Abstract

In the Professional Experience (formerly known as the practicum), preservice teachers occupy an unpredictable space between ‘novice’ and ‘real’ teacher. For Aboriginal preservice teachers, underlying factors such as socio-cultural background, life experiences and appearance as perceived by themselves and others as ‘looking Aboriginal’ may offer a different perspective to the Professional Experience. Within a post structural framework, a qualitative study using data from twelve semi-structured in-depth interviews with six Aboriginal preservice teachers and their cooperating teachers highlights key issues that may not be evident in the Professional Experience for non-Aboriginal teachers. The significance of lived experience, balancing expectations, identity ‘well-being’ and responses to Aboriginality highlight the complex, contradictory and transformative nature of ‘learning to teach’ for Aboriginal preservice teachers. Significantly, participants preferred to understate their Aboriginality in favour of identifying factors such as lived experiences and relationship building as the key to their success yet also deferred to the contextual and relational significance of their Aboriginality within this paradigm. The perception of themselves and others as ‘looking’ Aboriginal also contributed to the discursive spaces that individual preservice teachers occupied in their Professional Experience. The narrative construction of identity in this study provides the opportunity to reflect on the formation of teacher identity from an Aboriginal perspective.