Beginning teachers’ transition from pre-service education to working life

This review article examines new teachers’ transition from education to work on the basis of recent studies on transition, workplace learning and induction to work. The following challenges of transition are addressed: (1) threat of unemployment, (2) inadequate knowledge and skills, (3) decreased self-efficacy and increased stress, (4) early attrition, (5) newcomers’ role and position in a work community, and (6) importance of learning at work. Workplace learning research is dealt with from the following viewpoints: (1) how do people learn at work? (2) the role of work communities and organization in learning (3) the trends of formalization and informalization of learning and (4) the methods used to promote the professional development of young teachers, emphasis being on peer group mentoring. Our general conclusion is that learning and professional development of teachers should be seen as a continuing process combining formal, non-formal and informal learning throughout the career from initial training to retirement. The best way to support new teachers is informed by a profound study of the practice architectures of the educational system as a whole.     

Handling challenge and becoming a teacher: an analysis of teachers’ narration about life competence education

Abstract

This article takes an interest in how teachers handle new challenges. The challenge in focus is a nonmandatory yet widespread subject in Swedish education called Livskunskap, Life Competence Education (LCE). The purposes of the present study are to identify and discuss notions of being a teacher actualized in teachers’ narratives about the challenge of LCE, and to discuss how narration may help teachers to handle and reflect upon professional challenges. Seven teachers were interviewed about their experiences from teaching LCE. The analysis showed how acts of defending, exploring, presenting, or resisting LCE were performed in the teachers’ narratives. LCE seems to actualize a narrative tension between two dominant aspects of teacher identity. On the one hand, there is an image of a socially committed teacher who cares about the emotional well-being of and relations to his/her students. On the other hand, there is an image of a knowledge-oriented teacher who connects with the students mainly by focusing on subject matters. Drawing upon the theoretical work, mainly by Michalinos Zembylas, I found that the teachers had opportunities to use narration as an arena for personal agency, but these opportunities were not necessarily taken in the present narratives.     

Approaches to teaching in thematic work: early childhood teachers’ integration of mathematics and art

Thematic work that integrates different knowledge areas is considered suitable for developing young children’s knowledge and skills in early childhood education. This paper reports evidence from a survey of early childhood teachers’ work with mathematics and art integrated in thematic work. In this study, we aim to explore how teachers perceive mathematics learning and teaching integrated with art. Data for analysis were collected from a questionnaire answered by 27 early childhood teachers from Finland and Sweden. Influenced by a sociocultural theoretical framework, the analysis concerns the teachers’ expressed goals for learning and their strategies for achieving these goals. The analysis reveals qualitatively different approaches to the learning goals addressed by the teachers – process-oriented, product-oriented, development-oriented and providing awareness – which, respectively, seem to generate different meanings of mathematical learning integrated with art. This study offers an overview of teachers’ approaches to teaching mathematics and art in thematic work, and of how different approaches may influence what mathematical meaning is offered to children to explore.     

Graduates’ evaluations of usefulness of university education,and early career success – a longitudinal study of the transition to working life

A successful transition from university to working life requires that graduates are able to employ their education and academic competences in real working-life contexts. Our previous research showed that graduates varied in how they were able to reflect on their competences at the time of graduation. The present longitudinal mixed-method study follows the same graduates and explores their evaluations of the usefulness of university education and career success, three years after graduation. The follow-up data consisted of 57 graduates’ survey answers analysed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The results showed that graduates who were able to describe and evaluate more competences at the time of graduation perceived their current jobs to correspond more to their education. Graduates with more limited evaluations of their competences, on the other hand, had experienced more challenges related to employment and were more uncertain of their goals. The results also showed that having diverse competences and an ability to recognise them at the time of graduation is important for later career success and may also be related to what kind of challenges graduates face in working life.     

