RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
Teacher Professional Development as a Mechanism for Cultivating Competence and Professional Identity in Graduate Student Instructors’ Transition to Faculty Roles
Page: 433
In the past decade, teacher professional development has gained popularity as a tool for preparing graduate student instructors. Research demonstrates the immediate positive impacts of this training for both the undergraduate students the graduate students teach and the graduate students’ own professional teacher identity development. However, much less is known about its long-term impact. For this study, we interviewed eleven former graduate student instructors who participated in such a training program and now have a position in higher education with teaching responsibilities. We leverage Lankveld et al.’s (2016) framework of psychological processes and contextual factors for teacher identity development to explore their sense of competence as mathematics educators as they transition into their new higher education contexts. Findings suggest that a sense of connectedness to new peers and past training experiences supports productive comparison and reflective practice that promotes identity growth in new academic environments.