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Berufseinstieg von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern
Abstract
Der Berufseinstieg stellt Anforderungen, auf die strukturbedingt im Rahmen einer Ausbildung (ein- oder zweiphasig) nur begrenzt vorbereitet werden kann, da die Komplexität und Dynamik der gleichzeitig und eigenständig zu bewältigenden beruflichen Anforderungen beim Einstieg in die eigenverantwortliche Berufstätigkeit sprunghaft ansteigt. Der Beitrag systematisiert Zugänge zum Forschungsfeld und referiert Befunde aus struktur-, kompetenz-, sozialisationsorientierten und berufsbiografischen Arbeiten, aus Studien zur Bedeutung sozialer Ressourcen sowie zu Berufsgesundheit und Mobilität. Der berufsbiografische Ansatz steht dabei im Zentrum.
Feelings of shock, a difficult professional socialization process and unrealistic expectations create a challenging career entry phase for teachers. Too many newly qualified teachers feel stressed and leave the profession early, leading to a lingering teacher shortage. Much research in the field and many well-meant support interventions follow a deficit perspective and overlook newly qualified teachers’ potential for school development. This study aimed to better understand how school principals, a crucial but comparatively under-researched stakeholder group, characterize newly qualified teachers’ competences. Q methodology was selected to holistically study the views of 24 principals of compulsory schools in Southern Sweden without imposing any potentially deficit-oriented categories. Following standard protocol and enriched with interviews, four distinct factors were identified and qualitatively interpreted. Results show that newly qualified teachers are perceived as confident and well-prepared concerning pedagogical and didactical aspects of their profession. Regarding the use of digital tools, they are regarded as assets for school development, while diversity management and relationship-building emerged as areas of improvement. Based on our findings, we argue for more practical elements during campus-based pre-service teacher education and an intensified focus on reflective teacher identity development. Teachers’ career entry phase should be treated as a specific area of in-service teachers’ professional development at teacher education institutions, where a strengthened cooperation with employing schools will be particularly important. We expect these adaptations to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of support matters and provide future avenues that acknowledge newly qualified teachers’ expertise.
aus Einleitung:
Den Ausgangspunkt unserer Überlegungen bildet ein zentrales Erkenntnisinteresse berufsbiografischer Professionsforschung. Es findet Ausdruck in der professionstheoretischen Annahme, dass sich pädagogische Professionalität im „Prozess des Lehrerwerdens“ (Terhart 2001: 56) entwickelt. Mit diesem Diktum wird die (individuelle) Professionalisierung der Lehrpersonen insbesondere im Hinblick auf ihre Prozesshaftigkeit in den Blick genommen. Dabei konzeptualisieren wir individuelle Professionalisierungsprozesse in der Formulierung von Bonnet/Hericks (2014) als „subjektive Wahrnehmung, Deutung und Bearbeitung typischer struktureller Handlungsanforderungen des Lehrerberufs, in deren Zuge sich vorhandene Kompetenzen und Orientierungen weiter entwickeln, ausdifferenzieren und transformieren“ (ebd.: 88; vgl. auch Keller-Schneider 2010). Empirisch kann als Desiderat ausgewiesen werden, die Prozessstruktur des Lehrerhandelns (gefasst mit dem Konzept des Habitus) im Längsschnitt zu untersuchen sowie zu analysieren, inwiefern und unter welchen Bedingungen sich (potenzielle) Prozesse der Professionalisierung vollziehen.
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Mentoring als reflexiver Erfahrungsraum und Instrument der Personalentwicklung kann Lehrpersonen im Berufseinstieg aber auch Studierende in den schulpraktischen Studien einen gelingenden Einstieg in die Profession ermöglichen. In diesem Sinne ist unter Mentoring andere selbstbestimmt und erfolgreich machen zu verstehen und wenn Lehrpersonen selbstverantwortlich erfolgreich sind, dann kann das für Schülerinnen und Schüler nur Gutes bedeuten. Durch Mentoring nehmen wir auf mehreren Ebenen wahr, wie wir bilden.
