A Narrative Inquiry Into Beginning Teachers’ Meaning Making of Self as a Teacher and Teaching as a Career

Abstract

The first year of teaching is known to be a critical period during which beginning teachers build meanings of teaching and themselves as teachers. The first year of teaching is also known to be challenging for many beginning teachers. Therefore, this phase of a teacher’s career has been the focus of much research, particularly in relation to induction and mentoring as strategies to facilitate learning and retain beginning teachers. However, less attention has been given to exploring how beginning teachers make meaning of their lived experiences as a teacher. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate how first-year teachers make meaning of teaching and themselves as teachers. This longitudinal study used a qualitative, narrative inquiry approach to examine the influences on beginning teachers’ meaning making of teaching and themselves as teachers. Of particular interest was the process of meaning construction and reconstruction that participants experienced over time. The five participants were all first-year teachers in urban Auckland schools, New Zealand. Data were primarily collected through semistructured individual interviews conducted five times; once at the end of participants’ initial teacher education (ITE) programme, and four times over their first year of teaching. Interview data were supplemented with field notes and information collected through social media. The data were analysed thematically and presented in two ways: stories that illustrated individual participant’s lived experience and a cross-case analysis of the five participants’ data. The findings showed that the five participants had idealistic reasons for choosing teaching as a career including wanting to make a positive difference to children’s learning and to society. Pragmatic considerations were also evident, particularly for participants teaching was a second career. The study showed that participants’ initial simplistic constructions of teaching were reconstructed during their ITE programme. More complex constructions of teaching and being a teacher were developed through extended practicum experiences which exposed participants to the realities of teaching, revealing how they had underestimated what teachers’ work really involved. This indicates the importance of ITE and practicum schools ensuring preservice teachers are provided with opportunities and conditions that facilitate the reconstruction of more complex and realistic understandings of teaching and being a teacher. Increasingly complex constructions of teaching and being a teacher occurred over the first year of teaching. School contexts played a critical role in such reconstructions. Schools that took a comprehensive approach to induction and mentoring and fostered a collaborative culture helped first-year teachers manage challenges and feel as though they were valued and trusted members of their school. First-year teachers in such schools were more likely to have a positive reconstruction of self as a teacher and view teaching as a long-term career. In contrast, participants who experienced less collaborative school cultures and who did not feel trusted or valued tended to develop more negative views of self as teacher. This influenced those participants’ career intentions. This highlights the importance of school culture and the provision of conditions that support beginning teachers to meet the challenge related to their first year of teaching and to develop a positive sense of self as teacher. Recognising that generalisations cannot be made given the small-scale nature of this study, the findings provide insights into what influences beginning teachers’ construction and reconstruction of self as a teacher and teaching as a career over time. The study also draws attention to a relationship between positive and negative constructions of teaching and beginning-teacher career intentions. Thus, this longitudinal study adds understanding to existing literature in the area as well as opening up avenues for future research. The findings from this study may also be of interest to teacher educators, school leaders, preservice teachers, beginning teachers, and policymakers.