From Leavers to "In-Betweeners": How Cultural Factors Shape Beginning Teachers' "Stories to Leave By"

• In Event: Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Considerations of Experience and Identity

Abstract

This paper focuses on the lived experiences and stories of two beginning teacher’s who left their secondary school posts in 2014. In their separate “stories to leave by” (Clandinin et al, 2009) we see similar stories constructed on the personal landscape that collided with the professional knowledge landscape, and which formed the backdrop to the identity narratives of both teachers. Through this inquiry I throw light on a complex and multifaceted cultural and familial backdrop, in this case a Confucian-heritage setting, as the driving force behind the young teachers’ decisions to leave the teaching jobs they acknowledged loving so much. Adopting a narrative inquiry methodology (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) the paper adds to our knowledge base on teacher attrition.

Author

• Gary James Harfitt, The University of Hong Kong