Zusammenfassung: Mit diesem Beitrag zeige ich auf, welche erkenntnisgenerierenden Möglichkeiten sich aus der fallorientierten qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse ergeben und wie über eine Triangulation mit fallorientierten quantitativen Ergebnissen weiterführende Befunde erarbeitet wurden. Über das aus qualitativen Daten fallorientiert herausgearbeitete Verständnis von Unterricht wurde eine Typologie entwickelt, deren Typen sich in den unterschiedlichen Bedeutungen der
Schüler_innen, der Lehrperson, der Thematik und des Unterrichtssettings für das Unterrichtsgeschehen manifestieren. Mit in Netzgrafiken dargestellten fallorientierten Ergebnissen der quantitativen Daten können die subjektive Relevanz der Anforderungen, die Kompetenz in der Bewältigung sowie die Intensität der Auseinandersetzung mit unterrichtsbezogenen Anforderungen
verdeutlicht werden. In einer Triangulation wurden die Ergebnisse aufeinander bezogen. Es ergeben sich konvergierende und komplementäre Befunde. Konvergierende Befunde zeigen, wie
sich das Verständnis der Lehrpersonen von Unterricht in der Wichtigkeit der wahrgenommenen Anforderungen spiegelt. Komplementäre Befunde manifestieren sich in der aktivierenden Wirkung wahrgenommener Intensität der Auseinandersetzung mit beruflichen Anforderungen, wenn entsprechend dem Verständnis der Lehrperson die Schüler_innen als mitbestimmende Komponente auf das Unterrichtsgeschehen einwirken. Ich zeige anhand der Ergebnisse, wie mittels einer fallorientierten qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse über induktiv gebildete Kategorien und eine gezielte Fallauswahl der Fall als Ganzes erhalten bleiben kann.
Der Beruf von Lehrpersonen stellt Anforderungen, die es als Entwicklungsaufgaben zu bearbeiten gilt. Diese werden aufgrund individueller Wahrnehmungsprozesse eingeschätzt und in beanspruchenden Prozessen bearbeitet. Inwiefern sich länder- und schulstufenspezifische Ausprägungen zeigen, wird anhand von Daten aus einer Fragebogenerhebung mit berufseinsteigenden Lehrpersonen des Gymnasiums und der Primarstufe in Deutschland und in der Schweiz untersucht (n = 864). Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich das Modell der vier beruflichen Entwicklungsaufgaben in einer auf zwei Länder und zwei Schulstufen erweiterten Stichprobe replizieren lässt. Vergleiche zwischen den Mittelwerten der einzelnen Skalen zeigen, dass in der Auseinandersetzung
mit Anforderungen der identitätsstiftenden Rollenfindung, der anerkennenden Klassenführung und der mitgestaltenden Kooperation in und mit der Institution Schule keine länder- und stufenspezifisch bedeutsame Unterschiede bestehen. In den Anforderungen der adressatenbezogenen Vermittlung zeigen sich deutliche Stufeneffekte. Die Auseinandersetzung mit Anforderungen der mitgestaltenden Kooperation
in der Institution Schule geht mit einer als eher gering wahrgenommenen Beanspruchung einher. In den Teilbereichen zeigen sich Befunde, welche die Auseinandersetzung mit Teilaspekten der beruflichen Entwicklungsaufgaben weiter ausdifferenzieren und länder- sowie stufenspezifische Effekte und Tendenzen aufweisen.
Schlagwörter: Berufseinstieg – Kontextfaktoren – Lehrpersonen – Professionalisierung – subjektive Wahrnehmung von Berufsanforderungen
Die berufliche Mobilität von Lehrpersonen – innerhalb des Lehrberufs und aus dem Lehrberuf hinaus – ist in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten zunehmend in den Brennpunkt der Bildungspolitik geraten. Der Bedarf an wissenschaftlich fundierten Erkenntnissen zum Thema ist vor dem Hintergrund eines sich abzeichnenden Lehrkräftemangels gestiegen. Doch die Forschungslage dazu ist aktuell unsystematisch, insbesondere in Europa. Zwar forschen zahlreiche Akteure zum Thema, jedoch fehlt Forschung über Disziplingrenzen hinweg. Interdisziplinäre Zugänge könnten zu einem vertieften Verständnis und praxisrelevanten Erkenntnissen führen, finden jedoch kaum je statt, weil jede Forschungsdisziplin ihre eigenen Theorien, Konzepte und Methoden nutzt. Der vorliegende Beitrag identifiziert theoriegeleitet Analysekriterien, die relevant sind für die Erforschung von beruflicher Mobilität von Lehrpersonen, bietet einen strukturierten Überblick über das Forschungsfeld und bilanziert kritisch die theoretischen und forschungsmethodischen Grundlagen der aktuellen Forschung. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, dass (a) theoretische Modelle fehlen, (b) im deutschsprachigen Europa die Datenlage zur Mobilität der Lehrkräfte verbessert werden müsste und (c) die zentralen Erkenntnisse zum Thema insbesondere aus qualitativen, professionstheoretischen Studien stammen. Die quantitativen Forschungsdesigns haben bis anhin das Zusammenspiel zwischen kontextuellen und subjektiven Faktoren in ihrer Wirkung auf die berufliche Mobilität über die Zeit zu wenig analysiert.
