Conference Agenda

Across the literature, the importance of formal supports for beginning teachers is clear. Quality mentoring and induction programmes, predicated on opportunity rather than deficit perspectives, recognise and develop beginning teachers’ existing strengths and capabilities, thus facilitating the formation of professional identities in the transition from pre-service to practice (Skytterstad et al. 2025; Antonsen et al. 2025; Kvam et al. 2024).

Yet, beginning teacher learning does not solely occur within formal professional development activities. Research confirms that much workplace learning in the first year of teaching is informal, reactive and implicit (Colognesi et al. 2020). Conceived of as non-didactic and embedded in meaningful, chosen activities (Rogoff et al. 2016), this type of unstructured workplace learning, which occurs through daily collegial interactions, is, frequently, under-valued in systems that focus on formal learning (Kelchtermans 2019). Given this circumstance, researchers have recently investigated the specific role of informal support in the way beginners experience the induction process (e.g., Ulvik et al. 2023). Motivated by this trend, this study starts from the premise that beginning teachers commence practice not only as the recipients of formal support structures, but simultaneously function in informal support networks (März & Kelchtermans 2020).

Acknowledging the role school-based professional relationships play in informal workplace learning, this study focuses on the everyday, informal workplace learning of nine beginning primary teachers, in Ireland, during the course of their initial or induction year of practice, post-graduation.

The main research question is: What kinds of informal support relationships do the participating beginner teachers seek during the course of their initial year of practice?

Guided by the research question, the study aims to contribute knowledge that can enhance the induction phase for beginning teachers.

As ‘networked’ beings, beginning teachers are embedded in a web of relationships with ‘others’ in their school (Kelchtermans 2019). This relationality forms the basis for the prevalence of informal workplace learning in the form of ‘natural mentoring’ and the existence of ‘relational conditions’ (McNally et al. 2009).

While the network of professional relationships in a school serves to support beginning teachers materially, socially, and emotionally, the fundamentally social and relational nature of the teaching role also constitutes a potential source of stress for beginners. Illustrative of the interpretative negotiations that are a central element of school-based practice, beginning teachers will be selective in their interactions when seeking support. This selectivity means that most requests on the parts of beginners are self-initiated (Antonsen et al. 2025).

Teachers generally engage in self-initiated informal workplace learning through two primary approaches. Though characterised by a degree of overlap, these are, firstly, through collaborative interaction with others and, secondly, through observation of others without interaction (Özyildirim et al. 2025; Wang et al. 2024). Together, both approaches signal the school workplace as an active or mediating force in the process of beginner teacher learning.

Collaborative interaction with others, involves beginners self-initiating informal support opportunities from ‘sought after’ experienced staff colleagues. These proactive, interpersonal encounters, initiated by agentic, ‘networking’ beginners (März and Kelchtermans 2020), take the form of professional conversations conducted with colleagues, or involve the exchange of pedagogical materials and resources.

The observation of others without interaction, adopts an intrapersonal, self-reflective approach towards informal learning. Equating almost to ‘learning by oneself’, these indirect interactions involve beginners observing colleagues ‘through the cracks’ (Solomon et al. 2006), as they enact their roles around the school. This involves the observation of colleagues’ practices and object use, across classrooms, corridors, stairways, and playgrounds, particularly from glimpsing their classroom arrangements, pedagogical materials or pupils' products. Indirect interaction also involves beginners overhearing discussions among teaching colleagues in the school staffroom (Christensen et al. 2018).

Arising from their own primary and post-primary schooling, beginning teachers commence practice with approximately fourteen years of experience with schools and with teachers. These experiences can act as a lens through which they view their initial or induction year of practice, post-graduation.

Coloured by the events and individuals in their school lives, beginning teachers often draw on their own teachers as role models, emulating their positive qualities or choosing to diverge from their negative traits. These role models can significantly impact a teacher's professional self-image and their vision of what it means to be a good teacher (Korthagen 2004).

Utilising the term “history-in-person” to conceptualise the historical production of persons in practice (Holland & Lave 2009), and predicated on the belief that there is value in flagging that the site of beginning practice is not only grounded in place but is always deeply historically or temporally constituted (Hardy and Edwards-Groves 2016), this study investigates how, during their initial year of practice, post-graduation, the dispositions and practices of nine beginning primary teachers, in Irish schools, are influenced by past teacher role models.

The main research question is: Do participants attribute importance to the influence of previous teachers on their professional roles as beginning teachers?