Relating early childhood teachers’ working conditions and well-being to their turnover intentions

High turnover rates of early care and education teachers reduce the quality of education; unsatisfied teachers, suffering from stress or emotional exhaustion, are less equipped to promote children’s development and more likely to leave the classroom. We used data from a national survey of US early childhood educators (n?=?1129) to examine associations between teachers’ working conditions, well-being, and motivation with professional commitment and turnover intentions to move, leave, or remain. Multiple regression analyses revealed that more intrinsically motivated teachers were more likely to report intentions to move over leave, emotionally exhausted teachers were more likely to report intentions to leave, and lower teacher-reported working conditions predicted intentions to move or leave the field over staying. The results suggest that teachers’ well-being and perceived working conditions relate with their intentions to remain at their job or within the field and to their commitment to the profession.     

Mobile devices in early childhood education: teachers’ views on benefits and barriers

Mobile devices and, in particular, tablets have become increasingly popular in young children’s lives; however, there is limited empirical evidence regarding early childhood teachers’ perceptions on mobile technology-learning in early years. This study investigated teachers’ views on mobile devices’ usage in early childhood education classrooms, focusing on their perceived benefits, barriers and their concerns. A questionnaire with open ended questions was completed by 30 early childhood education teachers, in Greece. The primary perceived benefits regarded the facilitation of the educational process, the interactive learning environment and the support of children’s learning and development. Major perceived barriers were related to the lack of (or limited) resources/equipment, the limited teacher training opportunities and lack of funding, while key concerns regarded the constraint of hands-on experiences, children’s concentration, and cyber safety issues. Implications for pre-service and in-service teacher training, educational policy and practice, as well as links between home and school are discussed.

     

Struggling to balance various stakeholders’ perceptions: the work life of ideo-political education teachers in China

As a compulsory course at universities throughout the Chinese Mainland, ideo-political education aims to safeguard university students’ political loyalty to the Communist Party. By employing a qualitative research method, this study investigated a renowned comprehensive university in southern China. The case study found that students expressed strong resistance to compulsory ideo-political courses. From the outset, teachers had to work to change students’ overwhelmingly negative perceptions of ideo-political education. Informants found that they could not attract student interest if they only strictly followed the state designed textbook, and therefore chose instead to cover topics they found more interesting and to discuss social issues in their lectures. However, the new curriculum reform and teaching quality assurance mechanism placed further restrictions on teaching and learning. Whether teachers could maintain enough autonomy to make the above adjustments depended on the understanding and support of key senior academics.     

Developing identities in the workplace: students’ experiences of distance early childhood teacher education

In Aotearoa New Zealand, many early childhood teachers gain their teaching qualification via distance study while working in an early childhood centre. Early childhood teachers work in a team environment, and it is important to understand more about how distance students negotiate changes in their workplace practice as their professional knowledge develops. This article draws on a study that explores students’ experiences of distance teacher education as a process of changing participation in the workplace. Distance study supported increasingly confident participation as students saw more meaning in their daily work. The students’ identities and their workplace cultures and practices influenced what students paid attention to and the decisions they made when negotiating changes within their teams. Their experiences suggest that strengthening students’ relational agency at work is a useful focus for distance early childhood teacher education programmes.     

A phenomenological study: teachers’ experiences of using digital storytelling in early childhood education

This study investigates how early childhood education (ECE) teachers incorporated digital storytelling in their classrooms and the challenges and successes that they faced in the process. After the teachers attended a digital storytelling workshop, in-depth phenomenological interview, observation and focus group interviews were used to collect data. Phenomenal data were collected from 5 kindergarten classrooms, each of which contained approximately 20 students and a teacher. The study presented examples that illustrated how ECE teachers had used digital storytelling to enhance learning. The results showed that an emphasis on specific points may assist teachers, parents, educational researchers and education policy-makers in using technological tools in young children’s learning environments.     

