Straddling The Boundary: Early Career Teachers Adapting To Teaching Across Subject Disciplines

Author(s):

Chris Speldewinde(presenting / submitting)Linda Hobbs(presenting)Coral Campbell

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 02 C, Teaching Identity, Teacher Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2016-08-23

15:15-16:45

Room:

NM-C214

Chair:

Itxaso Tellado

Contribution

Pre-service teachers (PSTs) undertake studies in preparation for teaching certain subjects. The reality is that once they join the workforce, many early career teachers are expected to teach subjects they are not qualified to teach, that is, teach out-of-field (OOF) (Ingersoll, 1999). In Australia, alarmingly, the Staff in Australia’s Schools survey (cited in Auditor General, 2012) demonstrated that unfilled science and mathematics positions were mostly filled by OOF teachers: 42% from current staff, and 23% from recruited teachers who were not qualified to teach the subject. Science and mathematics teaching are particularly susceptible to high incidences of OOF teaching because of the short supply of science- and mathematics-qualified teachers, particularly in rural and regional areas (Ingvarsen, 2004; Lyons, Cooksey, Panizzon, Parnell, & Pegg, 2006). More broadly, in the Australian context, allocating teachers to teach in subjects they are not trained to teach is at the discretion of the school principal, resulting in a general acceptance of assigning teachers OOF as a strategy for getting teachers in front of classrooms. While this practice may be unavoidable, the question remains: should early career teachers receive these assignments?

Early career teachers, due to their inexperience in teaching situations, often have had minimal opportunity to develop strategies, knowledge, skills or attitudes that will enable them to cope with many of the realities and complexities of teaching. This makes them less likely than more experienced teachers to be able to cope with the rigours of teaching OOF. In fact, reports show alarming attrition rates of early career teachers, for example 15% of teachers within the first four years in the Australian state of Queensland (Queensland College of Teachers, 2013), and around 40-50% in many countries in the first five years (Gallant & Riley, 2014). Gallant and Riley (2014) highlight, while the teachers in their study had a desire to make a difference, for some teachers, poor leadership practices, heavy workloads and expectations of their expertise, and unsupportive school cultures resulted in teachers losing faith in themselves and exiting the profession. Teaching OOF exacerbates the challenge of coming to terms with this new situation, for example due to professional isolation where they are the sole teacher of that subject (Buchanan et al., 2013), or because they are ill-equipped with the knowledge and skills of the discipline or the teaching methods (Harris & Jensz, 2006). Research is needed that examines explicitly the longitudinal effects and experiences of teaching out-of-field for the early career teacher.

The objective of this study is to produce important insights into the interaction between discipline-based and general knowledge, skills and attitudes in determining teacher preparedness and identity. The study began by examining the curriculum of secondary teacher education programs in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, and exploring perceptions of teacher educators and PSTs in their final year. A subsequent longitudinal study follows a small sample of early career teachers, recruited in their final year of their initial teacher education program in 2013, to examine how their teaching allotment to infield or OOF subjects change over time, and how this and other experiences in their school impact on their practice, identity and wellbeing. The focus is on individuals who have teaching positions in remote, rural and regional areas as statistical data indicates that these states are the hotspots for unmet demand for teachers in non-metropolitan areas (Lyons et al., 2006). The project employs a case study methodology (Stake, 2005; Khan and Van Wynsberghe, 2008) informed by a sociocultural lens using the boundary-crossing literature (Akkerman & Bakker, 2006). This paper responds to the research question: How do early career teachers respond to teaching OOF?

