Beginning Teachers’ Micropolitical Experiences: Implications for Teacher Educators

Author(s):

Nathan Brubaker(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 11 D, Politics and Recognition for Beginning Teachers

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

17:15-18:45

Room:

K5.07

Chair:

Susann Hofbauer

Contribution

As the ECER program theme suggests, the continued prevalence of social, political, and cultural transformation throughout Europe and the world heightens the need for research on educational reform at all levels of teaching practice. Educational researchers can further this aim by producing research and constructing knowledge concerned with navigating political complexity and embodying democratic values in educational environments. Beginning teachers’ experiences negotiating the contested nature of educational institutions are of particular relevance to educators interested in ensuring the professional longevity and retention of teachers around the world. How novices construct meaning from politically contested conflicts and use authority, both formally and informally, to achieve their goals within the organizational context of schools, is of particular relevance to educators concerned with maximizing teachers’ professional engagement. The purpose of this paper is to present findings from an investigation of beginning teachers’ micropolitical experiences in two countries, with particular attention to the implications of beginning teachers’ experiences for teacher educators and the pedagogical practices they implement in teacher education settings.

The quest to keep beginning teachers teaching, reverse prevailing trends towards teacher attrition, and increase teachers’ capacity to skillfully navigate the complex political realities of schools is perhaps best embodied by the concept of micropolitical literacy (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002a). Micropolitical literacy refers to the process of learning to comprehend, interpret, and act upon the varied strategies and tactics used by individuals and groups to advance their interests in organizational contexts. Such interests, which may be pursued through actions characterized by conflict and/or collaboration and coalition-building to achieve individual or shared goals, are particularly pronounced in times of change. The manner in which educators themselves contribute to their organizations’ political cultures and influence others through employing resources of power and authority to advance their interests constitutes the domain of school micropolitics (Ball, 1987).

Conducting research into beginning teachers’ micropolitical experiences is particularly important in Europe since many countries are emerging democracies with fragile educational reforms (Breca & Anderson, 2010). Due to unstable economic and political contexts, transitioning to more democratic forms of organizational citizenship is both needed and desired (Koshmanova & Ravchyna, 2008). Educators can help create such a reality by further developing their pedagogical skill, knowledge, and perspective. Together with students, parents, and administrators, teachers can learn to live more congruently with democratic principles and values in school contexts (Zogla, 2001). Doing so may help undo troubling trends in teacher development and retention documented in countries like Belgium (Struyven & Vanthournout, 2014), Germany (Richter et al., 2013), and Ireland (Long, Hall, Conway, & Murphy, 2012).

We know very little, however, about how beginning teachers navigate, construct meaning from, and develop their micropolitical literacy in school contexts. While micropolitical analyses have been conducted on such topics as teacher induction (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002b), development (Kelchtermans & Ballet, 2002a), mentoring (Achinstein, 2006), and community (Warner, Brown, & Lindle, 2010), they have not been sufficiently applied to how novice educators themselves contribute to and make sense of their immediate political cultures. We know even less about how beginners’ experiences navigating the political complexity of their organisational contexts compare across national contexts. Such insights are necessary for informing processes of developing pedagogies of teacher education (Loughran, 2006) concerned with cultivating micropolitical literacy. The following question was therefore investigated in this study: how did eighteen beginning teachers in the USA and Australia construct meaning from politically contested conflicts in their teaching?

Method

A grounded theory methodological approach to this research was employed for its relevance to systematically examining participants’ beliefs, practices and perceptions as educators concerning their political circumstances (Birks & Mills, 2012). The concept of critical moments (Brubaker, 2015; Tripp, 1993) was also used for its relevance to helping teachers reason more deeply about the complexity of teaching (Tillema & Kremer-Hayon, 2005) concerning school conflicts. The research was conducted in 2013 in two phases: first, in two U.S. states (one in the Southeastern USA, and one in the Northeastern U.S., involving ten primary teachers in their second through fourth years of teaching); second, in Southeast Australia, involving eight primary and secondary teachers in their first through third years of teaching. Each agreed to participate in the study as it had been approved by my university ethics process. Data included complete transcripts of 18 interviews (73 minutes average length), plus a variety of documents like e-mails, fieldnotes, and journal reflections. To analyse the data, I used a range of grounded theory methods: (1) constant comparison involved continually comparing incidents in the data with previous incidents of similar and different attributes until stable categories emerged to give rise to the findings for the study. I used computer software to facilitate this process of constant comparison; (2) theoretical saturation involved arriving at conceptually abstract categories until no new codes could be clearly articulated or integrated. Such categories were not forced into pre-determined theoretical frames, but allowed to inductively emerge from the data; (3) writing memos consisted of maintaining a detailed record of the decision-making processes that informed all of my research activities. Maintaining such records enhanced the dependability of the findings by providing a detailed audit trail from which others could replicate my processes (Birks & Mills, 2012; Glaser & Strauss, 1999). I enhanced the credibility of the findings through negative case analysis—the process of examining situations that were contrary to what was expected or were inconsistent with participants’ contributions in the data (Patton, 2002). Overall, this iterative and inductive method, which proceeded line-by-line through four complete passes through the data set, helped me discern more deeply what was happening in the data and develop themes to illuminate the phenomena being examined.

