Pre-Service Teachers’ Visual Narratives of Teaching Practice Experiences: Insights from a Rural University

Current efforts to improve the quality of initial teacher education and effective preparation for the teaching profession require an in-depth understanding of teachers’ lived experiences during their teaching practice. This qualitative study examined the reflective narratives and collages of pre-service teachers’ (PST) teaching practice experiences. The use of collaging provided PSTs with a mosaic experience, a creative process through which they selected, arranged, and connected visual elements to represent the complexity, emotions, and meanings embedded in their teaching practice journeys. Framed within the paradigm of practitioner inquiry, the study aimed to intentionally stimulate reflection, a sine qua non for professional learning. Ten out of 163 PSTs volunteered to participate in this study. The reflections were analysed thematically, while the collages were analysed using the created-image data analysis (CIDA) analytic tool. The findings reveal five key dimensions of teaching practice central to pre-service teachers’ lived experiences of teaching. These include awareness of the emotional nature of teaching, the significance of support, developing meaningful relationships, navigating complex classroom realities, forming a professional identity, and the influence of contextual challenges. However, these dimensions do not fully capture the multifaceted nature of learning to teach, offering only partial insights into the deep, context-specific aspects of teaching. Nonetheless, these insights are, however, crucial to the ongoing refinement of initial teacher education programmes in our department. There is a need for teacher educators to design learning activities that intentionally foster reflective, context-conscious skills, recognising that teaching is inherently situated within specific social and educational contexts.