Perspectives about teaching profession in an ELT context: A journey from pre-service to in-service

The study aims to investigate the nature and evolution of perspectives of the teachers who graduated from the English Language Teaching department in 2012 and are currently working in schools across cities in Türkiye with nine years of experience. The study, conducted as a multiple case study, also investigates what factors may have contributed to changes or non-changes in their perspectives. A qualitative research design, which is based on an interpretive paradigm, was employed in the study. In line with the principles of qualitative research, the multiple case study method was selected. This research design was chosen in accordance with the exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory nature of the study. The participants of the study were five in-service teachers with nine years of experience whose reflective journals from their pre-service years were available to the researcher. Criterion sampling as a type of purposive sampling was employed to select information-rich cases. The research instruments used for data collection were reflective journals written by the participants during their practicum experience and semi-structured interviews conducted nine years after graduation. The layers of reflection, as proposed in the Onion Model by Korthagen and Cabaroglu's model on the process of belief change, served as a guide in the initial understanding of the data. The research adopted an abductive approach in the utilisation of these frameworks in the stages of analysing and interpreting the data through a thematic analysis process. The findings for the first research question highlighted the diversity of perspectives across all layers in the Onion Model, scarcity of perspectives at behaviour and competency layers, dominance of critical reflection over surface level, and prevalence of perspectives at the level of pedagogical belief. It was also found that pre-service teachers tended to modify their perspectives more than they preserved them. Eight distinct patterns of (non-)change were observed in this process of change, which included conservation, clarification, consolidation, reframing, weakening, moderation, simplification, and disagreement. The interrelationship between these patterns was explained by a model of change. For the final research question, the participant teachers referred to a set of factors while explaining the changes and non-changes in their perspectives. These factors were contextual factors (a busier private life, financial difficulties, growing mature, and getting older) and professional experiences (awareness (which included awareness of student reality and awareness of classroom reality), critical incidents, challenges in practice, positive experiences, learning from other teachers, and change in status). On the other hand, the cited reasons for non-changes were consistency between theory and practice, worldview, experience as a student, personality, and experience as a teacher. The participants shifted from idealistic to more pragmatic perspectives in their approaches to teaching. This transition from an initially idealistic to a tempered, realistic stance was evident across various aspects of the teaching profession. In light of the findings, several implications were proposed for both the practical and theoretical aspects of teacher education and professional development, and recommendations for further studies were provided. It was concluded in the study that each of the participants has been through a unique and dynamic process of evolution in line with tenets of the constructivist approaches to learning. This study provided evidence as to the nature and outcomes of this dynamic and multifaceted process. Keywords: Perspectives; pre-service; in-service; multiple case-study; teacher development