Der Beitrag präsentiert zentrale Ergebnisse einer rekonstruktiven Studie zum Berufseinstieg von Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Untersucht wird die Frage, wie sich berufseinsteigende Lehrpersonen im Medium ihres Habitus mit wahrgenommenen Normen des beruflichen Handelns auseinandersetzen und diese bearbeiten. Grundlage bilden narrative Interviews mit 30 deutschen und schweizerischen Lehrpersonen des Gymnasiums und der Primarstufe, die über zwei Jahre in ihrem Berufseinstieg begleitet wurden. In der Auswertung mittels Dokumentarischer Methode konnten zwei modi operandi der Auseinandersetzung mit Spannungsverhältnissen zwischen den berufsbezogenen Habitus der Lehrpersonen und den von ihnen wahrgenommenen Normen rekonstruiert werden. Die Habitus gestalten sich in empirisch differenzierbaren konjunktiven Erfahrungsräumen der organisationsbezogenen und der unterrichtsbezogenen Interaktion unterschiedlich aus. Die Analysen lassen Prozessstrukturen der habituellen Bewältigung alltäglicher beruflicher Praxis erkennbar werden.
Zyklisch wiederkehrende Zeiten von Lehrermangel führen zur Entwicklung von Quereinstiegsprogrammen.
Um die Schulqualität nicht zu gefährden, stellt sich die Frage, inwiefern sich
Lehrpersonen nach Quereinstiegsprogrammen von Lehrpersonen nach Regelstudiengängen
unterscheiden. Der Beitrag prüft, inwiefern sich Lehrpersonen der Primarstufe nach Abschluss von
Regel- und Quereinstiegsstudiengängen der PH Zürich in den ersten Wochen ihrer Berufstätigkeit
in der Bewältigung von beruflichen Anforderungen und in individuellen Merkmalen, die
als Ressourcen zur Bewältigung beitragen, unterscheiden. Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich in den
mittels Fragebogen erhobenen Einschätzungen der Bewältigung von Berufsanforderungen sowie
in den Motiven und Überzeugungen keine bedeutsamen Unterschiede zwischen den Gruppen
ergeben. Einzig in der Konstellation von Berufswahlmotiven insgesamt sowie in einzelnen Motiven
lassen sich Unterschiede erkennen, die sich jedoch nicht auf die Bewältigung von Berufsanforderungen
niederschlagen.
Purpose
– The number of early career teachers leaving the profession continues to be an ongoing issue across the globe. This pressing concern has resulted in increased attention to the instructional and psychological conditions necessary to retain early career educators. However, less formal attention has been paid to the social infrastructure in which early career teachers find themselves. The purpose of this paper is to foreground the role of social capital and its effect on job attitudes and educators’ intention to leave the profession.
Design/methodology/approach
– Data were collected from 736 teachers within ten secondary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Using social network and multilevel moderated mediation analysis techniques, the relationships between teachers’ social connectedness, job attitudes, and the intention to leave the profession for both novice and experienced teachers were analyzed.
Findings
– Findings indicate that being socially connected to other educators within the school is associated with a reduction in teachers’ intention to leave the profession, mediated by their job attitudes, for both early career and experienced teachers. However, social connectedness was significantly more important for early career teachers. No significant effects are found for being socially connected to the mentor.
Originality/value
– This study provides evidence for the importance of social capital for teachers, particularly early career educators. Moreover, by introducing teachers’ social connectedness as related to intention to leave, this study makes a significant and unique contribution to the literature.
The provision and maintenance of quality teachers is a matter of priority for the profession. Moreover, teacher attrition is costly to the profession, to the community and to those teachers who leave feeling disillusioned. There is a need to investigate the experiences of early career teachers to consider how these issues contribute to decisions about staying in or leaving the profession. This paper reports on an aspect of a larger study on teacher retention. It describes and analyses the experiences of teachers participating in the study and highlights implications for teacher retention. The study proposes the notion of ‘resilient stayers’, and how beginning teachers’ resilience might be strengthened and supported. It asks what combination of circumstances in the school and the system, and individual resources of resilience on the part of early career teachers, might maximise the chances of teachers choosing to remain in the profession.
The teaching profession faces a shortage as well as a decline of teaching skills. A possible way to mitigate this is to implement evidence-based induction arrangements. Seventy-one schools with 338 beginning secondary education teachers were randomly allocated to an experimental or a control group. The experimental schools used induction arrangements; the authors measured the effects of these arrangements by using repeated lesson observations and by comparing the rates at which beginners in the control and experimental groups left the teaching profession. Three years later, 14% of the control group and 12% of the experimental group had left. Leaving the profession could be explained by a lack of certification and low initial teaching skill levels. The experimental group exhibited greater improvement in teaching skills compared to the control group. Workload reduction influenced the skill level negatively, and coaching and observing had a strong positive influence on the skill level in Year 3.
