Becoming a Teacher in Kyrgyzstan

• In Event: Roundtable Session (Tuesday IV)
  In Refereed Round-Table Session: Teachers and curriculum in schools

Proposal

This paper presents the findings of the quality study that examines and develops an in-depth understanding of beginning teachers’ professional socialization. Many researchers point out that the initial experiences of beginning teachers are the most challenging and influential in their future careers (Bullough, 1997; Weinstein, 1998). The study focuses on the challenges the teachers face in their initial stages of work and on how they address them. I examine the beginning teachers’ challenges using three realms (contexts) of beginning teachers’ work: classroom, school and community; these realms help us understand teachers’ work separately and in-depth. They came from the study of many scholars who have examined teachers’ work in different settings (Jordell, 1987; Thiessen & Anderson, 1999; Zeichner & Gore, 1999). The realms do overlap, but it is still possible to focus on work the teachers must do in each realm. The overlap of the realms shows how aspects of their work in other contexts influence what a teacher does in any particular realm.
The study examines in greater detail the professional and relational challenges that the beginning teachers face while interacting with their pupils, administrators, colleagues, pupils’ parents and education officials. In addition to the typical challenges of adjusting to school culture, rules and regulations and classroom management faced by beginning teachers, the young teachers in this study have to deal with additional tribulations that have manifested after and because of the collapse of the former USSR. These include insufficient resources for schools, inadequately qualified and inexperienced colleagues, high student drop-out rates, a constantly changing curriculum, lack of textbooks, low salaries with frequent delays and deductions. These young teachers, despite their circumstances, emerge as caring and considerate individuals who adopted a variety of responses including maintaining their values and performance while at the same time attempting to influence others as they protected themselves from criticisms. The combination of social strategies and micropolitical tactics proved useful in examining the beginning teachers’ broader positions and specific tactics of addressing the crucial challenges. Many scholars have suggested that beginning teachers employ different social strategies (Lacey, 1977; Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1985), micropolitical tactics (Blase, 1997) or coping strategies (Bullough, 1989) when they come across challenges in their initial period of work.
The study offers insights for school administrators, experienced teachers and education authorities at district, provincial and national levels. It points out the importance of assisting beginning teachers in improving performance, retention and long-term personal and professional well-being. The thesis also highlights some of the major challenges of conducting qualitative studies in the Central Asian context. Finally, the study also revealed that there is a need to develop educational research capacity, a situation which must be addressed in order to improve the educational system.

Authors

• Aisulu Totobaeva, Independent scholar

• Totukan Dyikanbaeva, Osh State University