Supporting and inhibiting the well‐being of early career secondary school teachers: Extending self‐determination theory

This paper reports an original examination of the well‐being of early career secondary school teachers in England, which extends the evidence bases relating to early career teachers’ working lives, teacher well‐being, self‐determination theory and performativity, respectively. Drawing on a secondary analysis of qualitative data generated for four separate empirical studies between 2005 and 2013, in a context in which teachers’ work was subject to unparalleled external regulation, the authors examine the extent to which the well‐being of early career teachers can be explained by self‐determination theory, which posits that well‐being is enhanced when innate psychological needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy are satisfied. The findings suggest that satisfaction of these three basic psychological needs is a necessary but not sufficient condition for optimising the well‐being of early career teachers, which is dependent upon the interaction of a wider range of individual, relational and micro‐, meso‐ and macro‐environmental factors. Amongst the recommendations for policy and practice, policymakers and school leaders are urged to uphold their duty of care to newly and recently qualified teachers by doing their utmost to create conditions for the optimisation of such teachers' well‐being. Several specific means of bringing this about are proposed, together with a checklist for those concerned to support the well‐being of early career teachers.     

Slipping through the cracks: teachers who miss out on early career support

This paper presents evidence from a nationally representative sample of early career teachers about those likely to miss out on formal support, and the employment conditions associated with this absence of support. It uses survey data from the Staff in Australia’s Schools Survey. Consistent with existing research, our results suggest a relationship between early career teachers with insecure employment and a lack of support. The findings suggest that, for early career teachers, being unsupported is associated with dissatisfaction with professional relationships and career opportunities; and that this dissatisfaction is associated with an intention to leave the profession.     

From LSA to teacher: the value of classroom experience in shaping a ‘teacher’ identity

Routes into teacher training have expanded in recent years, accompanied by a growing interest in schools ‘growing their own’ teachers from amongst support staff. However, little attention has been paid to their transition to the role of teacher. This article investigates influences on identity development and the extent to which personal values are reconciled with professional demands and socially constructed facets of educational practice. Participants were nine staff in one secondary school for pupils with moderate learning difficulties who had undertaken the transition from LSA (learning support assistant) to teacher. Qualitative data were obtained through an online survey and focus group discussion. Findings show that extensive opportunities to experiment with provisional and possible selves, immersion in educational discourse, classroom agency and staff collaboration engender a ‘teacher’ self-concept and positive motivations for LSA career development, and that self-esteem and self-efficacy are strengthened by how an individual’s values align with those of the setting in which they work. Findings may inform school leaders as to the value of training teachers ‘in-house’ and support career development decisions of LSAs, a pathway of potential significance given the current pressures on teacher recruitment and retention.     

Investigating advanced professional learning of early career and experienced teachers through program portfolios

Since closing the gap between different levels of professional development for teachers has been identified as a particular need in our profession, capturing the results of professional coursework can help teacher educators better understand and meet the unique needs of teachers with different levels of experience. This study examined the effects of professional development on early career (EC) and experienced (EXP) teachers during an advanced master’s degree programme in the USA. Qualitative analysis of 47 teacher portfolio reflections and 11 post-programme interviews investigated how EC and EXP teachers engaged in programme learning experiences to determine the ways that coursework influenced their professional growth. Differences between EC and EXP teachers were noteworthy, indicating that these two groups responded to professional development experiences differently. Ongoing research to determine effective differentiated approaches toward professional development for both novice and EXP teachers remains a key area for teacher education research, most particularly with a goal of measuring the results of professional development on improving PK-12 student performance.     

New conceptualizations for special education

During their secondary school years, a considerable number of students seriously consider choosing between learning and leaving. Leaving school early means that students do not complete their education. Early school leaving is the last step in a process in which students gradually lose interest and develop the intention to leave school. This study focuses on students with special needs and the impact of their social relations with parents, teachers and peers on their intentions to leave school early. The sample for this study comprises 1873 typical students and 132 students with special needs aged 16 from secondary schools in a large region of Norway. The intention to leave early can be predicted by teacher support and by loneliness as an indicator for peer support. The findings suggest that especially peer support is, for all students, a key variable in staying motivated for school. For students with special needs, teacher support is also important to stay in school in the early years. Over time, however, the support from teachers becomes less important for students with special needs. They too become more dependent on support from peers.     

