Navigating Identity Tensions and Emotional Struggles: Indonesian Pre-service Teachers in the Teaching Practicum

Despite the critical role of teaching practicums in teacher education, little is known about how pre-service teachers navigate emotional tensions in Indonesia. In this study, we aim to explore the nature of tensions and emotional struggles pre-service teachers face and their coping mechanisms. Seven pre-service teachers from the English Education department at an Indonesian public university were purposefully selected. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews before the practicum and a focused group discussion after the program. Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were used to capture rich, in-depth accounts of participants’ experiences, while thematic analysis provided a structured approach to identifying patterns in the data. The findings showed that despite the pre-service teachers’ ideal expectations before the practicum, they experienced substantial tensions and emotional struggles in their interaction with members of the school community. The challenges include feelings of disrespect and resistance from the students, lack of supervision from their mentors, unfair treatment from other teachers, and workload burden from non-teaching activities. These findings illuminate the pressing need for systemic support structures to mitigate emotional challenges in teaching practicums, contributing to the global discourse on teacher education reform. Our findings contribute to understanding the lived experiences of pre-service teachers, offering insights to inform teacher education policy and practice in Indonesia and similar contexts.