Method

The project uses case study methodology (Stake, 2005; Khan and Van Wynsberghe, 2008) informed by a sociocultural lens using the boundary-crossing literature (Akkerman & Bakker, 2006). The initial research design incorporated quantitative online survey methods and qualitative interviews with Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to inform the multiple case study (Stake, 2005). The multiple case study methodology enabled a focus on a case, which in this project is the teacher as individual. In the first year of the project, field research through the collection of artefacts (documents, guides, websites) and interviews with the PSTs and teacher educators provided rich descriptions to inform case development. An initial large scale, on-line PST survey provided broad canvassing of the issues facing PSTs and thus enabled generalisation beyond the cases. In the second and third year of the project, longitudinal data was generated through qualitative interview methodology. Each year the interview schedule was informed by the analysis of the previous year’s data. This process of refinement allowed for the responses given in previous years to be incorporated into the next round of interviews as prompts for teacher reflection. In many instances, the interview questions were identical and then responses from previous interviews were used to prompt the interviewee to consider how their situation had altered over time. Four teachers participated in interviews in all years of the longitudinal study as they were recruited for interviews in their final year of their teacher education program. Six additional participants were recruited for interviews in 2014 from a survey completed in 2013; four of these were available for interview in 2015. For the purposes of this paper, data from the semi-structured interviews from years 2013 (n=7), 2014 (n=10) and 2015 (n=8) are used to examine transitions into the teaching profession and subsequent experiences, with a specific emphasis on comparing their infield and OOF teaching experiences, and how support and context (rurality, school culture, leadership practices) influence teachers’ developing identities and experiences.

Expected Outcomes

The first round of teacher interviews sought to understand the pre-service teachers’ aspirations and beliefs around their teaching and teaching OOF. Many respondents believed they would be expected to teach OOF and indicated that they would be either equally or less committed to teach an OOF subject. Some pre-service teachers expressed a desire to avoid teaching particular subjects which would put them in an OOF position. These teachers expressed that OOF teaching would be challenging and that additional resources might be needed in order to effectively teach OOF. The second round of interviews determined that almost all early career teachers interviewed, who had gained permanent or regular employment, had taught OOF in some form. Teachers generally had no control of their teaching allocation and devoted little time for professional learning in the OOF area when compared to their infield area. Teachers had varied beliefs as to the opportunity and challenges associated with teaching a subject that they were not trained to teach and in general. The third and most recent round of interviews in late 2015 provided the opportunity to view how the teacher had developed and their personal beliefs of how the OOF teaching had influenced their practice. Some teachers, after two years of OOF teaching, had decided to undertake further training in the OOF area potentially making it in field, some were now only teaching in field and others were teaching OOF in different subjects to those of previous years. The study confirms the highly transtional nature of the first years of teaching, with constantly changing teacher allotments and short term teaching contracts. Conceptualisations of the teacher as “specialist”, “boundary crosser”, “jack-of-all-trades/master of none”, “neophyte”, and “vagrant” highlight the multiple and changing identities of teachers in relation to their infield and OOF teaching.

References

Akkerman, S. F., & Bakker, A. (2011). Boundary crossing and boundary objects. Review of Educational Research. 8(2), 132-169. Auditor General (Victoria) (2012). Science and mathematics participation rates and initiatives. Auditor Report No. 139, Session 2010-12. Melbourne: State of Victoria. Buchanan, J., Prescott, A., Schuck, S., Aubusson, P., Burke, P. (2013). Teacher retention and attrition: Views of early career teachers. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 38(3), 112-129. Gallant, A., & Riley, P. (2014). Early career teacher attrition: new thoughts on an intractable problem. Teacher Development, 18(4), 562-580. Harris, K-L., Jensz, F. (2006). The preparation of mathematics teachers in Australia: Meeting the demand for suitably qualified mathematics teacher in secondary schools. Report prepared for the Australian Council of Deans, Melbourne. Ingersoll, R. M. (1999). The problem of out-of-field teaching. Phi Delta Kappan, 79(10), 773-776. Ingvarson, Beavis & Kleinhenz (2004) Teacher education courses in Victoria: Perceptions Of Their Effectiveness And Factors Affecting Their Impact. Melbourne: ACER. Khan, S., Van Wynsberghe, R. 2008. Cultivating the Under-Mined: Cross-case analysis as knowledge mobilization, Qualitative social research 9(1):Art34. http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs/. Lyons, T., Cooksey, R., Panizzon, D., Parnell, A., & Pegg, J. (2006). Science, ICT and mathematics education in rural and regional Australia the SiMERR national survey: A research report prepared for the Department of Education, Science and Training, National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia, University of New England. Queensland College of Teachers (2013). Attrition of recent Queensland graduate teachers. Brisbane: QCT. http://www.qct.edu.au/Publications/Retention_Research_Report_RP01.pdf Stake, R. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 443-466). Thousands Oaks: Sage Publications

Author Information

Chris Speldewinde (presenting / submitting)

Deakin University

School of Education

Torquay

Linda Hobbs (presenting)

Deakin University, Australia

Coral Campbell