PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY, REFLEXIVITY, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS' ORIENTATIONS TOWARDS INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Abstract

Inclusive education in Pakistan is still contested within initial teacher education (ITE), whereby future teachers face serious conflicts between policy requirements and the actual conditions of various classes. This phenomenological research examined how prospective educators in Punjab, Pakistan, construct their professional identities, practice reflexivity, and develop orientations towards social justice as it relates to inclusive education. The research was conducted with 22 prospective teachers who had studied ITE programmes in Punjab using the three-interview method of the phenomenological approach. The data were obtained by means of three successive interviews with the participants, each lasting about 90 minutes, centred on life history, current lived experience, and reflection on meaning. TurboScribe AI helped with the transcription, which was later verified and corrected by the research team. The AI-assisted coding in NVivo helped organise and analyse the data for developing themes. The analysis identified four themes, including the burden of biographical experience, moral dissonance and professional becoming, reflexivity as a constrained and contested practice, and social justice as desire and obstacle. The results show that orientations of prospective teachers towards inclusive education are mediated by personal experiences, cultural norms, and the institutional conditions of Punjab ITE programmes, and the discrepancies between ideals and inclusive practice. The study can guide the ITE curriculum change, teacher education, and inclusive education policy in Punjab.