Using a discrete choice experimental approach and associated Scale-Adjusted Latent Class Model (SALCM), we quantify the relative value early career teachers (ECTs) place on various types of support in the form of affirmation, resources, collegial opportunities, mentoring, and professional development. ECTs with intentions to depart the profession, place greater relative value on the sharing of resources, cooperative teaching and planning, offsite discussions about classroom management and programming with mentors, and having a greater professional voice. In contrast, those with intentions to remain, place greater value on observation from and conversations about teaching with more experienced teachers at their school.
In this paper, the state of research on the assessment of competencies in higher education is reviewed. Fundamental conceptual and methodological issues are clarified by showing that current controversies are built on misleading dichotomies. By systematically sketching conceptual controversies, competing competence definitions are unpacked (analytic/trait vs. holistic/real-world performance) and commonplaces are identified. Disagreements are also highlighted. Similarly, competing statistical approaches to assessing competencies, namely item-response theory (latent trait) versus generalizability theory (sampling error variance), are unpacked. The resulting framework moves beyond dichotomies and shows how the different approaches complement each other. Competence is viewed along a continuum from traits that underlie perception, interpretation, and decision-making skills, which in turn give rise to observed behavior in real-world situations. Statistical approaches are also viewed along a continuum from linear to nonlinear models that serve different purposes. Item response theory (IRT) models may be used for scaling item responses and modeling structural relations, and generalizability theory (GT) models pinpoint sources of measurement error variance, thereby enabling the design of reliable measurements. The proposed framework suggests multiple new research studies and may serve as a “grand” structural model.
This paper focuses on how beginning teachers gain support during teacher training, applying concepts of social capital to understand how personal networks can give access to affective and cognitive support. It is based on qualitative case studies of three secondary school trainees during a full-time year-long programme in England. Relationships which supported trainees' developing practice can be characterised differently to those which enhanced their sense of belonging to the profession. Whether supportive relationships developed depended not only on the actions and attitudes of the trainees but also those of others. The paper suggests wider implications for the support of beginning teachers.
Der Berufseinstieg stellt Anforderungen, auf die im Rahmen der Ausbildung strukturbedingt nicht umfassend vorbereitet werden kann. Die neu sich stellenden Anforderungen werden mittels individueller Ressourcen wahrgenommen und bearbeitet. Die Bewältigung dieser Anforderungen führt zu neuen Erkenntnissen, welche die Kompetenzentwicklung vorantreiben und den Referenzrahmen der Wahrnehmung der Anforderungen verändern. Der Beitrag zeigt in vergleichender Triangulation Ergebnisse von subjektiven Kompetenzeinschätzungen, die über unterschiedliche Zugänge (grafisch und itembasiert) zu zwei Erhebungszeitpunkten und in zwei Zeitbezügen (aktuell und retrospektiv) erhoben wurden. Auf der Basis einer Längsschnittstudie aus der Schweiz können sowohl erfassungsmethodenspezifische Unterschiede wie auch Differenzen zwischen aktuellen und retrospektiv erfolgten Einschätzungen aufgezeigt werden.
Grafisch-bildhaft dargestellte Einschätzungen der Kompetenz in der Bewältigung von Anforderungen führen zu höheren Werten als itembasierte metrisch-analytisch vorgenommene Einschätzungen. Zudem führen retrospektive Einschätzungen zu Verzerrungen zugunsten der aktuell eingeschätzten Kompetenzerfahrung. Im Beitrag wird belegt, dass der methodische Zugang der Erfassung das Ergebnis mitbestimmt und dass sich der Referenzrahmen mit zunehmender Kompetenzentwicklung verändert. Weiter kann dargelegt werden, dass die nach Erfassungsmethoden sich zeigenden Unterschiede zwischen den Einschätzungen unter Kontrolle der Selbstwirksamkeit (zukunftsgerichtete Kompetenzerwartung) entfallen.
This study reports on interviews with 24 beginning teachers about tensions they experienced regarding their professional identity. The interviewees reported a total of 59 tensions of tension that fell into three themes: (1) the change in role from student to teacher; (2) conflicts between desired and actual support given to students; and (3) conflicting conceptions of learning to teach. Most of the tensions experienced conform with those found in the literature. Tensions were often accompanied by feelings of helplessness, frustration or anger, and the teachers had a strong desire to learn to cope with them. Because of their negative impact on beginning teachers’ professional development, it is important that teacher educators and mentors in schools pay serious attention to tensions like these that relate to beginning teachers’ professional identity.
