Teachers, especially beginning teachers, continue a trend of leaving the profession at alarming rates within the first 5 years resulting in excessive costs to school systems and diminished instructional quality. Some programs, however, have shown impressive results. The purpose of this qualitative study, using an emerging interview process, was to examine the perceptions of beginning teachers in their 1st or 2nd year and those of veteran 3- to 5-year teachers regarding the effectiveness of mentoring and other guidance they received as beginning teachers in a secondary school and to understand their vision of how mentoring should be structured for beginning teachers. Specifically, the study addressed satisfaction with 1st year experiences specially designed to support the personal and professional well-being of beginning teachers. The study included 8 beginning teachers, 7 of whom had received mentoring in their first year of teaching and 1 who had received no mentoring and 13 veteran teachers, 7 of whom had received mentoring in their first year of teaching and 6 who had received no mentoring. The study was conducted in a secondary school in rural East Tennessee. Findings of the study are congruent with the literature in terms of perceptions of both beginning and veteran teachers regarding effectiveness of their mentoring experiences and recommendations for enhancing mentoring programs. Most beginning and veteran teachers indicated that mentoring could be helpful given certain conditions such as motivational support, encouraging communication, routine guidance in day-to-day school operations and mentor/mentee compatibility. Some said they felt that their own mentoring experiences actually helped them to remain in the profession. However, obstacles to effective mentoring such as lack of adequate time, lack of physical mentor/mentee proximity, lack of mentor interest in the process, and lack of mentoring skills were identified. Recommendations of beginning and veteran teachers for enhancing mentoring program effectiveness include using only those teachers who have a real interest in mentoring, matching mentor/mentee personalities for compatibility, creating clear guidelines and providing dedicated time for mentoring, logistically arranging mentors/mentees in close proximity, and providing appropriate mentor/mentee training.

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[pt] O presente texto apresenta um estudo com os licenciados em Pedagogia e em Biologia com enfoque nas representações sobre a profissão docente. A análise sobre a formação inicial e a atuação profissional nos primeiros anos de carreira buscou evidenciar o ponto de vista desses professores na construção da identidade profissional. Em tempos de reformas na estrutura e funcionamento dos sistemas de ensino e no papel dos professores, se faz necessário tensionar as motivações, disposições e os valores manifestados por aqueles que se inserem nesse campo. A polissemia de conceituações teóricas e suas interfaces são debatidas a fim de identificar as especificidades da docência como atividade em vias de profissionalização e reconhecer as múltiplas influências que levam alguém a se tornar professor. O material empírico foi produzido por 195 questionários respondidos por egressos dessas licenciaturas, formados no período de 2008 a 2015. As categorias analíticas utilizadas foram professores iniciantes, profissionalidade, profissionalização e trabalho docente. Na opinião desses professores, o excesso de teorizações e a falta de abordagens práticas das funções docentes na formação inicial a tornam insuficiente, o que gera sentimentos de insegurança e o choque de expectativas com o mundo real do trabalho. Há o reconhecimento de cada vez mais exigências para o desempenho dos professores, embora estes não participem das instâncias de regulação e controle da profissão. Somado a isso, a precarização das condições, o desprestígio social e os efeitos da responsabilização pessoal sobre a eficiência no trabalho constituem os desafios para socialização e o desenvolvimento profissional do magistério. / [en] This document presents a study of graduates in Pedagogy and Biology with a focus on representations of the teaching profession. The analysis of the initial training and professional practice in the early years of career sought to highlight the point of view of these teachers in the construction of their professional identity. In times of changes in the structure and functioning of education systems, and the role of teachers, it is necessary to tighten the motivations, dispositions and values expressed by those who are part of this field. The polysemy of theoretical concepts and their interfaces are discussed in order to identify the teaching specificities as an activity in the process of professionalization, and to recognize the numerous influences that lead someone to become a teacher. The empirical material was produced by 195 questionnaires filled by graduates, formed from 2008 to 2015. The analytical categories used were beginning teachers, professionality, professionalization, and teaching work. According to these teachers, excessive theorizing and lack of practical approaches of teaching duties in the initial training makes it insufficient, and generates insecurity and the clash of expectations with the real world of work. There is a recognition of increasing requirements for the performance of teachers, although they do not participate in the instances of profession regulation and control. Added to this, the precarious conditions, lack of social prestige, and the effects of personal accountability on efficiency at work are the challenges for socialization and professional development of teachers.

