First-Year Voices: Utilizing Audio Journals to Study the Well-Being of Teachers

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Digital and Tech Tools for Teacher Learning

Abstract

The paper examines the utilization of audio journals as a methodological tool to study the well-being of novice teachers. The discussion of audio journals is contextualized within a longitudinal qualitative research study, which explored the social and emotional well-being of five first-year teachers. After an analysis of the collected audio journals, several conclusions were drawn. First, audio journals help elicit participants’ candid, unfiltered discussion of the emotionality experienced within teaching. Second, the intimacy and convenience of audio journals, as compared to other methods, empowers the participants to relate a richer description of the complexity endemic to teaching. Finally, the method provides the participant with an effective tool for capturing the emotional dimensions of reflexivity.
 

Author

• Patrick D. Riordan, Pacific University