‘professional’.