‘Freedom to Learn-Independent Campus’and Pre-Service Teachers Proffesional Identity Development

Abstract: In response to the implementation of Merdeka Belajar (Freedom to Learn) Kampus Merdeka (Independent Campus), this study aimed to investigate the perceived impacts of Freedom to Learn-Independent Campus (henceforth FLIC), on pre-service Teacher Professional Identity (henceforth, TPI) development. A qualitative research method by using a thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Homogeneous online focus group discussions with three different groups of participants joining FLIC program were conducted to collect the data. There were twelve pre-service teachers who joined FLIC program involved in this study. The findings were elaborated under three themes. The themes were becoming and being didactical teachers, becoming and being pedagogical teachers, and the affordances of FLIC program for TPI development. The findings of this study offered some contributions, implications, and suggestions for further studies.

process of phenomenological self-development influenced by experiences in the present and past (Olsen & Buchanan, 2017). In this study, operationally, TPI is defined as a teacher's phenomenological self-development in association with his/her teaching profession.
TPI development is an ongoing process consisting of three phases, i.e., before pre-service, pre-service, and in-service (Olsen & Buchanan, 2017). The first phase refers to the events that happened before pre-service education and the reasons for choosing teaching as a profession. The second phase refers to teacher education before a professional teaching profession and the last stage refers to a teacher's professional career. Among the three phases, the second phase is critical and the most effective phase for TPI development as various teacher education programs happen in this phase and facilitate the development of pre-service TPI (Izadinia, 2013). Similarly, teacher education programs occur in different communities of practice wherein pre-service teachers might develop and negotiate their TPI (Meihami, 2021). In this study, the communities of practice refer to the three forms of learning activities in FLIC program, i.e., the village development program, internship, and teaching assistantship. The three forms of learning activities in FLIC program were expected to give impacts on pre-service TPI development.
In a similar manner, in recent years, a number of studies on FLIC program in higher education in Indonesia have been conducted (Fuadi & Aswita, 2021;Haris, Elly, & Tjahjaningsih, 2021;Krishnapatria, 2021;Purwanti, 2021;Siregar, Sahirah, & Harahap, 2020;Sudaryanto, Widayati, & Amalia, 2020;Widiyono et al., 2021;Yusuf, 2021). Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, there seem to be no previous studies investigating the perceived impacts of FLIC on pre-service TPI development. Based on the rationales, this study seeks to answer a research question, how the pre-service teachers perceived the impacts of FLIC on their professional identity development. In the light of this, this study investigated the perceived impacts of FLIC on pre-service TPI development.

METHOD
This section discussed the research design used in this study, research participants and settings, ethical considerations, and data collection and analysis.

Research Design
This study used a qualitative method to answer the research question by using a Thematic Analysis (TA) of the data collected from online FGDs. This method was chosen as it searched for rich data from a phenomenon that happened within specific social settings, such as schools and classrooms (Creswell, 2012;Phakiti & Paltridge, 2018). Moreover, complex details, such as feelings, emotions, processes, thoughts, and beliefs towards a phenomenon could be revealed through this method (Gray, 2014). In this study, a qualitative method was used to investigate their perceptions of the impacts of FLIC on pre-service TPI development. In addition, the interpretivism paradigm was used as the theoretical perspective in conducting this study. Interpretivism believes that the aspects of the social world are unique, individual, and qualitative (Creswell, 2007;Gray, 2014). It focuses on uniqueness and individualized experiences that cannot be generalized. Consequently, this study sought individual perspectives of and how the participants constructed meaning on the impacts of FLIC on pre-service TPI development.

Research Participants and Settings
Conducted in a private English language education department in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, this study involved twelve pre-service English teachers joining FLIC conducted by the department or the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. The twelve participants are students of the English language education department at a private university in Yogyakarta, Indonesia joining FLIC program. At the time of the data gathering, nine participants were in the fifth semester and three participants were in the seventh semester of the 2021/2022 academic year. The criteria in selecting the participants were participants' willingness to participate in the study (Gray, 2014;Phakiti & Paltridge, 2018), time availability to participate in a Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and the provision of rich data about the perceived impacts of FLIC on their professional identity development.
Of the twelve participants, five in the fifth semester were joining FLIC village development program, four in the seventh semester were joining the internship in a school or English language training center, and three in the seventh semester were joining a teaching assistantship program. FLIC village development and internship were two programs funded, designed, and conducted by the department, whilst the teaching assistantship program was funded, conducted, and organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology. These participants who joined FLIC program had passed the fundamental teaching subjects, i.e., Language Teaching Methodologies and Learning Psychology in the fourth semester. Therefore, the pre-service teacher participants had been introduced to the foundations of teaching and learning.
The three forms of learning activities in FLIC program were all conducted in Yogyakarta in five different places. FLIC village development program was carried out in Girimulyo village, Kulon Progo Regency, Yogyakarta. Having developed partnership with formal schools and language training centers, one of the four participants of FLIC internship was doing the internship in a prominent language training center in Yogyakarta and the rest of them was doing the internship in a private senior high school in Yogyakarta. Organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, three participants of FLIC teaching assistantship were assigned to a state junior high school in Yogyakarta.

