This paperexamines the perceptions of newly qualified teachers, placed in one Scottish local authority, of the practitioner enquiry that is required to be conducted by them during their first year of teaching.  Using a constructivist (Charmazian) grounded theory framework, this research examined the perceptions and attitudes towards the enquiry pre and post enquiry and seek to identify what influence this may have on professional identity and classroom practice.  This work analysed the literature relating to Charmazian grounded theory, discussed how this research was conducted, and examine the researcher’s positionality within the subject area. Throughout the paper, a number of themes emerge from the data and are discussed, including newly qualified teachers’ (NQT’s) perceptions of practitioner enquiry at pre and post enquiry, the importance of relationships, and what influenced their professional identity. Through the research methods of focus group and interviews, this dissertation looks to challenge the practice of a mandated practitioner enquiry in the first year of teaching. I conclude with a series of recommendations, in line with constructivist grounded theory, including the recommendation for the question of enquiry as project v enquiry as stance to be revisited in relation to the NQT experience.  Additionally, for a reassessment of the NQT voice in the decision-making process around what support and experience in their first year should look like.

This paper will look at practitioner enquiry within the context of newly qualified teachers (NQTs) undertaking a practitioner enquiry during their first year of teaching. Two research questions guided the research, shedding light on the issues related to the requirement for NQTs to conduct practitioner enquiries in the early stages of their career:

1. What influence, if any, has undertaking a practitioner enquiry had on NQTs’ perceptions of themselves as professionals?

2. To what extent do NQT teachers feel enabled to effect change in the classroom as a result of undertaking a practitioner enquiry?

The early months and years of teaching can be crucial to identity formation, so it could be suggested that early experiences of teaching, and any professional learning programme that sits alongside it, should nurture within students a perception of themselves as being able to develop a constructively critical approach to practice that can affect change within the classroom. The small-scale nature of this project, along with using a constructivist grounded theory approach, enabled a more in-depth consideration of the factors which may have influenced how a NQTs identity as a professional evolves through their practitioner enquiry, situated in the context of their professional practice. This research topic is relevant due, in part, to the increasing expecation across Europe that teachers will come into the classroom and be research informed and research ready. This research focuses predominantly on ’how’ the above may influence NQT teachers’ perceptions of themselves as professionals (professional identity). Professional learning is defined where learning opportunities ‘stimulate their thinking and professional knowledge and to ensure that teachers’ practice is critically informed and current’. The research also focuses on the ‘what’, in terms of the outcomes of effecting change in the classroom and of moving forward in their careers.  Finally, it considers the ‘why’ or rationale behind practitioner enquiry being built into the NQTs’ programme in Scotland and elsewhere in Europe.

Grounded theory in this study was used as it enabled me, as the researcher, to define what was happening when conducting a practitioner enquiry rather than simply the perceived rationale behind NQTs conducting a practitioner enquiry. I wanted to be able to ask the ‘why’ questions that locate the NQTs as individuals, and delve more deeply into the causes, the background, the wider social currents (Charmaz, 2020, p. 168) that they found themselves in in relation to the practitioner enquiry. The ‘strength in grounded theory is in it being a useful nodal point in which we can debate significant issues’ (Charmaz & Thornberg, 2020, p. 7). By nodal point it is meant the research finding is the central point that can be returned to when looking at greater depth in to the wider issues and questions that have emerged from the findings. For a grounded theory study to be an appropriate choice, it must be congruent with the desired knowledge and the study's purpose (Mills, et al., 2006). As the desired knowledge was around the newly qualified teacher’s perspective and experience of a practitioner enquiry, with the purpose being to bring their voices to the stage while developing a theoretical standpoint on the use of practitioner enquiry in that first year of teaching, grounded theory was appropriate. Additionally, as I used comparative methods throughout the process to enable the theory to emerge through the data collection phase, I was continually interacting with the data, a hallmark of constructivist grounded theory.

The recommendation from this research is that there needs to be a shift in understanding and promotion from enquiry as project to enquiry as stance. Such a cultural shift towards enquiry as stance for newly qualified teachers would be supportive . This shift would influence teaching professionals at all levels to consider how enquiry is positioned and talked about. The findings of this research suggest that there is clearly a disparity between the way enquiry is currently promoted (as project), the experience of the newly qualified teacher (NQT), and those of the more experienced teacher. Within teacher education, the way that enquiry is now positioned presents an opportunity for a reconsideration of the approach to practitioner enquiry. By making practitioner enquiry as a project, compulsory, and setting it as a significant element in the first year of teaching, it is not achieving the constructively critical (and reflective) approach to practice required of teachers. Rather, enquiry ‘as project’ runs the risk of turning NQTs against practitioner enquiry from the start of their careers, eroding the value teachers may place on practitioner enquiry in the future. The recommendations of this research are based on the constructed abstract understandings that emerged, and offer a guide as to how the phenomena (NQT practitioner enquiry) could be envisaged differently, rather than providing a blueprint of what that vision should be,

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