A Case Study on Formation Process of Music Teacher Identity of First-time Elementary Teachers

The purpose of this study is to explore the process of forming music teacher identity of the first-time elementary school teachers. It is necessary to understand the aspects of the identity formation process of first-time elementary school teachers in Korea because music teacher identity formed during the first-time teacher period greatly affects the way teachers teach music in the future. A case study was conducted on 5 elementary school teachers with less than five years of experience. The researcher collected data through interviews 2-3 times per research participant, and analyzed them by the case study method of Steak to derive the subject. As a result of the study, the process of forming the identity of first-time teachers were presented as four themes: 'relying on the personal music experience and limited pre-service teacher education', ’lack of knowledge of the music subject and difficulties due to environmental factors’, 'lack of active interaction opportunities for music subjects', 'efforts to balance student-centered and all-around teacher'. Based on the research results, implications for the field of teacher education were suggested.