Beginning teachers’ conceptions of competency: implications to educational policy and teacher education in Malaysia

When any innovations or measurement procedures are introduced into the education system to improve or judge the quality of its teaching force, beginning teachers often have to adapt to these new concepts of what constitute a high quality teaching. This article contends that these new concepts neither necessarily match beginning teachers’ own conceptions about their own competency nor has it given beginning teachers a chance to be heard. This study provides an opportunity for beginning teachers’ ‘voices’ to be heard through phenomenography which is an interpretive research approach to discover what beginning teachers in Malaysia conceive and understand as competence in relation to what they do every day as teachers. The main finding of this study is the key role played by beginning teachers’ conceptions of competency which has provided strong implications for educational policies and teacher education. The findings suggest that teachers need to be represented in any quality improvement measures. Careful attention should also be paid to the school systems and to teacher training programmes to support and encourage teachers in their professional growth as competent teachers.     

Bringing web‐enhanced courses to communities of learners in early childhood teacher education

Abstract

In our graduate programs in early childhood education, we model constructivist practice in the belief that teachers are better able to understand and implement constructivist principles having experienced them in their work. In this practice we attempt to be explicit about constructivist practice in our program and in elementary classrooms. As we examine and modify our constructivist pedagogy, one key question for teachers and ourselves emerges: What does a classroom based on constructivist pedagogy look like in early childhood (K‐2)? The goal of this research is a clearer understanding of constructivist pedagogy in the context of primary classrooms. The study was designed using qualitative methods in order to understand the experiences in classrooms guided by constructivist theory. The classroom participants are six teachers who graduated from a Master's degree program based on constructivist principles. Analysis of the six classrooms indicated 24 key elements of constructivist classrooms. A focused analysis of three constructivist teachers and their classroom supports these elements and indicates three broader characteristics: the important role of children, authentic and purposeful interactions among classroom participants, and engagement in academic activity. A vignette of a constructivist classroom is provided to present the essence of our findings while maintaining participants' views and voices.     

Practitioners’ constructions of love in early childhood education and care

Love is rarely mentioned in Early Childhood Education and Care and there is no agreed definition for love in this context. In order to explore love in settings practitioner views on the topic should be sought. Unstructured interviews were carried out with senior practitioners in five contrasting settings. A range of qualitative methods were applied to the constructions over an extended period, and a thematic analysis was carried out at the last. Practitioners talked about wide-ranging aspects of practice in response to the narrative prompt about loving children, including the importance of showing to love through touch, familial and non-familial love, loving to be with children, and love as incorporating teaching lessons for the future. A definition of love is needed to facilitate professional discussions about love in settings, away from children’s own homes.     

Understanding teachers’ motivation for and commitment to teaching: profiles of Chinese early career,early childhood teachers

ABSTRACT

To better understand the reasons underlying attrition and the teacher shortage, and to develop ways to attract and retain high-quality teachers in early childhood education, it is necessary to explore teacher motivation and commitment to teaching. Although previous research has investigated various aspects of teacher motivation and commitment to teaching, little attention has been paid to this in the context of early childhood teachers, especially early career teachers. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 12 early career, early childhood teachers in mainland China, this study aims to examine early career early childhood teachers’ motivation to teach and commitment to teaching in the Chinese context. Four distinct types of early career, early childhood educators were identified: committed passionate, committed compromiser, undecided, and uncommitted. Each of these had unique motives for teaching and different levels of commitment to kindergarten teaching in mainland China. The four types of early career early childhood teachers identified in this study demonstrate the diversity and complexity of teaching motivation and commitment to teaching in the field of early childhood education. The findings from this study can provide implications for policy-makers and teacher educators to enhance novice teachers’ motivation and commitment to teaching in the early childhood context.     

Student teachers in the contact zone: developing critical intercultural ‘teacherhood’ in kindergarten teacher education

This paper reports on the results of a narrative-grounded investigation ofstudent teachers' intercultural experiences and learning during their teaching practice. Our interest is in the meaning of the intercultural contact zone and how education for diversities is conceptualised and reflected upon in Finnish teacher education. Critical event narratives were collected from 10 kindergarten student teachers' teaching practice portfolios where the focus was on observing and reflecting on diversities in education. Theoretically, the study relies on Pratt's theory of contact zone. The methods and conditions for supporting student teachers' understanding of diversities in teacher education are discussed.     

