Teacher effectiveness has become an increasing concern as education is viewed politically as a measure of social and economic capital, therefore, teacher effectiveness and by extension teacher education have become key areas of focus for policymakers worldwide (Rauschenberger et al. 2017). Despite career-long professional learning being a well-established feature in Scottish education, ITE programmes are still under pressure to produce “classroom ready teachers” (MacDonald and Rae, 2018 p841). Furthermore, they are criticised for failing to adequately prepare new teachers for the rigors of an increasingly complex teaching profession (ibid).

The transition from ITE into the teaching profession is acknowledged as a challenging and precarious time for new teachers. Faced with issues relating to workload, role conflict and behaviour management (Loughran et al., 2001), new teachers can experience what Veenman (1984) terms “reality shock” (p143). All new teachers in Scotland are supported during this transition through the Teacher Induction Scheme (TIS). This guarantees one year of paid employment for graduating teachers and provides structured support. Despite these features, concerns have been raised about the variability of support available during induction (Shanks, 2020).

A gap exists in the literature for qualitative research that brings together the learning experienced during the ITE, induction and post-induction phases. This study focussed on graduates of a physical education teacher education (PETE) programme within Scotland. The aim of this study was to explore the lived experiences of new teachers during the early career phase and was guided by the question:

What are the lived experiences of PE teachers during ITE, induction and post-induction?

Phenomenology seeks to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of experience (Van Manen, 2001), by gathering and interpreting accounts of lived experiences of a phenomenon (Vagle, 2018). This study employed hermeneutic phenomenology which focuses on concrete lived experiences and the meanings that we make of these experiences (Van Manen, 2014). The phenomenological principles of intentionality and the hermeneutic circle underpinned the design of this study.

Intentionality denotes the essential relationship between the conscious subject and the world (ibid). In this relationship between the subject and the object of consciousness is an active relationship in which consciousness is shaped by the object and the object is also shaped by consciousness (ibid). The purpose is to orient the participants to their lived experiences as they experienced them rather than how they have conceptualised them (Adams and Van Manen, 2017). During data collection, questions were asked in a way that engaged the participants with their pre-reflective experiences. Therefore, four existentials or phenomenological themes underpinned the data collection and analysis process. These principles are considered to belong to the fundamental structure of the lifeworld: lived space (spatiality), lived body (corporeality), lived time (temporality), and lived human relation (relationality) (Van Manen, 2014). To ensure that the data was experiential in nature, any data that did not relate to at least one of the existentials was disregarded during analysis (Sloan and Bowe, 2013).

The hermeneutic circle explains that individuals do not come to a phenomenon blankly, but start with vague preunderstandings and prejudices, and these are historically and culturally shaped (Gadamer, 1987). As a phenomenon is encountered, some of these preunderstandings will be challenged and others reinforced. Through the engagement with the phenomenon, the experiencer is transformed and will approach future engagements with new preunderstandings in an ongoing cycle (ibid). Therefore, understandings are dynamic and temporal (Dall 'Alba, 2004). As data was collected at two key stages, I acknowledged that the participants’ interpretations of their experiences would be dynamic, and this would be reflected in their new understandings of their ITE and induction experiences when they were revisited post-induction.

Purposeful sampling was utilised to recruit seven graduates of a four-year undergraduate PETE programme. Phenomenology starts with first-hand, lived experience therefore phenomenological interviews should produce rich lived experience descriptions and should be conducted to facilitate participant’s recollections of these experiences (Van Manen 2014). Therefore, the conversation was kept open and flexible to allow the participants to raise and discuss the experiences most meaningful to. However, a loose structure was planned to ensure that elements of interest were covered so the interviews may be deemed to be semi-structured, but towards the unstructured end of that continuum (Kvale, 1996). This study had a longitudinal design, interviews took place at two key stages: during induction and post-induction. In phase 1 each participant was interviewed individually towards the end of their induction year. The aim was to gain a deep understanding of the participants’ experiences of PE as a pupil, their experiences of ITE as a student teacher and then as a new teacher during induction. Individual interviews were deemed most appropriate as the intention was to gather a deep insight into each participant’s experiences. In phase 2, three focus groups were conducted one year later, during the post-induction phase. The aim of this phase was to explore the post-induction experiences of the participants, but also to revisit their ITE and induction experiences to explore ongoing impact. Focus groups were deemed most appropriate as having collected in-depth experiential data in the first phase, I felt that interactions between the participants may deepen the discussions around the issues raised (Cohen et al, 2018). The focus groups began with an overview of the main findings from the initial interviews before engaging in the group discussion. The process of data analysis or phenomenological reduction requires the researcher to enter the hermeneutic circle, cycling between ‘thinking in terms of part to whole’ (Vagle, 2018). Writing and rewriting are crucial steps to gain a fuller understanding of the phenomenon (Van Manen, 2014). Within this study, moving from ‘part to whole’ meant both: engaging with the whole text for each participant (whole) and undertaking detailed line-by-line readings of each transcript (part) as well as circling between the account of each individual (part) and what was shared by the participants (whole) (Vagle, 2018).

It was apparent from the individual interviews and focus groups that the participants had encountered a wide range of experiences across the ITE, induction and post-induction stages. Though a number of themes were generated the theme of relationships and support was most prominent and recurrent across the three phases. Using a longitudinal approach allowed for connections to be made between the learning that occurred at each stage. There was evidence that learning experienced during ITE and induction continued to impact upon practice post-induction however this was often subtle and by revisiting their previous learning experiences, participants were able to recognise these connections. The research design also captured the non-linear nature of teacher learning as the participants’ highlighted breakthroughs in their learning at different stages. The main finding of this study is that early career teacher learning in all settings is highly dependent on relational factors. The importance of sustained connections within school settings in fostering strong, supportive relationships was highlighted across all phases. This has implications for how placements and induction are organised. This suggests that by allowing students to experience a sustained connection with a department may allow more supportive relationships to be developed and a greater sense of belonging. This could be achieved through extended placements or linked placements which allowed students to build on pre-established relationships with staff, pupils and university tutors. Similarly, a longer induction period may allow new teachers time to develop stronger relationships with pupils and staff. It could also allow new teachers to experience tapering support and gradual increases in responsibility (Dewhurst and McMurty, 2006). This could mitigate the impact of reality shock which was intensified by the simultaneous increase of demands at the same time as induction supports were withdrawn.

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