‘I’m coming back again!’ The resilience process of early career teachers

Early career teachers face a range of challenges in their first years of teaching and how these challenges are managed as career implications. Based on current literature, this paper presents a model of early career teacher resilience where resilience is seen as a process located at the interface of personal and contextual challenges and resources. Through a semi-structured interview the challenges faced by 13 Australian early career teachers and the resources available to manage these challenges are examined. Findings show that beginning teachers experience multiple, varied and ongoing challenges and that personal and contextual resources are both important in sustaining them through the beginning year(s) of their teaching careers. The study emphasises the critical roles played by family and friends and the importance of relationships in the resilience process. Implications for future research and teacher education are discussed.     

A case study of early career secondary teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness for teaching: lessons from Australia and Spain

This paper presents an international comparison of Australian and Spanish secondary teachers’ perceptions about the effectiveness of their pre-service education and their learning as in-service teachers. It aims to identify, firstly, the extent to which beginning teachers believe they are prepared for their careers through their teacher training and, secondly, what teachers have learned as practicing teachers. A qualitative case study was conducted to uncover whether similar issues raised by early career teachers were identified in different contexts. Data were collected through interviews with secondary teachers (N = 11) from Australia and Spain in their third year of full-time teaching. Findings suggest similar positive perceptions towards their practicum experiences, transition to beginning teachers and professional development. However, differences were found in their early career experiences regarding professional learning and their development of identity. Implications of the study are discussed by identifying strategies to improve pre-service education for secondary teachers.     

The Scientist as School Teacher

Many scientists, driven by the teaching impulse, idealism, or the wish to see science thrive in the United States, take up one or another form of school teaching or participate in programs designed to enhance science teachers' knowledge of science and science teaching skills. Funding is available, from governmental and private sources, to support innovative programs designed to increase the supply of well-trained science teachers. The provision of new funds to support graduate programs in fundamental science that provide a separate track for graduate students who choose a career in teaching, in preference to a career in the laboratory, is a particularly promising development. It is essential that such programs include proper training in pedagogy. Above all, the Nation must recognize the need to provide proper long-term salary support for science teachers in the public schools countrywide, if any of the programs to improve teaching is to succeed.     

Experienced teachers dealing with issues in education: a career perspective

This article reports on a qualitative study on the issues experienced teachers may encounter in everyday teaching practice. Some issues may possibly originate at the beginning of a career and continue to be a struggle during their career. Data were collected among 20 mid- and late career teachers from eight secondary schools. The results showed that at the current moment in their career, respondents of this study particularly recognised three issues: teacher–parent interaction, teaching versus other tasks and private life versus work. Teachers seldom talk about their issues, but more often than not they try to find a solution themselves or put up with the situation.     

Sustaining teachers’ stories to live by: implications for teacher education

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we focus on questions around who we are as teacher educators as well as our responsibilities in helping pre-service teachers compose forward-looking stories as they prepare to begin teaching. We draw on the results of two studies in this paper: one a semi-structured interview study with 55 second- and third-year teachers in two Canadian provinces and one narrative inquiry into the experiences of early career teacher leavers. These studies showed how early career teachers’ stories to live by fuel their desires to become teachers. Teaching was a way to try to live out and sustain their stories to live by, that is, participants continued to live out their stories to live by shaped in early personal knowledge landscapes and embodied in their personal practical knowledge. We also learned that when teachers could not sustain their stories in the professional knowledge landscapes, their stories to live by shifted to stories to leave by, and they left teaching.     

Why some graduating teachers choose not to teach: teacher attrition and the discourse-practice gap in becoming a teacher

ABSTRACT

Teacher attrition is a perennial problem in many countries around the globe. With attrition especially pronounced amongst early career teachers, efforts to retain and sustain these teachers have highlighted the importance of effective mentoring and support programs within schools. However, less is known about the perceptions and experiences of graduates of initial teacher education (ITE) programs who choose not to enter the teacher profession, therefore not benefiting from such mentoring and support, and subsequently being lost to the profession, potentially forever. Therefore, this paper reports on a qualitative case study that investigated the reasons why one group of graduates from an ITE program in Hong Kong chose not to teach. Using in-depth interviews and grounded in a theory of teacher identity construction, the results reveal how the participants struggled to construct their preferred professional identities, in particular during a teaching practicum, and the role this played in their decision not to enter the teaching profession. Implications for how teacher educators can better support preservice teachers as they struggle to construct their professional identities are considered and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Critically re-conceptualising early career teacher resilience

