The Process of Becoming: Professionalization during Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE).

This article examines professionalization in Second Language Teacher Education (SLTE) through a sociocognitive lens, focusing on how SLTE students develop as members of professional communities of practice (CoP) via learning and socialization processes termed progressive alignment and affiliation. Drawing on data from course materials and interviews with 13 SLTE students, the study finds that professionalization is an adaptive, ongoing process influenced by students' prior experiences, real and imagined teaching contexts, and local school environments, rather than a unidirectional indoctrination. The research highlights that students actively negotiate and integrate new knowledge, identities, norms, and values, sometimes exhibiting misalignment that nonetheless reflects engagement and growth within the profession. Ultimately, professionalization in SLTE is portrayed as a dynamic, lifelong trajectory shaped by evolving pedagogical, cultural, and social demands within diverse teaching contexts.