Based on a longitudinal study on Swedish teachers' (N = 87) career trajectories this article presents a comparison between quantitative and qualitative data within the cohort and puts this in relation to general statistics on teacher attrition. The analysis indicates that caution is advised in interpreting and making use of general statistics. Teacher attrition is a more non-linear and complex phenomenon than what is typically proposed. In many cases drop-outs are temporary. Individuals not only leave, but also return to, the profession over time and their out-of-school experiences can in many cases be understood as individual initiatives to enhance teaching ability in the long run.
This paper reviews recent research on learning patterns of student teachers and experienced teachers, mostly in the context of educational innovation and teachers' professional development. The discussion is structured along a model of teacher learning patterns comprising learning activities, regulation of learning, beliefs on own learning about teaching, motivations to learn about teaching, learning outcomes, and personal and contextual factors. A learning pattern is conceived as a coherent whole of learning activities that learners usually employ, their beliefs about own learning and their learning motivation; a whole that is characteristic of them in a certain period. Patterns in teacher learning across studies are identified and problematic aspects of teacher learning are discussed. It is concluded that teachers differ in the learning patterns they adopt, and that these patterns differ with regard to the quality of teacher learning and professional development in the context of adaptation to educational change and innovations. Implications for fostering teacher learning are derived.
Induction programs largely focus on informing the beginning teacher about the school culture and infrastructure yet the core business of education is teaching and learning. This qualitative study uses a survey, questionnaire, and interviews to investigate 10 beginning teachers’ needs towards becoming effective teachers in their first year of teaching. Findings were synonymous with studies in other countries that showed they required more support in the induction process, particularly around the school context, networking, managing people, and creating work-life balances. It also found that these beginning teachers required support in school culture and infrastructure with stronger consideration of developing teaching practices, such as: pedagogical knowledge development and behaviour management. It highlighted willing and capable assigned mentors who can model practices and provide feedback on the beginning teachers’ practices as pivotal to induction and mentoring processes.
Zusammenfassung Die Arbeit untersucht die Unterstützung von Mentoren und Mitreferendaren innerhalb des Vorbereitungsdienstes und geht der
Frage nach, inwiefern die Unterstützung dieser Akteure zur beruflichen Entwicklung von Referendaren beiträgt. Die Stichprobe
umfasst 551 Referendare des Faches Mathematik, die zweimal innerhalb des Vorbereitungsdienstes im Abstand von einem Jahr befragt
und getestet wurden. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass sowohl die Mentoren als auch die Mitreferendare als wichtige Unterstützungsquellen
wahrgenommen werden. Beide Akteure unterstützen jedoch die Referendare beim Aufbau unterschiedlicher Kompetenzaspekte. Die
Befunde der Strukturgleichungsmodelle machen deutlich, dass die informationsbezogene und emotionale Unterstützung der Mentoren
mit erhöhten Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen und geringerer emotionaler Erschöpfung der Referendare einhergeht. Für die Unterstützung
der Mitreferendare zeigten sich sowohl positive als auch negative Effekte.
Retention rates and stress levels of beginning teachers are of concern. Well-planned induction programs can assist beginning teachers to make the transition successfully into the profession, which may increase retention rates. This qualitative, year-long study aims to explore and describe the induction experiences of eight beginning teachers as they negotiated their first year of teaching. Data gathered through interviews and emails indicated that these teachers required further development on: catering for individual differences, assessing in terms of outcomes, relating to parents, relating to the wider community, and understanding school policies; however, relating to students and understanding legal responsibilities and duty of care were not issues. At the conclusion of their first year only one beginning teacher was assisted by a mentor (veteran teacher) on whole-school programming, and planning for improving teaching with opportunities to visit other classrooms. This was also the only beginning teacher who received a reduced workload in order to meet with the mentor to discuss pedagogical developments. The inadequate support provided to beginning teachers in this study highlights the need for principals and school staff to reassess induction processes, which includes providing time, funding, mentoring support and clear guidelines for a quality induction program.
Der folgende Beitrag leistet auf der Grundlage einer längsschnittlich angelegten Evaluationsstudie einen differenzierten Einblick in diese für die deutsche Lehrerbildung zentrale Professionalisierungsphase. Die Daten basieren auf einer quantitativen Befragung an zwei Ausbildungsstandorten (Zentren für schulpraktische Lehrerbildung) in Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW). Nach einer theoretischen Fundierung (Kapitel 1) sowie einer Bestandsaufnahme empi-rischer Befunde zur schulpraktischen Professionalisierung (Kapitel 2) folgt eine Darstellung der Studie sowie ausgewählter Befunde zur unterrichtlichen Professionalisierung (Kapitel 3 bis 4). Der Beitrag endet mit einem Fazit (Ka-pitel 5).