In this paper, we describe how and why we adopted a socially critical orientation to early career teacher resilience. In re-conceptualising early career teacher resilience, we expose the normative components of resilience by revealing the implicit values, beliefs and assumptions that underpin most traditional conceptions of resilience. We argue against the hyper-individualisation of the concept because it leads to a diminution of the influence of situational and structural forces on early career teachers’ experiences, and shifts primary responsibility for early career teacher well-being onto the individual. We lay the groundwork for a critical perspective on teacher resilience capable of illuminating the ‘problems’ of early career teachers within a broader social, cultural and political context. Our analysis is designed to promote further debate about new ways of seeing early career teacher resilience with the aim of creating and sustaining a spirit of optimism and human agency, as well as a sense of health and well-being among early career teachers.     

Early career teachers’ sense of professional agency in the classroom: associations with turnover intentions and perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction

Teachers’ capacity to learn intentionally and responsively in the classroom is particularly vulnerable during the first years in the profession. This study investigated the interrelations between early career teachers’ turnover intentions, perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction, and sense of professional agency in the classroom. The survey data were collected from 284 in-service teachers with not more than 5 years of experience and analysed by structural equation modelling (SEM). The results showed that the negative relation between turnover intentions and early career teachers’ sense of professional agency was completely mediated by perceived inadequacy in teacher–student interaction. The results indicate that experiences of insufficient abilities to solve pedagogically and socially challenging student situations have a crucial effect on early career teacher’s capacity for adaptive reflection and active transformation of instruction.     

Beyond a command performance: reflections on Classmates as a new teacher preparation initiative

This paper reflects on a new pre‐service teacher education initiative, Classmates. Classmates is a collaboration between the University of Western Sydney (UWS) and the New South Wales Department of Education and Training (DET), South Western Sydney Region. Classmates aims to prepare pre‐service teachers to work in challenging, hard‐to‐staff schools. These contexts typically have socially disadvantaged populations and annually experience teacher shortages and high teacher turnover, particularly amongst beginning and early career teachers. Classmates seeks to produce beginning teachers who are highly prepared for, confident and mentally and emotionally equipped to work in such environments. This discussion focuses on some of the positive attributes about the initiative, particularly its practicum structure; its nurturing of pre‐service teachers to work in challenging contexts; and its strong focus on networking and development of ongoing support structures.     

Promoting early career teacher resilience: a framework for understanding and acting

In this paper, we undertake a brief review of the ‘conventional’ research into the problems of early career teachers to create a juxtaposed position from which to launch an alternative approach based on resilience theory. We outline four reasons why a new contextualised, social theory of resilience has the potential to open up the field of research into the professional lives of teachers and to produce new insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics at work within and beyond schools. We then move from these theoretical considerations to explain how we used them in a recent Australian research project that examined the experiences of 60 graduate teachers during their first year of teaching. This work led to the development of a Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience which we outline, promote and advocate as the basis for action to better sustain our graduate teachers in their first few years of teaching. Finally, we reflect on the value of our work so far and outline our practical plans to ‘mobilise’ this knowledge in ways that will make it available to a variety of audiences concerned with the welfare of this group of teachers.     

Perceived efficacy of teachers in Macao and their alacrity to engage with inclusive education

ABSTRACT

This paper reports findings of a mixed methods study examining private school teachers’ perceptions of efficacy in dealing with the challenges presented by inclusive education in Macao. This is highly pertinent after the Government invited consultation to propose changes to amendments of the Decree Law of 1996 concerning the education of students with Special Education Needs (SEN) which will likely see private schools being required to accept these students in the future. Within the context of teacher preparedness for inclusive education, the study found that a number of teachers felt that they were not at all prepared to teach students with SEN. Whilst some teachers suggested that they lacked skills and knowledge in teaching in inclusive classrooms, some felt overwhelmed with the challenges. The teachers proposed that they would need to know how to provide instructional adaptations and modifications to support students with SEN. Implications for continuous development of teacher training and education are discussed within the context of improving teacher efficacy and how private school teachers could better respond to the challenges of inclusive education in Macao.     

