Finnish preservice teachers’ future identity: empathy-based stories of success and failure

Teacher identity has been addressed in various ways in teacher education. However, there remains no consensus on how teacher identity should be understood. This study explores how Finnish preservice teachers perceive their future work, as well as the factors that shape their teacher identity. An empathy-based method was used for data collection. Preservice teachers at the end of their studies (N = 155) responded with narratives based on two fictional future scenarios; approximately half (n = 79) depicted professional success, and the other half (n = 76) depicted professional failure. Reflexive thematic analysis resulted in the identification of five themes across both types of narrative. Self-leadership, classroom practices, and the work community were the most prominent themes, whereas teacher education and home–school cooperation were less prominent. The findings reveal that preservice teachers’ understanding of their future work is comprehensive. Developing teacher identity involves interwoven dimensions that exist in reciprocal relationships.