Mit dem im Juli 2013 in Kraft getretenen Bundesgesetz zur Einführung einer neuen Ausbildung für Pädagoginnen und Pädagogen wurde die Lehrerbildung in Österreich grundlegend reformiert. Die Lehramtsstudien im Bereich der Primarstufe und der Sekundarstufe Allgemeinbildung schreiben die Absolvierung eines Bachelorstudiums und eines konsekutiven Masterstudiums vor, das entweder im Anschluss an den Bachelorabschluss oder parallel zum Berufseinstieg absolviert werden kann. Die Dienstrechtsnovelle 2013 Pädagogischer Dienst sieht für alle ab 2019/20 neu in den Dienst eintretenden Vertragslehrpersonen mit einem Dienstverhältnis zum Land bzw. zum Bund eine verpflichtend zu absolvierende Induktionsphase vor. Berufseinsteiger/innen werden im ersten Dienstjahr von Mentorinnen und Mentoren am Schulstandort begleitet, die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Berufseinsteigerin oder Berufseinsteiger und Mentorin oder Mentor ist verpflichtend.
Over the past three decades, teacher induction or the socialisation of new teachers into the profession has received ample attention from researchers and policy makers. Despite well-intended interventions to support early career teachers with the challenges of the induction phase, many of these supportive practices have been caught up in deficit thinking and a remedial perspective, which has a number of negative and even counterproductive side effects. After a critical analysis of this dominant discourse and practices, three alternative representations of early career teachers and the complexities of their induction are presented: the early career teacher as a sense-making agent, as a networker and as an asset to the school. Together these representations constitute an agenda for research, policy and practice that can move beyond the remedial perspective. They can open up avenues for more rich and sustainable support that truly promotes early career teachers’ professional learning but at the same time can contribute to innovation and school development.
Drawing theoretically from the social network perspective, this article focuses on the collegial support networks of two beginning teachers, and how this is related to their job attitudes. A whole-school survey to investigate the support network structure of their primary school team, and an in-depth interview with the beginning teacher to explore the content of the support they receive, were employed. The results revealed that having access to professional support for diverse challenges and from a number of colleagues is important for job attitudes. Implications for stimulating professional interactions among
beginning teachers and their colleagues are provided.
In research on teacher induction, scholars have pointed at the
pivotal role of collegial support to overcome the challenges inherent
to the first years of teaching. In this quantitative study, we
extend current work by using a social network perspective to
examine characteristics (i.e. network size, frequency and perceived
usefulness) of professional, emotional, and social collegial support
networks. Moreover, we explore the extent to which these characteristics
explain key factors affecting teacher retention, namely
job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation to teach, and self-efficacy. An
online survey was completed by 292 beginning primary school
teachers in Flanders (Belgium). Social network data showed that,
on average, they receive professional, emotional and social support
from six colleagues each week and found this mostly useful.
Regression analyses demonstrated that network size and perceived
usefulness of professional, emotional, and social collegial
support networks were positively related to job satisfaction and
intrinsic motivation to teach, thus confirming the importance of
collegial support in teacher induction. Frequency of support was
not significant. Finally, no substantial relationship was found
between collegial support and teachers’ self-efficacy. Implications
of these findings for practice and policy are discussed.
Teacher attrition is a global concern that is particularly prevalent among beginning teachers. Teachers’ intrinsic motivation to teach, affective organisational commitment and job satisfaction are considered job attitudes that stop them from dropping out of the profession. This study explores the interplay between factors at the school level (i.e. transformational leadership of the principal, professional collegial support) and the teacher level (i.e. self-efficacy) influencing these job attitudes. A sample of 292 first-year primary-school teachers participated. The results of the path analysis demonstrated that transformational leadership of the principal is directly related to teachers’ job attitudes in a positive way. Moreover, transformational leadership of the principal is also indirectly related to these attitudes, via both professional collegial support and teachers’ self-efficacy. Implications for the supportive role of the principal in the teachers’ first year in the profession are discussed.
The paper starts from the observation that teacher attrition/retention
seems to be a wicked issue: it seems to have strong face validity and
a commonsense meaning, but the literature doesn’t provide a clear
and distinctive definition. In the first section, the author analyzes the
different ways in which the issue of teacher attrition and retention
is problematized—in general and educationally—as the basis for a
definition: as an educational issue, teacher attrition and retention refers
to the need to prevent good teachers from leaving the job for the wrong
reasons. Arguing that teacher attrition/retention constitutes both
a problem and a challenge, he continues in the second part of the
article foregrounding several lessons learned from the research on
teacher attrition. A first lesson is related to the central role of social
relationships and teachers’ need for social recognition as well as sense
of belonging. Secondly, the impact of performativity policies on
teacher attrition is discussed. A final lesson looks at teacher attrition
and retention from the perspective of career and teachers’ work lives.
