The Lived Experience Of Teachers In Their Graduate Year: Accessing The Phenomenon Through Existential Themes

Author(s):

Melody Anderson(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2015

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Paper

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Contribution

At point of entry beginning teachers are dedicated to their new careers. They are broadly idealistic and committed to making a difference to their students, the learning community and the profession at large. Why is it that within five years many beginning teachers become disenchanted and disillusioned, or worse, have left the profession entirely? What professional knowledge supports the new teacher during transition into the profession? What help is extended and by whom? What is the impact of the formal and informal processes of mentoring and induction on new teachers in the Australian context?

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences or the life-world of beginning teachers who had undertaken an induction and mentoring program (IMP) in their graduate year to gain full statutory registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching in the state of Victoria, Australia. The focus was on the first year experience of the beginning teacher and the construction of the unique novice-expert relationship commonly referred to as induction and mentoring. The study was essentially a phenomenological study of the beginning teacher and mentor teacher relationship. It examined issues of early professionalisation and socialisation, pedagogical knowledge, power and agency in the novice-expert relationship, professional identity and the combined impact of these elements on teacher retention (Darling-Hammond, 2012; Devos, 2010; Feiman-Nemser, 2012; Hudson, 2012; Ingersoll & Smith, 2004; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011; Martinez, 2004; Richardson & Watt, 2006).

Victorian teachers educate one quarter of Australia’s children. By conducting the research in the state of Victoria, Australia, the study sought to determine whether induction and mentoring processes, framed by the Victorian Institute of Teaching[1] Standards for Graduating Teachers, are an effective catalyst for increased professional knowledge, improved professional practice and enhanced professional engagement for beginning teachers. The study further aimed to locate evidence of ‘turnaround pedagogies’ (Kamler & Comber, 2004, p. 132). In this research the term is used to describe the processes adopted by beginning teachers as they focus on close engagement with student learning.

Through phenomenological design the study sought to answer the question ‘what are the meaning, structure and essence of the lived experience of this phenomenon for this person or group of people’ (Patton, 2002, p. 104). This qualitative phenomenological study sought to illuminate the experience and interpretation of events and to give voice to provisionally registered beginning teachers who are undergoing an induction and mentoring program to gain full statutory registration. More particularly, as a transcendental phenomenology, the intention was to focus upon descriptions offered by those who had experienced the phenomenon and to identify the intentionality of consciousness based upon participants’ conscious memory, images and constructs (Creswell, 2007).

Method

The study incorporated two phases and traversed two years. Phase 1 of the study was conducted with eight graduate teachers from the pre-Melbourne Model postgraduate diploma program. Phase 2 of the study was conducted with ten graduate teachers who were concurrently enrolled in the final year of their Master of Teaching program in subjects designed to support beginning teachers in their graduate year, collectively known as the Induction Option. Rich data were yielded from individual interviews where beginning teacher participants responded to a semi-structured schedule of questions to recount their experiences and reveal perceptions, beliefs, attitudes and feelings. Data collected from the individual descriptions of the eighteen beginning teachers over the two phases of the study were transcribed, horizontalised and heuristically examined to determine the essential themes or essence of the underlying structures of the collective experience (Cresswell, 2007; Moustakas, 1994) of induction and mentoring of beginning teachers in the graduate year and how such a program supports the early professionalisation, socialisation and retention of beginning teachers. Data obtained from the interviews was transcribed and the verbatim scripts produced were searched and analysed using Moustakas’ (1994) modification of the Van Kaam (1959) method for phenomenological data. The method and steps facilitate coding of the qualitative data to bring into focus the invariant constituents and thematic categories. The verbatim transcripts of all eighteen beginning teacher experiences of induction and mentoring in their graduate year were analysed for significant, relevant and invariant meanings found in the interview text. Key words, terms, components and particular relevant or contextual expressions were abstracted and labelled as horizons of the experience. Overlapping and repetitive expressions were eliminated or refined. The horizons remaining comprise the invariant constituents of the perceptions and lived experience of the participants involved in induction and mentoring programs in their beginning year of teaching. Four categories have been identified in phenomenological literature as belonging to the lifeworld (Merleau-Ponty, 1962; van Manen, 1990): lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived human relation (relationality), and lived time (temporality). In any experience of the lifeworld these fundamental existential categories can be used to frame phenomenological questions, reflections and writing (van Manen, 1990). In this study the four existential categories were considered when analysing the horizons for each individual participant and categorising the invariant themes.

