Recycled teacher memories and upcycled teacher memories: categorising pre-service teachers’ recollections of past teachers

The ‘learner biography’ is commonly used in teacher education to assist in the unpacking of schooling experiences. Although past teachers are often central in these memories, the educational benefit of these recollections for the student teacher’s development is often dependent on how these experiences are recalled as they form the basis of further analysis and interrogation. Through an analysis of written learner diaries by pre-service teachers in Spain, this study aimed to explore how past teachers were recalled from a psychological, cognitive perspective. The study found that teachers were presented in a polarised manner as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. However, more significantly, analysis of the student teachers’ descriptions indicate that some recollections were framed through subsequent theoretical perspectives acquired as part of their teacher education programme while others were not. A theoretical model to understand pre-service teachers’ memories of teachers is outlined and its implications for teacher education are discussed.