Learning to Swim in Uncharted Waters: Identity Transitions in the Early Years of Teaching

• In Event: 29.069 - Selected Dimensions of Teachers' Lives

Abstract

This study explored pre-service teachers’ initial orientations to teaching, and the way their pre-teaching orientations are maintained, strengthened, challenged or changed during the first year teaching in relation to their personal resources (i.e., biographies, characteristics, values, and beliefs) and contextual influences (i.e., school and personal life circumstances). Seven pre-service teachers who were at the end of their teacher education program were interviewed, and then they were interviewed again one year later when they began teaching as first year teachers. Findings showed different patterns of transition (i.e., smooth transition, difficult transition) in relation to the way their professional orientations were changed or maintained. Targeted mentoring and support in the school context were one of the most critical influences.

Authors

• Ji Yeon Hong, University of Oklahoma

• Christopher W. Day, University of Nottingham

• Barbara A. Greene, University of Oklahoma