01.Professional Learning and Development
Paper
Early Career Teachers’ Experiences with Structural Constraints
Anna-Maria Stenseth
UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Presenting Author: Stenseth, Anna-Maria
This paper investigates structural constraints for early career teachers (ECTs) who hold a master’s degree from Norwegian teacher education. Although education and educational research is done within diverse educational settings, research shows that the current educational systems constrain ECTs, (Loh & Hu, 2014; Valenčič Zuljan & Marentič Požarnik, 2014) , and ECTs continue to flee the profession (Schaefer et al., 2021). Furthermore, education is increasingly understood as human capital, seeking to prepare students for new future work and labour relations (Rizvi & Lingard, 2010).
In light of these perspectives, this paper offers a critical realist lens to examine constraints and enablements in relation to practicing as teachers and seeks to identify underlying mechanisms (Archer et al., 1998) that produce conditions affecting teachers (and students). In critical realist ontology, reality is stratified into three levels or domains; the empirical, the actual and the real. At the level of the real, critical realism claims to demonstrate the independent reality of underlying mechanisms informing societal processes (Benton & Craib, 2011). To examine ECTs experiences with constraints and enablements at the empirical level, the following research question is posed: How do early career teachers experience structural constraints and enablements after five years of teaching? To investigate the underlying mechanisms at the level of the real, the following question is asked: What ideologies about the role of the teacher inform these constraints and enablements?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis study is part of RELEMAST, a longitudinal research project that examines ECT’s experiences with an integrated master’s degree and their first years as teachers. The data material consists of 27 semi-structured interviews with early career teachers. In 2015, UiT the Arctic University of Norway initiated a pilot of such an integrated master’s degree. In Norway, the new initial teacher education (ITE ) programmes focus on research and development work combined with subject and didactic specialization in three to four teaching subjects (Bjørndal et al., 2022). In contrast, the former teacher education programme spanning over four years, provided teachers with a broader knowledge base encompassing more school subjects.
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe preliminary findings at the empirical level, indicate that ECTs experience a need for further education post Initial Teacher Education, and a tension between schools’ expectations and ECTs’ subject knowledge. The ECTs state having few school subjects in their master education, making them consider investing in further education, although they recently completed an education that should prepare them for working in school. School leaders seem to share this viewpoint, communicating to the ECTs that they have a too narrow subject knowledge base. The lack of formal education in various school subjects constrains these teachers as they are put to teach subjects without formal competence. Furthermore, ECTs are constrained by structures such as lack of time, resulting among others in less opportunities to build close relationships to students and colleagues, and to follow up individual students. Shortage of time also constrained them in sharing ideas and teaching schemes with colleagues. ECTs state experiencing a need to prioritize lesson planning (individually) and managing administrative work over doing relational work, resulting in a lack of capacity to help students in need for extra care during work hours.
At the level of the real, preliminary analysis indicate that underlying mechanisms such as the idea of the complex late modern society’s need for specialization fostering the knowledge society, and new liberalism could inform ECTs’ societal processes.
ReferencesArcher, M. S., Bhaskar, R., Collier, A., Lawson, T., & Norrie, A. (1998). Critical realism: Essential readings. Routledge.
Benton, T., & Craib, I. (2011). Philosophy of social science: The philosophical foundations of social thought (2nd. ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Bjørndal, K. E. W., Antonsen, Y., & Jakhelln, R. (2022). Stress-coping Strategies amongst Newly Qualified Primary and Lower Secondary School Teachers with a Master's Degree in Norway. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 66(7), 1253-1268. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313831.2021.1983647
Loh, J., & Hu, G. (2014). Subdued by the system: Neoliberalism and the beginning teacher. Teaching and Teacher Education, 41, 13-21. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.03.005
Rizvi, F., & Lingard, B. (2010). Globalizing Education Policy. Florence: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203867396
Schaefer, L., Hennig, L., & Clandinin, J. (2021). Intentions of early career teachers: should we stay or should we go now? Teaching Education, 32(3), 309-322. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2020.1730317
Valenčič Zuljan, M., & Marentič Požarnik, B. (2014). Induction and Early-career Support of Teachers in Europe. European Journal of Education, 49(2), 192-205. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12080
01.Professional Learning and Development
Paper
Challenges and Surviving Strategies in Times of Neo- liberalism: A Comparative Analysis of Early Career Teachers in Norway and Spain
Yngve Antonsen1, Antonio Portela Pruaño2, Remi Skytterstad Pedersen1, Anna-Maria Stenseth1
1UiT The arctic university of Tromsø, Norway; 2Faculty of Education, University of Murcia, Spain
Presenting Author: Antonsen, Yngve;
Skytterstad Pedersen, Remi
European countries have for a decade conducted neo-liberal policy school reforms to improve quality assurances, accountability and for promoting evidence-based teaching (Ball, 2016). Neo-liberalism as a concept promotes what Shamir (2008) describes as responsibilization in the public sector and may be understood as:
"A complex, often incoherent, unstable and even contradictory set of practices that are organized around a certain imagination of the ‘market’ as a basis for the universalization of social relations, with the corresponding incursion of such relations into almost every single aspect of our lives" (Shamir, 2008, p. 3).
As such, Neo-liberalism strengthens market thinking in public school systems, and promotes both individualism and state control (Shamir, 2008). According to Erlandson et al. (2020) contributes neo-liberalism to individual struggles for Swedish teachers related to performativity, competition and hierarchisation. Kutsyuruba et al. (2019) and Loh and Hu (2014) found that early careers teachers (ECTs) have more challenges because of neo-liberalism related to time management and the handling of daily work tasks than anticipated. This indicates a wicked problem as most European countries lack teachers and that the existing teachers experience challenges related to their workload (Kutsyuruba et al., 2019). Drawing from the perspective of Hackman (2009) there is a need to address systematic work challenges and not only focus on positive individual solutions. We also follow the advice of Tiplic et al. (2015) and study cohorts of ECTs alone.
