ABSTRACT
By exploring Susan’s dilemmas of becoming a ‘trained professional’ I uncover some of the underlying epistemological tensions and mixed messages of professional practice which pervade teacher education programs and shape preservice teachers’ images of professionalism. Through Susan’s stories of trying to develop her own professional authority while being a character within the institutional narratives of her teacher education program, I explore interwoven, tacit and conflicting versions of institutional narratives in which Susan struggled. These versions have become sacred stories (Crites, 1971) embedded within present teacher education institutions (both universities and schools) and they implicitly shape the ways in which individuals construct their images of professionalism. Here I show how technical rational and apprenticeship versions of teacher education perpetuate images of teacher preparation as training and inhibit the development of professional authority through Dewey’s (1938) version of reflective inquiry.