The conclusion section outlines an agenda for teacher education,
teacher induction, and school development to positively deal with
the challenge to keep the good teachers in teaching.
This study investigates job satisfaction and stress in second career teachers (SCT) compared to first career teachers (FCT) and the role of self-efficacy in this context. Analyses are based on 297 teachers (35% SCT). SCT reported being highly satisfied and experiencing low levels of job stress. Moreover, t-tests revealed that SCT are more satisfied with their job than FCT. As the significant interaction self-efficacy and career path shows, self-efficacy has a higher impact on job stress in SCT than in FCT. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the professional development of SCT.
Researchers have identified general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) as a relevant category of teacher knowledge. However, hardly any study has examined the relationship between GPK of teachers and the instructional quality delivered to their students. This article therefore investigates the relationship between teachers’ GPK assessed via a standardised paper–pencil test and the quality of their instruction rated by their students. A sample of 246 in-service teachers at vocational schools in Austria is used. Teachers’ GPK positively correlates with students’ perceptions of effective classroom management, generic teaching methods/teacher clarity and teacher–student relationships. Regression analysis shows that GPK is a significant predictor for instructional quality even when controlled for teacher education grades, teacher personality (Big-Five) and teaching experience. Implications of teachers’ GPK as a resource for their teaching, limitations of the study and perspectives for future research are discussed.
This article focuses on the quality of instructional networks in different stages of professional development. Drawing theoretically from social capital theory and literature on teacher interaction, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 instructors at the university level. Using qualitative social network analysis to capture and analyze networks, we found that the quality of instructors’ interactions varied across developmental stages (novice, experienced non-expert, and expert instructors), both in terms of interdependence and opportunities for value creation. These findings offer valuable leverage for shaping educators’ everyday professional development and increasing teaching capacity through quality interaction.
While mentoring programmes have proven to be successful in reducing attrition and improving teaching ability in beginning teachers, there remains a lack of research delineating the key components of effective mentoring programmes in primary education. This integrative research review examines empirical studies conducted since 2000 on the nature and effectiveness of mentoring programmes for beginning teachers in primary school. The sample comprised 10 articles. The research literature is summarised to provide greater clarity about the features of mentoring programmes and their corresponding outcomes. This review calls attention to the need for research studies to provide a clear definition of mentoring and how it may be distinguished from induction so that the impact of mentoring can be disentangled from that of induction. It also highlights limited research that currently exists on the effects of mentoring in a primary school setting. Implications for conducting rigorous studies investigating the outcomes of mentoring for primary beginning teachers are discussed.
The book develops a model of the life-cycle of the teacher and shows how 'critical incidents' affect passage through it. It explores how teachers view coping with problems and constraints, and how they adapt to the teacher role. It examines institutional contexts for their effect on teacher careers, and explores other factors (such as teaching subject, pupils, personal life) that seemed to the teachers concerned to have a bearing on the nature and direction of those careers. These include the concentration on teachers' own subjective perceptions over the whole range of the teacher's life, and the use of the life history method - all of which has yielded new research data. This is of considerable interest in itself, but it also suggests new theoretical directions for work in the area.
This article begins by tracing the modern roots of mentoring in teacher education, major themes supported by recent perspectives on professional learning, and the evolving relationships between these two strands. It then outlines, under three different headings, what growing research in this area is beginning to yield: effectiveness and benefits of mentoring, conditions for effective mentoring, and potential negatives in mentoring. While this demonstrates that research has begun to offer useful findings, the authors express the hope that while respecting the complexities involved, future research should help progress investigation of the effectiveness of mentoring and mentoring strategies.
In this paper, we consider scholarly work on early career teacher attrition, and retention, from 1999 to 2010. Much of the literature has framed attrition as either a problem associated with individual factors (e.g., burnout), or a problem associated with contextual factors (e.g., support and salary). Some recent conceptualizations consider early career teacher attrition as an identity-making process that involves a complex negotiation between individual and contextual factors. On the basis of our review, we suggest the need to shift the conversation from one focused only on retaining teachers, toward a conversation about sustaining teachers. This shift offers the possibility of new insights about teacher education and about the kinds of spaces needed on school landscapes to sustain and retain beginning teachers.