ICT and play in preschool: early childhood teachers’ beliefs and confidence

This study investigated early childhood teachers’ beliefs about information and communications technology (ICT) and play in preschool, as well as their confidence in integrating ICT in the classroom. A 28-item questionnaire was compiled and administered to 190 early childhood teachers in Greece. Although ICT play (which can provide learning opportunities) has largely replaced traditional childhood play, in Greece, there is inadequate integration of ICT in early childhood education. In this study, two factors were extracted: ‘playing with ICT as an effective mode of learning and developing children's technological competence’ and ‘ICT use as free play’. The fewer the years of teaching experience and the higher the teachers’ computer self-efficacy, the stronger was the view that ICT play is not just free play. Teachers’ beliefs and confidence affect their classroom practices and, consequently, the children's learning. Viewing ICT as a mode of learning that should be embedded in the curriculum is expected to lead to ICT integration in a teacher's daily practices. The implications for in-service teacher training are therefore discussed.     

Otherness ‘without ostracism or levelling’: towards fresh orientations to teacher foreigners in early childhood education

Abstract

This article attempts to conceptualise the notion of the foreigner in relation to immigrant early childhood teachers. Sparked by Kristeva’s challenge, to live with and as others without ostracism or levelling, it highlights tensions that arise in a juxtaposition of the Aotearoa/New Zealand early childhood curriculum document, Te Whāriki and other guidelines for cross-cultural practices, with perspectives on the foreigner and foreignness. Situated in the neoliberal sociopolitical and cultural landscape of Aotearoa/New Zealand, the analysis foregrounds and re-frames orientations towards immigrant teachers as they may play out in the early childhood realm. Kristeva’s insights into foreigners’ raw and intimate experiences provide a freeing lens to emphasise influences on and consequences of a foreigner’s otherness. While Kristeva’s challenge may be a never-ending story of a utopian future in education, its use in this analysis is intended to provoke an awareness of complex conceptualisations of foreignness and of tensions that could subvert the aim of working towards this, possibly elusive, ideal.     

Becoming an educable lifelong learning subject: adult graduates’ transitions in education and working life

Continuous learning and updating one’s competences and abilities have become requirements for staying ‘up-to-date’ and ‘at the top of one’s game’. Lifelong learning policy has been persuasive in its emphasis on equal learning opportunities for all: everyone has endless possibilities and capabilities to learn according to her/his needs and desires throughout life. This discourse has been especially encouraging for the eight Finnish general upper secondary school adult graduates followed in this study; they had received little formal education in their youth or had been labelled as ‘poor’ students at school through the assessment criteria maintained by the schooling system’s prevailing meritocratic discourse. In order to become lifelong learning subjects, they first needed to prove their ability and competence as students and learners, that is their educability. This was also the key for their transitions in further and higher education and working life. Consequently, half of the interviewees told ‘success stories’ about these transitions. Moreover, they continued to have faith in ‘the great salvation of education’ as well as their own educability. For the other half, however, these transitions turned out to be disappointing or perceived as a broken promise. These adults also started to doubt their own abilities as students and learners.     

Effects of early childhood education training and video interaction guidance on teachers’ interactive skills

ABSTRACT

Research has demonstrated that teachers working in early childhood education and care (ECEC) are proficient in offering emotional support to young children, but markedly weaker when it comes to instructional support. We conducted a controlled experimental study in the Netherlands, to investigate the effects of targeted in-service training on improving teachers’ instructional support. Teachers (N = 72) were randomly assigned to four conditions: an intensive early childhood education (ECE) training (N = 17), video interaction guidance (VIG) (N = 16), a combination of both training programs (N = 18), or a control condition with no training (N = 21). Teachers’ interactive skills were measured pre- and postintervention, according the scales of the Caregiver Interaction Profile (CIP). The ECE training improved the proficiency of teachers’ verbal communication and offering developmental stimulation. VIG proved to be effective in teachers’ fostering positive peer interactions between children. Intensive and targeted training can successfully improve the quality of teachers’ instructional support in ECEC settings, although more research on effective elements of professional development of ECEC teachers is needed.