Managing support for newly qualified teachers in primary schools

This article considers some of the management issues involved in effective induction, drawing on data collected during evaluation of a project concerned with the induction of NQTs in primary schools.     

Induction of newly qualified teachers in New Zealand

In this research, commissioned by the New Zealand Teachers Council, the quality of induction of provisionally registered teachers (PRT) (newly qualified) was examined utilising qualitative ‘success case studies’ within early childhood, primary, secondary, and indigenous Māori medium settings. The establishment of criteria for effective induction (from the literature and previous research) guided the identification of 20 ‘success’ sites across the sectors. In-depth data collection of each case was conducted via focus groups, one-to-one interviews and documentary analysis. The findings of the research highlighted exemplary induction practices across the sectors, with the most important associated with PRTs having access to a community, or ‘family’, of support during their induction. An interesting finding, which contrasted with previous research, was that PRTs in the secondary sector had levels of satisfaction with their role that were as high as those in other sectors. The key limitation to effectiveness was linked to lack of time for discussions and observations of the PRT's practice.     

Settler grammars and the Australian professional standards for teachers

In 2011, the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership introduced new Professional Standards for Teachers, which require that graduate teachers possess knowledge and understanding of Indigenous students and cultures. The authors conducted interviews with 12 non-Indigenous teacher educators at one Australian university in order to understand how these Standards are interpreted and implemented. We adopt Calderon’s framework of settler grammars to interpret the dialectic of presence and absence that teacher educators in our study describe. Extending this frame to an analysis of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, we find that settler grammars function to simultaneously erase Indigenous claims to sovereignty and epistemological equality, whilst promoting a representation of Indigenous people that asserts the primacy of the settler colonial state.     

Choosing teachers: Exploring agency and structure in the distribution of newly qualified teachers

This paper theorises aspects of the distribution of newly qualified teachers in England, which is not arbitrary but patterned with differential effects upon socially distanced learners. As part of a larger project exploring the sociological strategies and stratification whereby teachers choose, and are chosen, for their first teaching post, I consider here the stories of Susan and Ben. These two newly qualified teachers of mathematics both accepted posts in schools while on initial teacher education courses but quickly relocated to increase the harmony between their teaching dispositions (habitus) and the type of school (habitat) in which they were to be working. Bourdieu's sociological tools are mobilised to theorise aspects of teacher distribution and the potential inequity resulting from the aggregation of such strategies and ‘corrections’.     

Induction: the experiences of newly qualified science teachers

This research focused on the induction year entitlement in England, with particular reference to timetable, formal assessment meetings, lesson observations and provision of an induction tutor and a named external contact. Pooled data from a postal questionnaire, with a 60% response rate (n = 92), were analysed from three consecutive cohorts of newly qualified science teachers (2003–2006). Focus group interviews and telephone interviews with 20 newly qualified teachers and 20 induction tutors were also used to collect data. The majority of the sample of newly qualified teachers received the main entitlements in their induction year but serious concerns persist for a significant minority. Implications for the induction of all newly qualified teachers, irrespective of their subject area, school and policy‐makers, are identified.     

Improving the learning of newly qualified teachers in the induction year

Newly qualified teachers of mathematics and science are a precious resource and it important that they are provided with appropriate support and challenge during their first year in post. This study examines the developing thinking and practice of a group of such teachers in England and the influence of their mentors within the workplace context of the school. We argue that thinking and practice is restricted by the concern to ‘fit in’, by the belief that behaviour management should be addressed before teaching can be developed and by a lack of attention to the development of pedagogical thinking. We conclude that there is a need to change the beliefs and practices of induction mentors and develop their skills in discussing pedagogical ideas. This is most likely to be achieved within a school‐wide culture of continuing professional learning.     

The importance of networks for newly qualified teachers in upper secondary education

Background and purpose:?The interest in raising the competence of teachers through networks and network activities is increasing. This article is based on the voices of four newly qualified teachers who give us the opportunity to listen to experiences in authentic surroundings. The purpose of this article is to gain better insight into the type of networks newly qualified teachers maintain, develop and create to develop as teachers. The research question is: What is the importance of networks for the professional development of newly qualified teachers in upper secondary education?

Main argument:?The main finding of the article, based on in-depth interviews with four newly qualified teachers, is that being acknowledged by colleagues is decisive for professional development. Furthermore, the school’s programme of meetings to some extent contributes to developing the respect and trust of the newly qualified teachers, who also need to find time and opportunities for reflection in personal networks outside school. The relational and emotional aspects of the teaching profession produce a need for guidance processes where the ethical dilemmas of the profession can be raised. When these dilemmas arise, the newly qualified teachers actively look outside school to grasp opportunities for professional development. The teachers appear to be very active in their own professional development, and they have ambitions to develop as teachers for the benefit of the pupils and the school.

Conclusions:?Systematic guidance is highlighted as fundamental for these teachers’ learning.     

