Kelchtermans and Deketelaere have developed a sequence of different narrative-biographical interviews to capture Flemish (Belgian) beginning teachers’ experience of their socialization in the job during their first year in schools. Over a period of 14 months four interviews have been administered with 10 beginning teachers, documenting their reflective and emotional experiences as they negotiate their place in the school (with principal, peers and parents). The conceptual framework for the study builds on socialization theory, sense-making theory, micropolitical theory (see a.o. Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002), as well as a social constructivist approach to emotions in teaching (Zembylas, 2007). In the paper we will analyze data in terms of an ongoing process of self-positioning and negotiation through the multitude of social interactions with key actors (principal, peers and parents). The follow-up design of the study is relatively rare (Vanderlinde & Kelchtermans, 2013) and aims at adding a more developmental and process understanding of socialization, to complement the more common reconstructive methodological approaches. Disentangling the negotiations will contribute to our understanding of the socialization process in terms of the development of beginning teachers’ self-understanding (including the emotional component of self-esteem as well as the normative or ethical task perception) as well as the social construction of shared normative beliefs (school culture) and collective responsibility. The paper concludes by arguing that in order to properly understand the emotional dimension in beginning teachers’ socialization it needs to be understood as intertwined with the moral, political as well as the technical (focus on learning outcomes) dimension (Hargreaves, 1995).

Hargreaves, A. (1995). Development and desire. A post-modern perspective. In T.R. Guskey & M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and perspectives (pp. 9-34). New York: Teachers College Press. Kelchtermans, G., & Ballet, K. (2002). The micropolitics of teacher induction. A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialisation. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 105-120. Vanderlinde, R., & Kelchtermans, G. (2013). Learning to get along at work: Micropolitical learning in teachers’ first year. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(7), 33-37. Zembylas, M. (2007). Theory and methodology in researching emotions in education. International Journal of Research and Method in Education, 30, 57-72.