Beginning teacher attrition is a problem that exacerbates the inequity of opportunities for all students, especially for those in schools that are already challenged by poverty. This study makes use of the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Survey (covering the period between 2008 and 2012) and U.S. Census data to identify which teachers leave and to explain why. Beyond that, it also offers a look into the characteristics of those teachers who stay at the same school for five years. The empirical investigation is embedded in a conceptual framework that draws from motivation and identity theories and brings in insights about the importance of geography and of neighborhood effects from works on poverty and education. The study utilizes a dataset with survey responses from approximately 1,800 full-time teachers from a sample designed to represent the overall population of beginning teachers in the United States. By combining individual-level longitudinal data with information about communities, it makes an important contribution to the study of new teacher placement, attrition, and retention. The evidence is presented using a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics, and the analysis includes factor analysis and logistic regression models. The results show that indicators of leaving the profession before the fifth year become apparent early on, as factors measured at the end of year one have significant effects on early career outcomes. Most prominently, higher degrees of burnout reported by teachers, which includes factors such as decreased enthusiasm and increased fatigue, are associated with increased risks for leaving the profession without the prospect to return to it and with transferring to a different school district. Several other factors on the individual and school-level emerge as relevant to career outcomes. Teachers who have Highly Qualified Teacher credentials and report a supportive school climate are at less risk to leave the profession. On the other hand, teachers with alternative certification and master’s degrees are more likely to move to a different school or districts in the first five years. In terms of socio-geographic factors that help explain teacher retention and attrition, the only significant variable in the regression models used in the analysis is the percentage of White residents at the Census tract of the Year 1 school. When everything else is held constant, decreasing this percentage from 100 to 0 increases the predicted probability of leaving the profession by approximately 20%. Considering that a vast majority of beginning teachers both in the sample and in the overall population are White, this findings fits in with theories about “the pull of home” and cultural habitus. The magnitude and significance of this finding suggest that it warrants further exploration, as racial composition of the communities is likely a measurement proxy for complex processes of inequality. / Urban Education

The aim of the diploma thesis was to find out how beginning teachers perceive the influence of the higher education and the support of the school environment in the course of their first years of practice and also how they subsequently propose to improve the quality of the higher education and the support of the school environment. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews with twelve beginning teachers with a one to five years of experience. The data were processed by the method of the grounded theory. It was discovered that the beginning teachers' perception of the higher education and the support of the school environment is influenced not only by the form of those two elements but also by the teachers' perceived problems, which are very individual. The factors that cause the individuality of the problems and subsequently the point of views of the beginning teachers are discussed in the thesis. It is not possible to determine the form of the higher education and the support of the school environment that would suit everyone given the individuality of the beginning teachers' views. On the other hand, there are some trends across the opinions of beginning teachers and thus they are presented in the thesis. Key words: beginning teacher, problems of beginning teachers, higher...

The main aim of the theoretical part is to introduce difficulties of the teaching profession, such as the problems that are encountered today, when they are available for work and the challenges that they are not prepared for. With the aid of literature, I define the term 'beginning teacher' and I introduce the most common types of problems that arise. Furthermore, I focus on the possible support system for beginning teachers. The empiric part presents the assessment of the results from completed questionnaires and the dialogues with the beginning teachers of primary education. In my prepared and structured questionnaire and dialogue, I focus on the problems, which they might have struggled with or are still struggling with, such as if they feel that university was not able to prepare them adequately for their future job. In addition to this, I aim one's attention to the support system, which was provided to them, if they had an opportunity of a mentor. I am interested in parent's reaction when they found out that the new class teacher of their children is a fresh university graduate. Lastly, if they had a big problem to gain children's authority. KEYWORDS a beginning teacher, primary education, problems of beginning teachers, a mentor, support system for beginning teachers, the teaching...

Para inúmeros professores, o início da docência se revela como um momento de descobertas sobre o universo escolar a partir das vivências de novas realidades e inúmeros desafios. Para os professores iniciantes, a inserção na sala de aula e as primeiras relações estabelecidas com as crianças, professores e outros atores presentes na escola, trazem impressões que descortinam a complexidade do início da docência. Partindo dessas considerações, a pesquisa, de natureza qualitativa, teve como objetivo identificar as impressões sobre o início da docência e contextos vivenciados por 10 alunas bolsistas do Programa Institucional de Bolsa de Iniciação à Docência (PIBID), que se inseriram no cotidiano escolar de turmas dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental em duas escolas da rede municipal de ensino em Poços de Caldas (MG). Na revisão de literatura, foram estudados os assuntos: professores iniciantes e PIBID. Os estudos sobre os professores iniciantes, ainda escassos no Brasil, pautaram-se, principalmente, nos textos de Simon Veenman, Michael Huberman, Carlos Marcelo García e Maria Regina Guarnieri. No que se refere ao PIBID, são apresentadas informações sobre os dispositivos legais e a amplitude do programa, sendo detalhado o processo de implantação e desenvolvimento do subprojeto PIBID pelos sujeitos da pesquisa. A identificação das impressões sobre o início da docência e seus contextos, ocorreu a partir da realização de duas entrevistas com as alunas, e a análise das anotações de campo por elas registradas ao longo de seis meses, além de depoimentos escritos. A partir da análise desse material, entende-se que o PIBID deve ser considerado um importante programa de apoio e acompanhamento para estudantes que se propõem à docência, bem como propicia uma aproximação efetiva entre as escolas e a universidade. Em relação às impressões sobre o início da docência e os contextos apresentados pelas alunas, entende-se que elas vivenciaram momentos de encantos e desencantos, posicionando-se como professoras a partir das relações de afeto estabelecidas com as crianças. E, nesse momento inicial, suas principais referências foram as professoras que as acompanharam nas salas de aula, tanto professoras iniciantes quanto experientes, culminando na constituição de ações docentes pautadas, principalmente, como respostas às urgências das salas de aula. / For a number of teachers, beginning to teach reveals itself as a moment of discoveries about the school world, arising from the experience of new realities and countless challenges. For a beginner, entering the classroom and the first relationships with children, other teachers and actors present in the school bring impressions that reveal the complexity of early teaching. Based on these assumptions, my qualitative research had the purpose of identifying the impressions of early teaching and the context experienced by 10 of PIBID (Institutional Program of Scholarships for Early Teaching) female scholarship holders, who participated in the school´s everyday life of classes in the early grades of elementary teaching in two municipal schools in the city of Poços de Caldas (MG). By reviewing the literature, the following topics were covered: beginner teachers and PIBID. The studies on beginner teachers, still scarce in Brazil, were based mainly on the texts by Simon Veenman, Carlos Marcelo Garcia, and Maria Regina Guarnieri. As far as PIBID is concerned, information such as the legal devices, the program´s scope, and details about the process of implementing and developing the PIBID subproject by the individuals being researched are provided. The identification of the impressions of early teaching and its contexts took place by means of two interviews with the students, and the subsequent analysis of field notes that they took over a period of six months, in addition to written testimonials. Based on such materials, I understand that PIBID must be considered an important program to support and also that the follow-up of students who intend to be teachers must be done, as it provides an effective approach between schools and the university. In relation to the impressions of the early teaching and contexts presented by the female students, I understand that they have experienced moments of enchantment and disenchantment in early teaching, taking a standpoint as teachers based on the relationships of affection they were able to build with the children. At this early stage, their main references were the female teachers that did the follow-up their activities in the classrooms, both beginner and experienced teachers, culminating in the development of teaching actions taken mainly as responses to the urgent needs of a classroom.

