'Making us do the things we ought to do': Constructing Teacher Identity in Alberta Normal Schools

Through an exploration of the practices characterizing teacher training, this paper critiques the operation of institutional power within an historical setting. Utilizing a tripartite model integrating the ideas of Foucault and van Gennep, the impact of (inmate) separation, examinations and awards are investigated as specific technologies that served to produce a definable inmate identity, one infused with institutional values and norms. Inmate voice figures prominently, and serves to remind us that the dynamic of power is not characterized by certainty.