Workplace support for newly qualified doctors and secondary school teachers: A comparative analysis

Doctors and teachers in their first year of practice face steep learning curves and increased stress, which can induce poor mental health, burnout and attrition. Informal workplace support from colleagues can help smooth transitions and aid professional development. A three-phase comparative research design was used to explore who provides informal workplace support to early-career professionals, types of support and influencing factors. Phase 1 was a systematic secondary analysis of interviews and audio diaries from 52 UK doctors in their first year of foundation training (F1s). Phase 2 involved new narrative interviews with 11 newly qualified teachers (NQTs) from English secondary schools. Phase 3 was a comparative analysis to produce a model of workplace support. Given barriers to accessing senior doctors, F1 doctors drew upon nurses, pharmacists, microbiologists, peers/near-peers and allied healthcare professionals for support. NQTs gained support from allocated mentors and seniors within subject departments, as well as teaching assistants, allied support staff and wider professional networks. Support types for both professions included information and advice on practice, orientation to local settings, collaborative development activities, observation and feedback, and socioemotional support. Influencing factors included variable departmental cultures, limited opportunities for informal contact, sometimes negative inter-group perceptions and the agentic responses of novices. The resulting workplace model of support could underpin future research and evaluations of support in similar ‘hot-action’ environments. In medicine and teaching, greater utilisation of near-peers and allied staff, improved role understanding and communication, increased informal contact and sharing successful strategies across professions could enhance supportive relationships.     

Establishing respectful educative relationships: a study of newly qualified teachers in Ireland

Interpersonal respect is a fundamental aspect of relating to others. This is especially true for teachers, as cultivating relationships is implicit in effective teaching. This three-year qualitative study examines a developing understanding of respect for pre-service teachers that progresses on to their first year’s teaching to examine the influential factors on that understanding. These teachers’ pupils were also asked to comment on their perceptions of respect. The findings indicate that interpersonal respect in an educative relationship is influenced by the level of autonomy afforded pupils and minimising the power differential between teachers and pupils.     

How newly qualified primary teachers develop: A case study in rural Eritrea

This paper reports on the professional development of a small group of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who began their careers in four rural schools in Eritrea. These teachers were monitored over a period of four years from 2001 to 2004. Their development as primary practitioners was recorded by videoing and observing their classes and by interviews and informal discussions held over the period. The ways in which they developed and the factors involved in this development are analysed and discussed.It is hoped that this research offers an insight into the challenges faced by newly qualified teachers in small rural communities, often very much dependant on their own resources and those of the local community. This indicates ways in which the current programme and on-going in-service provision may be targeted in future. An important point is made that in spite of the unusual circumstances of education in Eritrea this research provides insights that are relevant to other sociocultural contexts.     

Planning for the supply and demand of qualified teachers in Uganda

Uganda, like other African countries, opted after independence for a quantitative expansion of formal education, to speed its modernization and development. The increase in school enrolment has been losing the battle against population growth, and accurate planning to meet the demand for trained school teachers is essential if universal primary education is to be achieved. This study examines the current output of teachers from training establishments, the actual supply of qualified teachers, and the numbers required to meet norms of class size. It is found that there are shortfalls in the numbers of trained staff available at all levels of the formal system, the primary sector being the worst affected: only 33,493 trained teachers are employed while 62,634 are needed. The deficit is met by the use of untrained staff and a rise in the pupil-teacher ratio. Output from teacher training colleges is insufficient, students who enrol do not complete their courses, and there is a wasteful level of attrition after qualification. The diversification of courses, the introduction of crash training courses, and the professionalization of teaching are suggested as partial solutions.     

Target setting in the induction of newly qualified teachers: emerging colleagueship in a context of performance management

This paper draws upon a series of linked projects that focused on the induction of new teachers. Newly qualified teachers' (NQTs) experiences of induction are drawn upon to explore the potential implications of new regulations that are currently being implemented in England. It is argued that policy, as it has developed since the mid-1990s, has increasingly emphasized a discourse of 'performance management'. Attention is also drawn, however, to the way that NQTs and their mentors may be influenced by a discourse that emphasizes staff membership, 'belonging' and NQTs' capacity to contribute to development of their schools. It is suggested that the new regulations may be only one strand of induction that is woven into a complex pattern of relationships in which NQTs must locate themselves.     

Individualism to Collaboration: The significance of teacher culture to the induction of newly qualified teachers

This paper draws upon qualitative data collected as part of a study of the implementation of new arrangements for the monitoring and support of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in England (DfEE, 1999). Interview data from NQTs, induction tutors and head-teachers are used to demonstrate the significance of teacher culture to the experience of teachers during their first year in post. We locate the cultures within which NQTs work on a continuum that we characterise as moving from highly individualised, through structural collaboration to spontaneously collaborative. The new arrangements appear to have made the greatest impact on schools where the culture is one of structural collaboration. Individualised cultures are problematic for NQTs, while spontaneously collaborative cultures provide a highly supportive and developmental environment independently of the mandatory arrangements.     

The newly qualified teacher in the working community

Focusing on the working community, this article concentrates on the newly qualified foreign language teachers’ (NQT) experiences and on factors that promoted or prevented the development of professional expertise at the outset of their working life. It draws on a qualitative longitudinal study conducted at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, between 2003 and 2008. All the study participants were female and they were about 24 years old at the time. The data consisted of the NQTs’ essays and journal entries which they wrote on events that had a significant impact on their teaching during their first three to four years of work. The study suggests that by listening to the NQTs’ voices in the working community, it is possible to increase our understanding of the conditions of the newcomers’ professional development.     