Centred on the socio-historical context of their own schooling, the biographical experiences that constitute their personal histories are deemed to influence the professional self-image of beginning teachers (Steadman 2024; Beijaard 2019; Morrison 2013).

Central to this approach is the idea that human existence is fundamentally characterised by temporality. People, beginning teachers in the present instance, have a personal history.

Prompted by the work of Bukor (2015), this study is centred on the research participants’ beliefs, assumptions, perceptions, and interpretations. All aspects of practice are interpreted through an individual’s belief system. Therefore, the influence of teacher role models on the practices of beginning teachers is best understood when embedded in the context of beginning teachers’ lives and examined from an individual’s ‘personal interpretive framework’ (Kelchtermans 2009).

Past teacher role models influence the formation of a ‘personal interpretative framework’ (Kelchtermans 2009), a set of beliefs that operates as a lens through which beginners observe, give meaning to and react to experiences, situations and conditions in their teaching jobs.

Within this framework two different, yet interconnected domains need to be distinguished: professional self-understanding and subjective educational theory (Kelchtermans 2009).

The first domain, professional self-understanding, refers to beginners’ conception of themselves as practicing teachers. Conceptually, a sense of temporality or historicity pervades professional self-understanding, as beginners’ actions in the present are influenced by meaningful experiences in the past and expectations about the future.

The second domain, subjective educational theory, relates to the personal system of knowledge and beliefs about education that beginning teachers use when performing their job, the basis on which they ground their decisions. Beginners’ subjective educational theory is largely idiosyncratic and based on personal experiences. The idiosyncratic character of beginners’ beliefs about education, arising from the apprenticeship of observation experienced during their primary and secondary schooling (Lortie 1975), magnifies the likelihood that they will imitatively rather than analytically replicate the practices of those teachers who are most like them in terms of personality and preference (Gray 2020). And yet beginning teachers implement practices that both echo and push back against their childhood and adolescent experiences in classrooms (Mewborn & Tyminski 2006). In acknowledging an anti-apprenticeship of observation, Moodie (2016) noted the disparity between negative experiences and negative role models some beginning teachers had as students and the positive pedagogies they enacted in their own classrooms. This self-reflection helps them create a more positive learning environment for their students.

The Professional Vision of Classroom Management (PVCM) framework is used in the literature to examine the relationship between classroom management and professional vision. According to Blömeke, Gustafsson, and Shavelson (2015), PVCM is a situation-specific skill that links instructors' classroom management effectiveness to their understanding of the subject. It includes the capacity to recognize and analyze significant classroom interactions and disturbances, which is one of the essential components of successful teaching. Effective classroom management and productive teaching depend on the ability to observe and interpret teaching and learning conditions. These skills allow teachers to: (1) recognize critical signs in student behavior, classroom management, and instructional dynamics; and (2) quickly analyze and address the observed situation. Teachers' comprehension of classroom management (Gold & Holodynski, 2017) or general pedagogical knowledge (Konig et al., 2014) determine how they interpret significant occurrences in the classroom. Among the classroom management aspects, three facets proposed by Kounin (1977) have been studied in this study: managing momentum, monitoring, and rules & routines. With rules, students know how to behave in the classroom and which behaviours are not acceptable to the teacher. Also, routines are essential for effective time management as they create stability and make daily classroom activities more manageable and predictable. As for monitoring, the teacher deals with students’ misbehaviors passively (hand gesture or glance, etc.) or actively (questions or reprimand, etc.) (Prilop et al., 2021). Monitoring is equivalent to Kounin’s withitness and overlapping, meaning the instructor is aware of every pertinent and ongoing procedure in the classroom. It involves standing in the right place in the classroom, observing, engaging with the pupils, and rewarding good behaviours (De Pry & Sugai, 2002; Simonsen et al., 2008). Additionally, the instructor acts quickly to address inappropriate behavior before it intensifies. Managing momentum ensures smooth transitions between classroom activities and maintains a steady flow of learning and time, aligned with student comprehension and interest. Moving from one activity to another should not be too fast or too slow.