Expected Outcomes

Evidence emerging from this study supports the view that high quality mentoring provides professional and emotional support, increased confidence, interpersonal skill development as well as a smoother transition to teaching and orientation to the culture of the school. Across the study and regardless of context, the findings resonated with themes of ‘intense learning and intense loneliness’ identified by Feiman-Nemser (2012, p. 10). Irrespective of the teacher preparation program the participants had undertaken or how confident or well-prepared the beginning teachers were on entry to the profession, the school context had an enormous impact upon their early career experience with far-reaching effects. There were instances of hazing (Patterson, 2005) of these vulnerable beginning teachers, that is to say, they continued to experience difficult classes; a lack of curriculum resources and notwithstanding their novice status; and were allocated a similar workload to veteran teachers. Induction programs vary in quality and frequency and are considered beneficial, however, they are not a panacea for the many and known challenges faced by newcomers to the profession. This research is complementary to, and will further support, recent international and Australian research by prominent researchers in the field (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2012; Devos, 2010; Feiman-Nemser, 2012; Hudson, 2012; Ingersoll & Smith, 2004; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011; Johnson, 2012; Martinez, 2004; Richardson & Watt, 2006; Wang, Odell & Schwille, 2008). Within an existing international evidence base, the findings contribute to an Australian research focus on models of mentoring for beginning teachers and affirm the enduring issues in respect to the practices of induction and mentoring in the field of education.

References

Cochran-Smith, M., & Zeichner, K. (2005). Executive summary. In M. Cochran-Smith & K. Zeichner (Eds.), Studying teacher education: The report of the American Education Research Association (AERA) panel of research and teacher education (1-36). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cresswell, J. (2007). Research Design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Darling-Hammond, L. (2012). Creating a comprehensive system for evaluating and supporting effective teaching. Stanford, CA. Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education. Retrieved from http://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/creating-comprehensive-system-evaluating-and-supporting-effective-teaching.pdf Devos, A. (2010). New teachers, mentoring and the discursive formation of professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education. 26(5), 1219-1223 Feiman-Nemser, S. (2012). Beyond solo teaching. Supporting Beginning Teachers, 68(2), 10-16. Hudson, P. (2012). How can schools support beginning teachers? A call for timely induction and mentoring for effective teaching. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 37(7), 71-84. Ingersoll, R., & Smith, T. (2004). Do teacher induction and mentoring matter? NASSP Bulletin, 88(638), 28-40. Ingersoll, R., & Strong, M. (2011). The impact of induction and mentoring for beginning teachers: A critical review of the research. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 201-233. Johnson, S.M. (2012). Having it both ways: Building the capacity of individual teachers and their schools. Harvard Educational Review, 82(1), 107-122. Kamler, B & Comber, B. (2004). The new English teacher: Redesigning pedagogies. English in Australia, (139), 131-142. Martinez, K.F. (2004). Mentoring new teachers: Promise and problems in times of teacher shortage. Australian Journal of Education, 48(1), 95-108. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception. London: Routlege and Kegan Paul. Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological Research Methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage. Patterson, M. (2005). Hazed! Supporting New Educators, 62(8), 20-23. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). California, Thousand Oaks: Sage. Richardson, P., & Watt, H. M. G. (2006). Who chooses teaching and why? : Profiling characteristics and motivations across three Australian universities. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 34(1), 27-56. Van Kaam, A. L. (1959). Phenomenal Analysis: Exemplified by a Study of the Experience of Really Feeling Understood. Journal of Individual Psychology, 15, 66-72. van Manen, M (1990) Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action SensitivePedagogy. New York: State University of New York Press. Wang, J., Odell, S., & Schwille, A. (2008). Effects of Teacher Induction on Beginning Teachers’ Training: A Critical Review of the Literature. Journal of Teacher Education, 59(2), 132-152.

Author Information

Melody Anderson (presenting / submitting)

University of Melbourne, Australia

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