The impact of ‘bursary tourism’ or the desire for a ‘fulfilling,challenging, and emotionally rewarding career’? Career entry motivations and perceptions of preservice teachers from England

Why teachers choose their career has been a popular topic of research in many contexts since the introduction of the FIT-Choice framework by Watt and Richardson in 2007 to study teacher motivations. Although altruistic motivations have been identified as the common driving factor behind preservice teachers' (PSTs') decision to enter the field, there are other motivational factors—such as teaching being a career that fits well with family commitments, or choosing teacher education as a ‘fallback’ option—that are widely reported in different contexts. The introduction of incentives for student teachers in certain subjects has been subject to media criticism in England as promoting ‘bursary tourism’. This study investigates the career entry motivations and teaching perceptions of PSTs from a university that is one of the key teacher education providers in the country, using the FIT-Choice framework. The paper discusses the findings (N = 115), including validation of the FIT-Choice scale, collecting data on 12 motivations and six perceptions, along with preliminary findings. It was identified that intrinsic career values were the highest rated motivation, followed by altruistic values such as the desire to make a social contribution and being a part of shaping the future of children and adolescents. Perceived abilities were also rated higher, while personal utility values and task returns— including monetary rewards—were rated very low. While the participants agreed that the job is professionally and emotionally demanding, it was promising to note that they were highly satisfied with their career choice, implicitly indicating their intention to continue in the teaching profession. Gender differences, along with field of study and training pathway differences in motivations and teaching perceptions are also discussed, with practical implications.     

小学教师的心理压力、社会支持与主观幸福感的关系

为了解小学教师群体所感受到的心理压力、获得的社会支持以及主观幸福感的基本状况,探讨三者的相互关系和不同心理压力下的小学教师其社会支持与主观幸福感的差异。用压力状况问卷、社会支持量表和幸福感指数量表对城乡272名小学教师进行团体施测。结果发现,小学教师普遍存在较大的职业心理压力而且压力源较多;小学教师的社会支持存在城乡差异,主观幸福感指数在城乡和性别差异上未达显著水平;小学教师的心理压力、社会支持与幸福感指数均有显著相关;高压力组同中低压力组的小学教师比较,其社会支持总分和主观幸福感指数得分都较低。因此,应该关注小学教师的职业心理压力状况,帮助其建立完善的社会支持系统,使其在职业生活中获得更高的满意度和积极的情感体验。     

Transitioning From the Military to Teaching: Two Veterans’ Journeys Through the Entry Year

Over the last two decades, thousands of U.S. military veterans have entered teaching as a second career. This study documents the first year of teaching as experienced by two teachers recently retired from the U.S. military, including the challenges they faced, the professional support they received, their growth and development, and the rewards that came with professional growth. We include recommendations for assisting former service members new to teaching.     

A teacher competence development programme for supporting students’ reflection skills

The Teachers of Promise study has followed the work histories of 57 primary and secondary teachers who had been identified at the beginning of their third year of teaching as having the potential to make a significant contribution to the profession. Using data from surveys and interviews, this paper reports on what sustained or inhibited their initial commitment to and enthusiasm for ‘making a difference’, six years later, both in the classroom and in broader school leadership roles. Satisfaction with their day-to-day experiences in their schools was a particularly strong driver of teachers’ career decisions over time. Thirty-four teachers responded to survey items that were used to identify three different groups of teachers: a group of 10 primary school teachers with the highest levels of job satisfaction who were ‘fulfilling their promise’; a group of 21 primary and secondary teachers who were ‘persevering and coping’; and three teachers who were ‘detached and disengaged’. The group with the highest levels of job satisfaction taught in primary schools where they felt respected and valued, and supported to develop their teaching and leadership expertise. School leadership practices and school cultures in the other two groups diminished teachers’ overall job satisfaction and contribution to collective knowledge building in their schools. Almost all of the teachers had retained their commitment to students, to their current schools and to teaching as a career, including those with lower levels of satisfaction. Although these teachers reported ‘collegial’ relationships with their peers, individualistic school cultures, most often in secondary schools, impacted on their opportunities to learn with and from their colleagues. Few secondary school teachers felt appreciated, and included in school decision-making or had found it possible to combine high standards of classroom teaching with management responsibilities. The study indicates that while most promising teachers were still satisfied with teaching after nine years, relatively few were in schools where they were able to make the impact that had been predicted for them early in their careers.