There are serious concerns around the sustainability of teaching given the attrition rate of early career teachers.In Western countries we know that between 25% and 40% of beginning teachers are likely to leave the teaching profession in the first 5 years (Ewing & Smith, 2003; Day & Gu, 2010). Clearly, there is a need to better understand the experiences of early career teachers and to investigate, in new ways, how the problem of teacher attrition can be addressed. This paper is based on a collaborative qualitative research project funded by the Australian Research Council that aimed to investigate the dynamic and complex interplay among individual, relational and contextual conditions that operate over time to promote early career teacher resilience. The methodology for the study was a critical enquiry. The data for the study came from interviews with 60 beginning teachers and their principals. Five main 'Conditions for Resilience' emerged from the analysis: relationships; school culture; teacher identity; teachers' work; and policies and practices (Johnson,Down, Le Cornu, Peters, Sullivan, Pearce & Hunter, 2010). This article focuses on the first theme - relationships. It illuminates the role that sustainable and mutually sustaining relationships play in the development of early career teachers. Jordan's (2006) model of relational resilience - with its characteristics of mutuality, empowerment and the development of courage - is used as a conceptual framework for discussing the insights from the study.
SKBF Staff Paper 6 Zusammenfassung Die Schweiz als mehrsprachiges und multikulturelles Land ist stark föderalistisch organisiert. Jeder der Kantone kann in hohem Masse über die Ziele, die Organisation, die Inhalte und das Personal der obligato-rischen Schule selbst bestimmen. Dies zeigt sich auch bei der Grundausbildung (vgl. Abschnitt ) und der nachfolgenden Berufseinführung von Lehrpersonen (vgl. Abschnitt ). Die Vielfalt der Angebote und Orga-nisationsformen kann in drei Modellen zur Berufseinführung abgebildet werden. Diese drei Modelle beste-hen nebeneinander, und allen gemeinsam ist das Anliegen, die Berufseinführung mit ihren Anforderungen und Entwicklungsaufgaben in wirkungsvoller Art zu unterstützen (vgl. Abschnitte . bis .). Zur Reduk-tion der Vielfalt der Angebote wurden auf schweizerischer Ebene Empfehlungen verabschiedet und deren Umsetzung in den Kantonen angeregt. war ein guter Teil der Empfehlungen umgesetzt, doch wurden auch Lücken festgestellt. So ist beispielsweise die interne und externe Evaluation der Wirksamkeit der Berufseinführung erst als interne Evaluation von Einzelangeboten fast überall etabliert, nicht aber eine systematische externe Evaluation der Angebote und deren Wirkung (vgl. Abschnitt ). Abschliessend wer-den drei Fragen zur Forschung betreffend Berufseinführung beantwortet: Wie verläuft die Entwicklung beruflicher Kompetenzen beim Berufseinstieg? Welche Wirkung haben die Weiterbildungs-und Unter-stützungsangebote? Was sagt die Statistik zum Berufsein-und -ausstieg nach kurzer Dauer? Zur Beant-wortung der drei Fragen werden Schweizer Studien beigezogen, soweit solche vorliegen (vgl. Abschnitt ).
Perceived problems of beginning teachers in their first years of teaching are reviewed. Studies from different countries are included. Issues such as the reality shock and changes in behaviours and attitudes are considered also. The eight problems perceived most often are classroom discipline, motivating students, dealing with individual differences, assessing students’ work, relationships with parents, organization of class work, insufficient and/or inadequate teaching materials and supplies, and dealing with problems of individual students. There is a great correspondence between the problems of elementary and secondary beginning teachers. Issues such as person-specific and situation-specific differences, views of the principals, problems of experienced teachers, and job satisfaction of beginning teachers are discussed also. Three frameworks of teacher development are presented which provide conceptualizations of individual differences among beginning teachers. Finally, forms of planned support for beginning teachers are noted. Research using an interactionistic model for the explanation of behaviour is needed.
The revolving door appropriately describes the attrition among beginning teachers. Especially high attrition plagues our urban schools where highly qualified teachers are most crucial. Even though research over 3 decades has provided the basis for intricate induction programs, not all new teachers experience them. Effective mentoring has provided the greatest impact on increasing teacher retention, but often is not sufficient support alone. Alternative teacher certification programs have increased the numbers going into teaching, but no firm evidence has proven they remain longer. This report explains one example of induction support that results in greater retention.
In this article the author describes a mixed-methods study of first-year urban teachers' social support networks. Social Network Analysis (SNA) data on the support networks of 24 first-year teachers provided a background context and framework for the case study analysis of 4 of the teachers. Findings of the analysis identified 2 important networks of support for the new teachers: “Intentional Professional Networks” and “Diverse Professional Allies.” These findings have important implications for the ways in which administrators, policy makers, teacher-educators, and teachers can conceptualize and nurture teacher support networks and the interactions and relationships that influence teacher professional support.