Instruction in secondary cotaught classrooms: Three elements,two teachers,one unique approach

Coteaching is a widely used service delivery model for students with disabilities who access the general curriculum. Instruction in cotaught classrooms is meant to be qualitatively different from instruction in solo-taught classrooms; however, this is not always the case. In this article, we describe a framework for thinking about and planning instruction in cotaught classrooms that includes evidence-based practices from special education and specially designed instruction. Examples are included and discussed.     

Becoming a teacher of early reading: charting the knowledge and practices of pre‐service and newly qualified teachers

Education policy in England requires student teachers to demonstrate effective teaching of early reading, including systematic synthetic phonics, in order to qualify to teach. Although there is a range of literature about initial teacher education, little is documented about how pre‐service or ‘student' teachers develop specific knowledge and practices for teaching early reading and how they apply these in their first term as newly qualified teachers (NQTs). This research used a primarily qualitative longitudinal, collective case study design involving seven lower primary (3–7 years) postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) students enrolled at one university in the East Midlands of England. Semi‐structured interviews, classroom observations and documentary analysis with the students and their teacher mentors were used to gather data from entry onto the course to the participants' first term as qualified teachers. A thematic analysis was applied in conjunction with deductive observation codes developed from a previous study. Findings indicate a broad continuum of progression in student and newly qualified teacher knowledge and practice for teaching early reading which could be used to inform university organisation, mentoring and school participation. They highlight the influence of school cultures on the experiences of student and pre‐service teachers.     

The quest for qualified teachers in developing countries of South and Southeast Asia

This paper analyzes what developing South and Southeast Asian countries are doing in order to improve the qualifications of their teachers. The first section examines the perceived inadequacies in the pre-service and in-service teacher training programs in these countries. The second section discusses how these countries have confronted these inadequacies:-by expanding in-service teacher training programs,-by improving pre-service teacher training programs, and-by trying to make teaching a more self-fulfilling profession.In the conclusion, some projections are made about future directions these countries may take to improve further the quality of their teaching personnel.

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Zusammenfassung In diesem Artikel wird analysiert, was süd- und südostasiatische Entwicklungsländer tun, um die Qualifikationen ihrer Lehrer zu verbessern. Im ersten Abschnitt werden erkannte Unzulänglichkeiten in den Lehrerausbildungs- und Lehrerfortbildungsprogrammen untersucht. Im zweiten Abschnitt wird diskutiert, wie diese Länder den Unzulänglichkeiten entgegengetreten sind:-durch Ausweitung der Lehrerfortbildungsprogramme,-durch Verbesserung der Lehrerausbildungsprogramme und-indem versucht wird, Lehren zu einem befriedigenden Beruf zu machen.Zum Schluß werden einige Wege vorgeschlagen, die diese Länder in Zukunft gehen könnten, um die weitere Qualität ihres Lehrpersonals zu verbessern.

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Résumé Le présent article analyse les actions entreprises par des pays en développement de l'Asie du Sud et du Sudest afin d'améliorer les qualifications de leurs enseignants. La première partie examine les inadéquations relevées dans les programmes de formation initiale et en cours d'emploi des enseignants de ces pays. La deuxième partie analyse la manire dont ces pays ont fait face à ces carences:-en développant leurs programmes de formation des enseignants en exercice,-en améliorant les programmes de formation initiale des maîtres, et-en essayant de rendre la profession d'enseignant plus épanouissante.Pour conclure, quelques projections sont faites au sujet des futures directions que ces pays peuvent suivre pour améliorer davantage la qualité de leur personnel enseignant.

     

Issues and trends in science education: the shortage of qualified science teachers

Science teachers are leaving their profession. They feel overwhelmed by the expectations and scope of the job and isolated and unsupported in their classrooms. They also feel that expectations are unclear. The statistics on turnover among new teachers are startling. School administrators, science teacher leaders, and teacher education programs can do much more to promote better preparation of science teachers and to recruit new teachers into science teaching. In particular, the author focuses on relevant research and on recommendations for educational researchers and policymakers interested in improving and retaining qualified science teachers in classrooms.     

Catholic women teachers and Scottish education in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Catholics remained outside the Scottish educational system until 1918. The Church preferred mixed‐sex infant schools and either single‐sex schools or separate departments. In small towns and rural areas the schools were mixed‐sex. Women were considered naturally best suited to teach infants and girls, but even in boys' schools, female assistants were increasingly employed in the later Victorian period. Female religious orders were crucial for developing Catholic education in larger urban centres, but by 1918 only 4% of Scotland's Catholic schoolteachers were members of religious orders. Lay women quickly became numerically predominant in elementary education and were key to implementing the Church's strategy to enhance the respectability of a largely immigrant community through separate schools. It is the contention here that the part played by lay women in Catholic schooling needs to be considered to reflect more widely on the place of women in Scottish education.