From this background, the objective is to do a comparative analysis of primary and secondary ECTs beliefs about the challenges faced in their professional practice and their views on how they handle these challenges in Norwegian and Spanish schools. Here, Norwegian teachers thinks about leaving the profession because of organisational and contextual factors and not individual reasons (Tiplic et al., 2015) and Spain don’t have challenges related to retention (Umpstead et al., 2016).
As an analytical lens, we used the Australian theory of practice architectures (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). According to this practice theory we can understand the practice of ECTs work from understanding language games (sayings), activities (doings) and ways of relating to others and the world (relatings), and how these hangs together in the projects of practices’ (Kemmis et al. 2017, p. 57). The practices are channelled in their course[RP1] by practice architectures composed of cultural-discursive arrangements (resources that make possible the language and discourses used), material-economic arrangements (resources that make possible the activities undertaken) and social-political arrangements (resources that make possible the relationships amongst people) (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008). Practices do not occur in a vacuum but are held in place and shaped by prevalent arrangements, such as new reforms or other neo-liberal demands such as quality arrangements, accountability, and evidence-based teaching both nationally and locally, which include all the conditions that shape how a particular practice unfolds in a particular site, with this teacher, those particular students, those colleagues and the management (Kemmis & Grootenboer, 2008).
Our two research questions are:
1) What are the ECTs’ beliefs about challenges of practice associated with neo-liberalization of schools?
2) How do ECTs handle the challenges related to neo-liberalism in their practice?
Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources UsedThis article is based upon two qualitative studies. This design sought to collect information about different aspects of the phenomena of study and acquire a greater depth of understanding (Maxwell, 2013). Neither of the two studies had direct questions related to this study's research questions, but the teachers emphasized demands relating to neo-liberalism in their answers about challenges early in their careers.
The Norwegian RELEMAST study consisted of open-ended semi-structured interviews (Kvale, 2008) with 27 ECTs after five years in the profession. These ECTs had just fulfilled a piloted five-year research-based master teacher education for primary and secondary school teachers.
The Spanish DePrInEd study consisted of 4 focus groups and 23 semi-structured interviews (Kvale, 2008) with ECTs with a bachelor education after one to six years in the profession.
The number of informants allowed us to capture variations in the school context. The interviews lasted around 30-60 minutes and were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Reflective thematic analysis was employed for data analysis, drawing on the six-phase model proposed by Braun and Clarke (2022).
Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or FindingsThe ECTs believe that their time and resource challenges in work are increasing and, in some cases, overwhelming. ECTs in both countries are positive to student active learning, diversity, and inclusive education. However, the teachers believe that lack of resources has a negative influence on their doings, especially to plan and initiate student active teaching and inclusive education. The ECTs reveal challenges related to their individual responsibility for teaching and following up all students. The ECTs have limited time to develop their relations with students, parents, and management. Especially in Norway some ECTs have challenges about reporting and understanding the inclusive support system. Top-down school development projects are according to the ECTs contributing to increase time pressure and seldom results in better teaching for the students. This indicates that the increasing neo-liberal demands to teachers, may negatively influence teachers’ motivation. Still, the Norwegian ECTs wants to develop their teaching in collaboration with their closest colleagues and use research-based approaches for promoting student active learning. We will elaborate and discuss the results using the theory of practice architecture.
The ECTs claim that they must prioritise their time to work as a teacher and reduce work tasks and lower ambitions for planning student active learning. ECTs claim that they try to handle the challenges of neo-liberalism in collaboration and support with colleagues. Here middle leaders may have an influence if they try to reduce the time set for working on neo-liberal demands and creates time for professional learning in schools.
The situation for some Norwegian teachers contributes to high workload and lessening motivation and may for a few results in thinking about leaving the profession. The Spanish teachers lose their motivation but stay in the profession.
ReferencesBall, S. J. (2016). Neoliberal education? Confronting the slouching beast. Policy Futures in Education, 14(8), 1046-1059. https://doi.org/10.1177/1478210316664259
Erlandson, P., Strandler, O., & Karlsson, M. R. (2020). A fair game – the neoliberal (re)organisation of social and relational practices in local school settings. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 41(3), 410-425. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1707067
Hackman, J. R. (2009). The perils of positivity. Journal of Organizational Behavior 30, 309-319. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/job.587
Kutsyuruba, B., Godden, L., & Bosica, J. (2019). The impact of mentoring on the Canadian early career teachers’ well-being. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 8(4), 285-309. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-02-2019-0035
Kvale, S. (2008). Doing interviews. Sage.
Loh, J., & Hu, G. (2014). Subdued by the system: Neoliberalism and the beginning teacher. Teaching and teacher education, 41, 13-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.03.005
Shamir, R. (2008). The age of responsibilization: on market-embedded morality. Economy and Society, 37(1), 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140701760833
Tiplic, D., Brandmo, C., & Elstad, E. (2015). Antecedents of Norwegian beginning teachers’ turnover intentions. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45(4), 451-474. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2014.987642
Umpstead, R., Jankens, B., Gil, P. O., Weiss, L., & Umpstead, B. (2016). School Choice in Spain and the United States: A Comparative Study. Global Education Review, 3(2), 84-102. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1098703.pdf
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