Ethical Considerations
In this study, ethical considerations were critical and taken into account. At the beginning of the FGD session, the researchers informed the purpose and nature of the study to make the participants aware of the topic to decide their voluntary participation (Creswell, 2012) as well as the potential risks and benefits of participating in this study in order to maintain the voluntary and intended participation (Gray, 2014). Additionally, the participants were informed that their identities would remain undisclosed to protect their confidentiality during data presentation and research publication (Gray, 2014;Phakiti & Paltridge, 2018). If they agreed and were willing to participate, they could state their agreement orally at the beginning of the FGD session. However, if they did not agree and were not willing to participate, they could leave the FGD session.

Data Collection and Analysis
Online data collection method by using FGDs with the participants joining each FLIC program was used in this study. Due to the Covid-19 global pandemic and physical distancing regulations for qualitative data collection (Lobe, Morgan, & Hoffman, 2020), the FGDs were conducted online by using a licensed video conferencing platform To that end, the participants who had all finished FLIC program that they joined for one semester were invited to an online FGD. The online FGDs were conducted for about 1.5 to 2 hours in order to develop in-depth and interactive discussions. Each online FGD consisted of 4-5 participants to ensure that they would feel comfortable to share their experiences, opinions, feelings, thoughts, and actions (Onwuegbuzie, Dickinson, Leech, & Zoran, 2009). Three online FGDs were conducted for three different FLIC programs, i.e., FLIC village development, internship, and teaching assistantship programs. Homogeneous online FGDs were carried out to ensure the participants have a comfortable discussion atmosphere to encourage them to generate shared experiences and respond to each other's opinions (Galloway, 2019). During each online FGD, the participants were to share how their TPI developed during their participation in FLIC programs.
The data resulting from the online FGDs were transcribed by using word document software and coded. A TA method was used to perform a set of data analysis from the verbatims. This study used the TA method to analyze the quantitative data because the method helps teacher-researchers and educational researchers analyze qualitative data collected from natural classroom settings (Xu & Zammit, 2020). The data were coded. Then, themes across the data set and related to the research question were generated (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The themes were generated based on shared topics about the research question (Braun & Clarke, 2019).
To validate the accuracy of the findings, this study used member checking. We asked the participants to check the accuracy of the findings and report. The participants were asked if the themes were accurate, the description was complete, and the interpretations of the themes were representative (Creswell, 2012). If there were some inaccurate themes and or interpretations or incomplete parts of the descriptions, the participants reported and discussed this with the researchers.

FINDINGS
The online FGDs were conducted three times for three different groups of FLIC learning activities. The online FGD with FLIC village development program involved five pre-service teachers: Daya (Male/M), Indra (M), Krisna (M), Bayu (M), and Senja (Female/F). Four pre-service teachers, Aruna (F), Chandara (F), Dayana (F), and Eleena (F), were involved in the online FGD for the internship. The online FGD for the teaching assistantship program was conducted by involving three participants: Arshavi (M), Vita (F), and Rona (F). All names were pseudonyms. To answer the research question, the transcripts were identified and coded based on the concepts. The relationships between codes were analyzed and generated into themes. The emerging themes generated from the research question can be seen in table 1. Becoming and being didactical teachers Becoming and being pedagogical teachers The affordances of FLIC program for TPI development 293 Jurnal Pendidikan, Vol. 7, No. 8, Bln Agustus, Thn 2022, Hal 290-298 Becoming and Being Didactical Teachers The participants joining FLIC village development program and the internship asserted that before joining the program, they considered themselves as teachers who transferred knowledge to the students, made sure the students understood the subject matter, and motivated the students in the learning process. There was a change in the way they saw themselves after placement in each program. They perceived themselves as didactical teachers who tended to focus on orchestrating teaching and learning activities in class. Bayu, one of the participants of FLIC village development program, said: When I taught in a service-learning program with my lecturer, it was my second year of college, I always repeated explaining the materials to the students until they understood. I never used games to motivate or relieve the tension in the classroom. I focused on making the students understand what I teach. [Bayu/M] After he joined FLIC village development program and experienced teaching English for community-based practitioners, he realized that, as a teacher, he should have had full control of the class to facilitate the learning process.
I taught community-based practitioners in Girimulyo. The participants are all older than me. They were not very engaged in speaking activities. Maybe, it was because I was too serious, and I did not know the strategy. As time went by, I realized that in teaching community-based practitioners, I should have positioned myself as an orchestrator who orchestrated the class activities. I guided all the activities in the class. The results, the students could practice using the expressions and they were more engaged. [Bayu/M] Highlighting Bayu's view, Eleena believed that being an ideal teacher was becoming a mentor and being able to make the students understand the subject matter. She said:

Before joining the internship, I saw myself as a mentor who guided students not only in academic matters, but also in non-academic matters. By being a mentor, I became their friends, and they could easily follow my explanations and instructions. [Eleena/F]
After joining the internship, Eleena asserted the need to manage her classes by not only explaining the subject matters, but also providing guided practice and assigning tasks. She highlighted that a teacher-centered class was considered as the most effective for her case.

Based on my experiences teaching in the school where I was doing my internship, becoming a mentor was not enough as I needed to think of the most appropriate approach for my class.
A teacher-centered approach was considered as the most suitable approach in handling the students. The teachers explained the subject matters, provided guided practice, and assigned the tasks for the students. A student-centered approach would not work there. During this online learning, if a student-centered approach had been implemented, I believe that students would have not learned anything from school. [Eleena/F]

Becoming and Being Pedagogical Teachers
Most pre-service teachers mentioned that before they joined FLIC program, they focused on transferring knowledge to the students to make them understand the subject matter and clarifying students' misconceptions on the subject matter. Then, after they joined FLIC program, they perceived themselves as pedagogical teachers who used communication skills to decide the appropriate teaching techniques for their students. Vita and Rona who joined the teaching assistantship program, for example, stated that before they joined FLIC program, they perceived that the most important teaching element for teachers was subject matter knowledge. They shared an agreement that being a qualified teacher should master the subject matter, be able to transfer the knowledge, and have an awareness of students' misconceptions. Vita stated: … I had a private student who was studying in a senior high school. Before I joined the teaching assistantship in FLIC, I did not know how to use an appropriate teaching technique. So, I taught her grammar all the time, every meeting. I explained the grammar until she understood, and I repeated it over and over again to make sure she understood. [Vita/F] After joining FLIC program, she stated that by having good communication with her students, she could find out the challenges that the students had during the learning process and provide an alternative solution.
We had a Reading Club every Thursday. At the beginning, there were many students, but almost the semester, there were only 2 or three students left. I was wondering why. I asked them why they did not come to the Reading Club. Some said they had difficulties with the internet connection. Others said they had problems with the scheduling. Then, I tried to find the best method for Reading Club. I remembered my lecturers gave us recorded videos, so the students can understand the explanations and instructions asynchronously. Then, I recorded myself so the students might be able to watch my video when they could not join the synchronous session. Communication with students is very important, it helps to find the solution in teaching. [Vita/F] findings that TPI development was not only based on experiences but also how teachers reflected on their experiences (Izadinia, 2013;Olsen & Buchanan, 2017). As for Krisna, despite his fear of teaching young learners, he managed to overcome his fear by seeking advice from the school and teachers about how to teach young learners. From this finding, TPI development is influenced by some factors, i.e., contextual environment, cognitive knowledge, and relationship with colleagues, parents, and students (Izadinia, 2013).
Based on the findings, this study offers some contributions and implications. This study amplified the pre-service teachers' voices on the impacts of FLIC on their TPI development which had not been studied as much as it should have been. As educational researchers might greatly accentuate the focus of the research on the implementation of FLIC in higher education and its policy, the findings of this study might provide contributions to the literature on the impact of FLIC on preservice TPI development in higher education in Indonesia as, to the best of the researchers' knowledge, there seem to be no studies on the perceived impacts of FLIC on pre-service TPI development. This study also suggested some implications. The findings show how pre-service teachers perceived the development of their TPI through joining FLIC program. As TPI development is imperative for pre-service teachers to better prepare them before they enter the teaching profession, teacher education could encourage the students to join FLIC program wherein they would improve their pedagogical and teaching competencies.
This study has some limitations. This study was conducted at the end of the academic year 2021/2022 when FLIC program finished, it investigated the pre-service TPI development in six months before they had their placement until they finished the program. Longitudinal studies could be conducted to investigate how the pre-service TPI development changes over time from the beginning of the teacher education. The findings of this study cannot be generalized as future researchers might not have the access to the same participants and context of the study. However, transferability might be possible allowing future researchers to make connections between the constructs of the study and their contexts. Consequently, future studies could investigate FLIC program and TPI development in their own contexts.