Section archive - Beginning Teachers

This study examined, through the lens of narrative inquiry, the lived experience of a beginning teacher during her first two years in a neoliberal school system. This narrative inquiry has revealed how an idealistic beginning teacher, enamoured with a constructivist pedagogy and eager to teach and inspire, was engulfed by a neoliberal school culture and taught in a way antithetical to what she had believed. The authors conclude that this story illustrates how neoliberal thinking and practice have impacted the lived experiences of an ordinary beginning teacher and helps to illuminate potential causes of tension and conflict that novice teachers in Singapore are likely to encounter in their induction into the profession and their adoption of alternative pedagogies to teach against the grain of educational neoliberalism that has taken a stranglehold on Singapore’s school system.

This study describes one novice teacher’s efforts to advocate on behalf of LGBT students despite the resistance that she faced from sociocultural factors influencing her students, classroom, and her teaching practices.

The aim of this study was to gain insight into ways to improve the retention of beginning urban teachers. This study investigated the support structure and support culture of 11 urban primary schools. This article focused on characteristics of the support structure and support culture at schools where beginning teachers judged the support they received positively or negatively. The findings revealed that the principals of the schools were willing to invest in the professional development of the teachers. Although there were differences in the support structure of the schools, the main difference between the schools appeared to be their support culture. In conclusion, this study showed that in schools where teachers judged the support practice positively, support was focused on the specific urban challenges that the teachers experienced more than it was in the schools where teachers judged support negatively.

This article reports on a narrative inquiry into two beginning teachers who left the profession after just 1 year of practice, only to return 2 years later. Findings reveal that these beginning teachers’ experiences of their school contexts combined with their personal stories in the first year of practice shaped their professional identity culminating in them leaving and then rejoining the teaching fold.