Expected Outcomes

Whether prepared to shape school contexts or not, beginning teachers are likely to experience intense stress and strain from the micropolitical forces at play . The experiences of the beginning teachers featured in this study were no different; nearly every participant was quick to provide emotionally-charged accounts of conflicts they had experienced firsthand. In this study, discernible contrasts in teachers’ experiences between the two countries were evident in the data, involving different levels of collegiality and support that the teachers experienced, their overall reluctance towards political engagement, and the extent to which they questioned their inclination to continue as teachers. In the paper, I will elaborate on each of these themes, while paying particular attention to implications for teacher educators’ pedagogical practices in Europe and internationally. For example, teacher educators could respond to the findings from this study by taking steps to make their classroom contexts into practical laboratories for reproducing the relational realities of school settings. Specific actions could include: reconfiguring prevailing patterns of communication and interaction from transmission to dialogue; reconstructing the role of grading and assessment from instruments of control to resources for open expression; questioning the right to claim expertise and shape the content and process of students’ learning; cultivating classroom communities of inquiry in which reasoning is emphasized over indoctrination concerning the very meaning/s of being a teacher. With expanded knowledge concerning teachers’ micropolitical learning, teacher educators could help reverse trends towards democratic erosion in teacher education practices internationally, and increase the sustainability and desirability of the teaching profession for the most vulnerable in the profession. In an era of rapid international transformation and (in some cases) decline, such implications are of utmost importance for advancing teacher education.

References

Achinstein, B. (2006). New teacher and mentor political literacy: Reading, navigating and transforming induction contexts. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12(2), 123-138. Ball, S. (1987). The micropolitics of the school: Towards a theory of school organization. London: Methuen. Birks, M., & Mills, J. (2012). Grounded theory: A practical guide. Los Angeles: Sage. Breca, S., & Anderson, K. (2010). The transition-reform dilemma: Kosovo -- emerging democracy and resistance factors at its Faculty of Education. Interchange, 41(2), 185-200. Brubaker, N. D. (2015). Critical moments in negotiating authority: Grading, accountability and teacher education. Teaching Education, 26(2), 222-246. Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1999). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Kelchtermans, G., & Ballet, K. (2002a). Micropolitical literacy: Reconstructing a neglected dimension in teacher development. International Journal of Educational Research, 37, 755-767. Kelchtermans, G., & Ballet, K. (2002b). The micropolitics of teacher induction: A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialisation. Teaching & Teacher Education, 18, 105-120. Koshmanova, T., & Ravchyna, T. (2008). Teacher preparation in a post-totalitarian society: An interpretation of Ukrainian teacher educators' stereotypes. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 21(2), 137-158. Long, F., Hall, K., Conway, P., & Murphy, R. (2012). Novice teachers as 'invisible' learners. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 18(6), 619-636. Loughran, J. (2006). Developing a pedagogy of teacher education: Understanding teaching and learning about teaching. New York: Routledge. Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research & evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Richter, D., Kunter, M., Ludtke, O., Klusmann, U., Anders, Y., & Baumert, J. (2013). How different mentoring approaches affect beginning teachers' development in the first years of practice. Teaching & Teacher Education, 36, 166-177. Struyven, K., & Vanthournout, G. (2014). Teachers' exit decisions: An investigation into the reasons why newly qualified teachers fail to enter the teaching profession or why those who do enter do not continue teaching. Teaching & Teacher Education, 43, 37-45. Tillema, H., & Kremer-Hayon, L. (2005). Facing dilemmas: Teacher-educators' ways of constructing a pedagogy of teacher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 10(2), 203-217. Tripp, D. (1993). Critical incidents in teaching: Developing professional judgement. New York: Routledge. Warner, W. M., Brown, M. W., & Lindle, J. C. (2010). Micropolitics, community identity, and school consolidation. Journal of School Public Relations, 31, 303-318. Zogla, I. (2001). Democratisation in Latvian education: Teachers' attitudinal change. European Journal of Teacher Education, 24(2), 143-156.

Author Information

Nathan Brubaker (presenting / submitting)

Monash University

Faculty of Education

Frankston

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