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

Authors

Afrianto Daud, Universitas Riau, IndonesiaFollow
Minh Hue Nguyen, Monash UniversityFollow
Raqib Chowdhury, Monash University, AustraliaFollow

Abstract

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.

Keywords

thematic analysis, pre-service teachers, teacher education program, teaching practicum, identity tensions, emotional struggles, teachers’ agency

Author Bio(s)

Afrianto Daud is an associate professor in English Teacher Education at the Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Universitas Riau. He did his bachelor’s degree in English Education at Universitas Negeri Padang. Then, he got his master’s degree in TESOL International and Ph.D. in Teacher Education from Monash University, Australia. His research interests range from Teacher Education, English Language Teaching, and ICT in ELT to curriculum implementation. Please direct correspondence to afrianto.a@lecturer.unri.ac.id

Minh Hue Nguyen is a Senior Lecturer in EAL/TESOL Teacher Education in the School of Curriculum, Teaching and Inclusive Education, Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia. Her research, supervision, teaching and engagement are in the areas of teachers' professional learning, curriculum, and pedagogy in TESOL and EAL. Minh Hue is interested in creating productive learning experiences for preservice teachers to transition effectively into the teaching profession and for in-service teachers to develop professionally. She is passionate about finding ways for institutions to support teachers and teacher educators in this learning.

Raqib Chowdhury taught English literature at the University of Dhaka (Bangladesh) from 1997 to 2004 as Lecturer and Assistant Professor and then joined the Monash Faculty of Education upon completing his Ph.D. here in 2008. He holds a Bachelor's degree in English, a Master's degree in English Literature and a Master's degree in Education (TESOL). In his doctoral thesis he investigated how vested interest groups - such as universities and governments - construct and understand the term “international” to establish the so-called “needs” of international students in Australia and how such understanding is promoted for largely implicit commercial and hegemonic reasons. Raqib has been invited as Keynote Speaker and Visiting Scholar at several international conferences and universities, and he delivers seminars and workshops overseas for graduate research students on a regular basis.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all pre-service teachers who have voluntarily participated in this study.

Publication Date

6-30-2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2025.7226

Recommended APA Citation

Daud, A., Nguyen, M. H., & Chowdhury, R. (2025). Navigating identity tensions and emotional struggles: Indonesian pre-service teachers in the teaching practicum. The Qualitative Report, 30(6), 3762-3783. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2025.7226

ORCID ID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9660-5001

ResearcherID

AAH-1923-2020