Novice Teachers' Responses to Challenges Related to Enacting Ambitious Instruction

• In Event: Beginning Elementary Teachers' Development of Ambitious Instructional Practices in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics

Abstract

Objective. Drawing on an extensive set of interviews (N=155) with 68 first-year teachers (FYTs) from five different teacher preparation programs, this paper describes the landscapes of challenges and responses perceived by FYTs. Given the range of teacher preparation programs and novice teaching contexts represented by this group of FYTs, this paper has implications for district leaders and teacher preparation programs interested in supporting novice teachers in enacting ambitious instruction.
Perspective. Veenman’s (1984) review of literature revealed that novices identified classroom discipline, student motivation, individual student differences, assessing student work, and relations with parents as significant challenges. More recently, Meister and Melnick (2003) found a similar set of novice teacher challenges. Some studies also have examined the people available to support beginning teachers in response to these challenges (e.g., Achinstein & Barrett, 2004; Fantilli & McDougall, 2009). In this study, we focused on FYTs’ reported challenges and then analyzed FYTs’ reported responses to these challenges, as well as the relationship between these challenges and responses and FYTs’ instructional practices.
Data Sources and Methods. Sixty-eight FYTs participated in one to three interviews each during their first year of teaching and responded to a range of questions including: What has been challenging for you so far this year? Describe how you navigated through one of your challenges.
A team of researchers completed an initial coding process in which transcripts were coded with a set of broad initial codes. “Challenges/tensions/dilemmas” was one of these initial codes. Next, the authors of this paper sub-coded all transcript excerpts with this initial code using a set of sub-codes for challenges and responses that built on prior research and emerged from the data.
Findings. FYTs reported challenges related to several topics, with the most frequent being challenges related to school context, students, curricula, and lack of preparation. We identified four strategies that FYTs reported using to respond to these challenges: adapting their teaching practice, seeking support from others, searching for additional resources, or planning to leave their school. We then examined the challenges and responses of a group of eight case study teachers who scored particularly high or low (in relation to all FYTs in this study) on our measure of ambitious instruction (PLATO). Novices who taught more ambitiously more often named challenges in the school context (e.g., available resources, class size, support of colleagues and administrators) and less often identified challenges regarding their students’ needs, behavior, or motivation, as compared to novices with lower levels of ambitious instruction. Novices with high levels of ambitious instruction also more often responded by adapting their practices in more strategic and inquiry-based ways, whereas novices with lower levels of ambitious instruction responded with more trial-and-error and behaviorist approaches.
Significance. In this study, we sought to identify challenges FYTs face, particularly in relation to enacting ambitious instruction. Understanding not only the challenges for FYTs, but also how FYTs respond to these challenges, can be beneficial information for both school officials and teacher educators interested in supporting the enactment of ambitious instruction.

Authors

• Kim Evert, Middle Tennessee State University

• Corey Drake, Michigan State University