The focus of this study is the phenomenon of beginning teacher competence. In Queensland, the context for the research presented here, the competence of beginning teachers is appraised by their supervisor (usually the principal) at the end of their first year of full-time employment. This appraisal is conducted on behalf of the Queensland Board of Teacher Registration and a positive outcome enables beginning teachers to achieve full teacher registration. Although there exists research suggesting that principals bring to the appraisal process their conceptions of competence, there is a dearth of knowledge about beginning teachers' conceptions of their own teaching competence. The research presented here adds to the debate about competence by including the voice of the beginning teacher. This focus, located within the context of local issues, is used to explore important themes that are relevant to other systems of beginning teacher appraisal. The selection of phenomenography as the research approach adopted for this study is based on its appropriateness to the investigation of a phenomenon such as competence. Phenomenography aims to describe, analyse and understand the ways in which people experience aspects of the world around them. The point of departure that sets apart this approach from many others, is the principle that phenomenography seeks to investigate neither the phenomenon, nor the people who experience the phenomenon, but the relation between the two. The results of a phenomenographic study are presented as a description of all of the possible conceptions that a specific group can have about a particular phenomenon. For the research presented here, eighteen beginning teachers were interviewed individually in order to identify and describe the variation in their conceptions of competence. Research participants representing State, Catholic and Independent school systems were drawn from preschools, special, primary and secondary schools of one provincial city, in one regional area of South East Queensland. Two major outcomes emerged from the research presented here. Firstly, beginning teachers were identified as experiencing competence in a number of ways. Although these conceptions were varied, their number was quite limited. Six distinct conceptions of beginning teacher competence were identified, with a further finding that individual beginning teachers were not limited to one conception, but conceived of competence in multiple ways. Because the relational nature of competence demands that it be investigated within the context in which it is experienced, this study also identified five different approaches to competence appraisal, as understood by the beginning teachers who had undergone the appraisal process. Comparisons of both conceptions of competence and approaches to appraisal were then compared to existing research in this area. This thesis presents an alternative view of competence and appraisal that may be used to further develop the process of appraisal and indeed, the professional development of beginning teachers.

The aim of this study was to scrutinize perceptions, expectations and concerns of pre-service early childhood education (ECE) teachers before they start their careers and their challenges in their first year as they became beginning teachers. This study also focused on documenting public school contexts where beginning teachers have been either supported and given the opportunity to develop as successful teachers or discouraged and left alone with the challenges in their first year of teaching. In order to investigate this phenomenon, 16 pre-service early childhood education teachers studying at the same teacher education program were interviewed about their perceptions, expectations and concerns on their future profession immediately before their graduation. Participating teachers started to teach in public schools at different cities after their graduation. They were interviewed at the end of the first and the second semester they taught about their experiences and difficulties, and positive aspects of working in public schools. Moustakas&rsquo / s phenomenological analysis was utilized to analyze data from interviews in which beginning teachers reflected on their experiences in teacher education program and of being new teachers in public school context in Turkey. Findings have revealed that pre-service teachers were aware of many difficulties in public schools and ready to contend with those difficulties, yet some of the challenges they faced were beyond their initial anticipation. All those challenges were originated from teacher education program, Ministry of National Education&rsquo / s system itself, and local condition where beginning teachers were appointed. Suggestions for teacher education programs, Ministry of National Education, and administrators were proposed.