While numerous studies have addressed professional vision in mathematics and science education (Gold, B. et al., 2020; Gold, B. et al., 2021; Stahnke, R. et al., 2023; Weber, K. et al., 2018), limited research has examined its implementation in ELT. By investigating how pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers notice and reason important classroom events or teaching practices, this research provides new insights into the professional vision literature. The purpose of this research is to elucidate pre-service EFL teachers’ professional vision skills in terms of classroom management. The first phase of this research is to identify the noticing and knowledge-based reasoning skills of pre-service EFL teachers. The second stage involved training sessions, post-lesson interviews, and video clubs to develop and improve professional vision skills. The training and video clubs aimed to deepen participants' ability to notice relevant aspects of classroom management and to apply their pedagogical knowledge more effectively in classroom contexts. After this phase, pre-service EFL teachers' professional vision of classroom management skills will be evaluated to determine whether the process improved their noticing and knowledge-based reasoning. Based on these purposes, the research questions are addressed as follows:

1. Do Turkish pre-service EFL teachers notice classroom management techniques used in the classroom?
2. Do Turkish pre-service EFL teachers reason classroom management techniques used in the classroom?
3. Does professional competence training have an impact on pre-service EFL teachers’ noticing regarding classroom management?
4. Does professional competence training have an impact on pre-service EFL teachers’ reasoning regarding classroom management?

Teaching practicum has been regarded as a central and indispensable component of initial teacher education. It is commonly expected to bridge theory and practice by enhancing pre-service teachers’ instructional skills, fostering professional learning, and supporting the development of teacher identity (Lawson et al., 2015). Beyond its pedagogical functions, however, the teaching practicum also represents pre-service teachers’ first sustained encounter with the complexities of real educational settings. Entering classrooms as temporary and relatively powerless members of the school community, pre-service teachers are exposed to unpredictable student behaviors, heavy workloads, institutional routines, and emotionally demanding interactions (Pakpahan, 2023). As a result, the practicum often becomes an emotionally charged experience in which enthusiasm, uncertainty, anxiety and frustration coexist (Hastings, 2004; Ji et al., 2022).

To explain how pre-service teachers respond to the emotional challenges embedded in real educational contexts, two theoretical perspectives have been particularly influential. The first is reality shock theory, which conceptualizes the tensions that arise when idealized expectations formed during teacher education collide with the realities of school practice (Veenman, 1984; Gaede). Research informed by this perspective has documented how such collisions may lead to emotional distress, professional disillusionment, and, in some cases, withdrawal from the teaching profession (Kim & Cho, 2014). The second is emotional labor theory, which highlights how teachers are required to manage and regulate their emotions in accordance with occupational norms and institutional expectations, often suppressing negative feelings in order to perform professionalism and care (Hochschild, 1983).

While both perspectives have significantly advanced understanding of pre-service teachers’ practicum experiences, they leave important questions unanswered. Reality shock research has tended to emphasize emotional disruption and destabilization, offering limited insight into how pre-service teachers emotionally adapt to ongoing challenges without necessarily disengaging from teaching. Emotional labor research, in contrast, has focused primarily on normative emotion management and performative regulation, often assuming relatively stabilized professional identities and paying less attention to pre-service teachers whose identities and career trajectories remain uncertain. Consequently, there is limited understanding of how the complexity of real educational settings shapes pre-service teachers’ emotional orientations during the practicum. In particular, little is known about how pre-service teachers simultaneously experience emotional engagement and distancing as they navigate everyday teaching realities.

In the context of China, the teaching profession is undergoing a significant transformation. Once regarded as a "prestigious" career, teaching is now increasingly seen as a less ideal profession. Teachers in China, particularly those in public schools, have historically enjoyed job security, stable income, and public respect, which contributed to their high social status (Liu & Onwuegbuzie, 2014; Song, Gu & Zhang, 2020). However, the reality for many teachers has shifted dramatically. The workload and pressures on teachers have increased significantly, with more than 90% of teachers working beyond the legally mandated 8-hour workday and often taking on non-teaching tasks (Lin & Huang, 2024). Furthermore, the "Double Reduction" policy (aimed at reducing student homework and off-campus tutoring) has added additional after-school responsibilities for teachers (Chen & Lin, 2024). Parental expectations have also escalated, with schools often being blamed for students' performance (Tencent Education, 2025). These changes have created a stark contrast between the idealized view of teaching and its current realities, diminishing the profession’s appeal and making it a more complex career choice.

Addressing this gap, the present study examines how pre-service teachers adjust their emotional orientations toward teaching through their encounters with the complexities of the practicum context. Drawing on and extending insights from reality shock and emotional labor theories, this study focuses on the process through which pre-service teachers negotiate emotional engagement and emotional distancing in response to real educational conditions.