In recent decades, a clear strengthening of teacher identity research can be observed internationally (e.g. Clandinin and Conelly, 2000; Timostsuk and Ugaste, 2010; Morrison, 2013; Schultz and Ravitz, 2013; Calvo et al., 2014); in recent years, growing attention to the concept and interpretation of professional identity has also appeared in research into teachers' learning and development (Rapos et al., 2011; Vámos et al., 2016; Rapos et al. 2020; Tókos, 2023, 2024). The first and perhaps the most important step in the development of professional identity is teacher training (Wideen et al., 1998), researchers of the topic agree that the support of professional identity should form the basis of the entire teacher training program (Meijer et al., 2014). Our research focuses on how teachers and teacher candidates perceive their personal professional identity; what factors shape the organization of their professional identity; in the construction of their identity, what functions do they attribute to the teacher training program, the context, and the elements of the support?

In the context of teachers' professional development, the role of trainers is coming to the fore, supporting their professional development and their becoming a community (Dengerink et al., 2015). This is also against the background of a European-wide phenomenon of trying to compensate for the shortage of teachers by providing accelerated, short and school-based training, and increasingly identifying teachers working in schools as trainers. This creates a new expectation for school-based teacher educators, as they have to interpret their roles and (re)position themselves in the continuum of constant boundary crossing (at the school-university boundary), which also implies identity transformation work, in a sense they also 'become experts to novices' (Kaasila et al, 2023). The focus of our research is on how partner school teachers' identities are shaped during their entry and participation in teacher education.

In recent years, there have been significant changes in the conceptual and research system of the professional development and learning of teachers and teacher candidates, as well as the support of the process. Professional development is not thought of as a linear change, but rather as a complex, dynamic system that assumes many different paths, in which training is only one element, but one with a special role (Darling Hammond & Richardson, 2009; Rapos et al., 2020). Professional development is interpreted as a learning and identity construction process (Boylan, 2017; Garner & Kaplan, 2018; Rapos et al., 2020); emphasize that the primary goal of the training is to establish and support continuous professional development and identity formation based on individual responsibility and integrated into school processes (Rapos et al., 2015). But what concrete methods can help the joint support of the learning and identity construction of the teacher candidates embedded in school and workplace learning processes, in which the environment, the interpretations, thoughts, and emotions of the actors can also appear prominently? We are looking for answers to these questions during the research of the topic.

Several researches show that a significant number of students at risk of dropping out come close to dropping out due to school-level and teacher-related factors (Juhász és Mihályi, 2015; Fehérvári, 2015). There is a good chance that something could be done to keep them at school level, with the tools used by teachers and the learning environment they create. The use of the word "learning environment" draws attention to the fact that the emphasis is shifted from teaching to learning, that is, during a research, the support of student learning, the teacher's learning support activities, and the interaction of the elements of the learning environment must be understood. In addition, learning can take place not only in a school learning environment, the student has a school, extracurricular, home, natural learning environment; their separation, the fragmentation of relationships impairs the effectiveness of learning. In the case of students at risk of dropping out, these are even more important. By researching the topic, we undertake to describe and learn about the characteristics of the learning support environment, and to create a diagnostic and development tool from a preventive point of view.