The purpose of this study is to investigate the reflections of the problematic of “human nature” in the professional identity of pre-service teachers within the context of the philosophy of education course. This study is a basic interpretative qualitative study. The data of the study were collected from pre-service teachers taking the philosophy of education course in the Education Faculty of a state university in the fall term of the 2020-2021 academic year. The pre-service teachers were presented with descriptive information at the definition level including three approaches regarding human nature, and in light of the obtained data, the reflections of their views of the problematic of human nature in their professional identities were subjected to a philosophical questioning. Participants were determined by following the “criterion sampling” strategy, one of the purposeful sampling methods. A total of 125 pre-service teachers participated in the study. In the analysis of the collected data, content analysis was used. Inductive and deductive analyses were used together in accordance with the dynamics of the questions in the questionnaire. The findings of the study showed that the most dominant approach adopted by the pre-service teachers towards human nature is “tabula rasa”. Moreover, it was found that the approach adopted by a pre-service teacher towards human nature would have reflections in his/her professional practices in terms of the meaning of teaching and the role of teacher. In this connection, the most comprehensive result obtained is that pre-service teachers’ approaches regarding human nature is expected to determine the characteristics of their instructional processing.

Philosophy of education, human nature, professional Identity, philosophical analysis