The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of how returning adult learners, who were enrolled in a teacher preparation program within a career college, understood and made sense of their experiences in the program. This qualitative study centered on the experiences and stories of six adult learners who were student teaching while attending a career college. The developmental nature of teacher identity was a central finding of this research. There were four major themes that highlighted the experiences of these adult learner pre-service teachers, which included: (1) disorienting experiences, (2) the importance of remembered individuals, (3) the influence of cooperating teachers (CTs), and (4) an emerging sense of identity as a teacher. The findings suggest that adult learners perceived their experiences within the teacher education program as ones in which they developed a preliminary sense of identity as a teacher. The participants' construction and reconstruction of their identities were guided by their conceptualizations of what it meant to be a teacher and what it meant to teach. The findings of this study continue the discussion as to how adult learners make sense of their teacher preparation experiences.
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