Be(com)ing a Teacher in Challenging Circumstances: Giving Up or Sustaining Commitment?

• In Event: Negotiating Identities in the Transitions of Early Career Teachers: International Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives:
The intention of this paper is to present findings from a longitudinal study on beginning teachers and on their experiences of being a teacher in challenging circumstances. The aim is to look at the ways in which changes in policy and school contexts, as well as in personal and professional contexts, impact teachers’ identity and sense of professionalism over time with implications for teacher education and induction. In Portugal teacher surplus and unemployment amongst new teachers are two intertwined realities that characterize the teaching profession with implications for the recruitment of student teachers in higher education institutions and for new teachers’ job expectations. More recently, a profound financial and economic crisis which has been affecting the Portuguese society at various levels (leading to salary cuts and higher taxes), including the teaching profession. Also, recent changes at a policy level have been affecting teachers’ work, namely the restructuring of initial teacher education in the light of the so-called Bologna process, which includes the introduction of an exam on knowledge and competencies for entering the teaching profession; the introduction of a probationary year; new mechanisms for teacher evaluation (including new teachers); and new schemes for school governance, amongst others.

Perspectives or Theoretical Framework:
A narrative approach to study novice teachers’ experiences of be(com)ing teachers was adopted. Teacher identity and professionalism are the key concepts underpinning the research project in the light of three main dimensions: the personal, the professional and the situated. Time and critical incidents were also used as key elements in exploring teachers’ accounts.

Methods, Techniques, Modes of Inquiry:
Data were collected through semi-structured interviews using a narrative approach as well as oral and written reflections in given periods of time. At first, novice teachers were asked to look back on their past experiences as students and student teachers. They were then interviewed in different moments over the first 10 years of teaching (this project started in 1999). Over the first two years of teaching they were interviewed twice a year, and then, in most cases, once a year.

Data Sources, Evidence, Objects or Materials:
In total, 84 interviews and oral and written accounts were used to collect data. In total, 7 teachers were involved in the study over the 10 year period.

Results:
I will present the results using illustrative narrative accounts as well as a summary of the main themes emerging from the teachers’ accounts.

Scholarly Significance:
Listening to teachers’ stories mainly at the beginning of their careers is an important means for better understanding their professional worlds and the interplay between the personal and the professional as well as the context. This will help to make informed decisions about teacher education and induction, especially in regard to universities and schools’ roles in order to sustain teachers’ commitment to teaching. These issues will be explored further in the light of the current challenges of the teaching profession internationally, but with a particular focus on the Portuguese context, and their implications for teacher identity.

Author

• Maria A. Flores, Minho University