The Bachelor of Education (K-12 Middle Schooling) degree offered by Charles Sturt University is one of fifteen undergraduate middle school teaching degrees in Australia and the only undergraduate middle school degree offered by a New South Wales university. The first cohort to graduate from this program commenced their professional careers as teachers in 2008. This study explores - how these new professionals are accepted into the schools to which they are appointed, - how they feel their teacher education course prepared them for their first year of teaching; - and how well their expectations of teaching have been fulfilled The quality of teacher education programs is a significant factor in regard to the calibre of teachers entering the teaching profession (Schuck, Deer Barnsley, Bradley and Griffin 2002; Ewing and Smith 2002) ). Teachers face many challenges in their day to day work including the increasing expectations of the educational needs of the young people in their classrooms. (Gore, Williams and Ladwig 2006) The link between teacher education programs and the ‘preparedness’ of beginning teachers is of a particular interest to researchers, especially those who are responsible for coordinating such programs as well as others concerned about student numbers and university quotas. Recently two Australian reports Top of the Class: Report on the inquiry into teacher education (House of Representative Standing Committee on Education and Vocational Training, 2007) and a Survey of Former Teacher Education Students (Department of Education, Science and Training, 2006) have been released. These reports indicate that teacher education in Australia is, in general, serving school communities well. The majority of research conducted in teacher education has focused on courses which prepare teachers to work in either a primary school or high school. This situation has arisen because most teacher education programs in Australian and European universities prepare teachers for these working contexts. (Hamilton, Duncan, Wake & Hall 1999) There is a paucity of knowledge about the experiences of newly-graduated middle schooling teachers in Australia, as so few of them exist at the moment. For example, in the Survey of Former Teacher Education Students (Department of Education, Science and Training, 2006) only 3.5% of the 693 respondents were trained as middle schooling specialists. Most teachers in primary schools have undertaken either undergraduate degrees in primary teacher education or undergraduate degrees in another discipline followed by a ‘postgraduate’ teacher education program. In secondary schools, most teachers will have undertaken an undergraduate degree in their subject specialisation followed by a postgarduate diploma or degree designed to provide their teacher education knowledge and skills. The Charles Sturt University Bachelor of Education (K-12 Middle Schooling) graduates have taken a different pathway in their teacher education – one which is likely to be unknown or at least not understood by most of the teacher colleagues. Given the rhetoric from governments on the importance of middle schooling but the lack of physical infrastructure to fulfil the rhetoric, it is important to know how well the CSU graduates will be accepted by their colleagues. This presentation reports on the ways in which the teaching profession accepts graduates from a degree which highlights that it is preparing teachers in ways that are different from the norm. As well, the value of this mode of teacher preparation in preparing quality teachers will be investigated. This insight will be invaluable to the field of teacher education.

The first cohort of students from the Bachelor of Education (K-12 Middle Schooling) degree commenced their teaching careers in 2008. Data is being gathered from this cohort through surveys and interviews. The survey of graduate expectations will be analysed to provide baseline data on what the graduates expect will happen to them when they commence their teaching career. Frequencies will be used to provide an overall picture of the most common expectations and concerns held by the graduates as they complete their course. This survey will provide the starting points for the interviews with both the graduates and their supervisors. Each initial interview with the graduates and their supervisors will be analysed using a grounded theory approach with constant comparison (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), to provide themes. These themes will be used not only to provide insights into how the graduates are ‘welcomed’ into the teaching profession but also to provide stimulus for questions in the interviews scheduled for later in the year.

Since data will be collected during 2008, no results are available at this time. However, data concerning the beginning teachers first six months of teaching will be analysed and presented in the proposed paper.