The Trainee now standing: notions of individual “otherness” in a performative place.

This paper draws on findings from a longitudinal study of 101 part-time final year trainee teachers attending a Lifelong Learning Sector (LLS) teacher education course at a new university in the North of England. Provoked by an interest in trainee teachers’ notions of what is educationally desirable in their subject specialisms and contexts, the study spanned the 2010-11 academic year and works within deconstructive paradigms to further examine participants’ declared philosophies and to promote new directions in educational practice in the sector. In doing so, through analysis of the place and use of language in both trainee teachers’/respondents’ and the teacher educator’s/researcher’s reflective and reflexive spaces, this paper considers the twin notions of sameness and otherness in respondents’ dispositions and argues for critical and careful consideration of how language is used and interpreted by teacher educators as they seek to develop professional knowledge and practice in the sector.