Becoming Adult/Becoming Teacher: Ambiguity and Classroom Management Difficulties in the First Year of Teaching

• In Event: 66.058 - Experience and Interaction in Classroom Management

Abstract

This paper describes research exploring the consequences for classroom management when new teachers do not feel fully adult. A survey was administered to 58 first year teachers to identify teachers who did and did not consider themselves to be adult and teachers who were dissatisfied with their classroom management. A subsample of 16 teachers were interviewed to elicit their narratives of becoming adult and becoming a teacher. Teachers dissatisfied with their classroom management were found to say they did not feel adult in their classrooms and that they did not think students saw them as adults. Implications are discussed for the inclusion of identity work in teacher education, particularly in helping teacher candidates to navigate their transition into an adult identity.

Author

• Daryl Mortensen Dugas, Northern Illinois University