Harnessing the Generativity of Digital Diaries and Face-to-Face Semi-Structured Interviews: Perspectives of Beginning Teachers on Learning to Teach

• In Event: Understanding Teacher Agency

Abstract

This study examines the use of both digital diaries and conventional face-to-face semi-structured interviews to understand beginning primary/elementary schoolteachers’ perspectives on their early-career workplace learning. In this account, the potential of digital diaries is foregrounded. Principally influenced by the assumptions of the constructivist paradigm, the study employs a theoretical framework informed by sociocultural theory and Activity Theory. Charting nine teachers’ workplace learning, over one school-year, data collection involved ten digital diary entries and three face-to-face interviews with newly qualified teachers in primary/elementary schools. Results indicate that there are overlapping yet distinctive emerging themes from the two data sources vis-à-vis learning to teach. We discuss the relationship between both the methodological and substantive aspects of the study.

Authors

• Daniel O'Sullivan, University College Cork

• Paul F. Conway, University College Cork