The body of literature clearly articulates the unique needs of newly qualified teachers and the challenges they experience during their early career years. In addition, literature advocates for implementation of induction programmes to enable a smooth transition of the beginners into the profession. This empirical phenomenological study explored the induction experiences of newly qualified primary school teachers in Zimbabwe in an attempt to gain insights into the everyday issues they contend with. Purposive sampling was employed to select twenty participants who comprised of ten newly qualified teachers, five beginners whose experience in the field ranged from one to three years and five mentors. Data were collected mainly through three semi-structured interviews with newly qualified teachers and mentors, reflective essays written by beginners who were not so new in the profession and a focus group discussion with selected beginners. The protocol used for data explication was a simplified version of Hycner’s (1985) framework for phenomenological analysis suggested by Groenewald (2004). The findings yielded six themes and revealed that: new teachers experienced adaptation challenges relating to forging of new relationships, location of schools and nature of host communities; induction was largely informal and incidental, and the induction supports experienced by the new teachers were limited; the beginners had various teaching and social concerns that needed to be addressed; and, while the new teachers had derived some lessons from their first year of teaching, these were outweighed by their concerns and might not have made a significant impact on their classroom practices. The data also revealed that the partnership between teacher education institutions and schools in providing for teacher professional development was weak. The study concluded that the absence of a policy on induction in the country has resulted in lack of appreciation of the centrality of induction on the teacher development continuum and the haphazard manner in which issues of induction are being handled. The main recommendations from the study were that a policy on induction should be put in place, that schools are empowered to provide induction and induction supports that are amenable to the country’s context be fully exploited. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

The body of literature clearly articulates the unique needs of newly qualified teachers and the challenges they experience during their early career years. In addition, literature advocates for implementation of induction programmes to enable a smooth transition of the beginners into the profession. This empirical phenomenological study explored the induction experiences of newly qualified primary school teachers in Zimbabwe in an attempt to gain insights into the everyday issues they contend with. Purposive sampling was employed to select twenty participants who comprised of ten newly qualified teachers, five beginners whose experience in the field ranged from one to three years and five mentors. Data were collected mainly through three semi-structured interviews with newly qualified teachers and mentors, reflective essays written by beginners who were not so new in the profession and a focus group discussion with selected beginners. The protocol used for data explication was a simplified version of Hycner’s (1985) framework for phenomenological analysis suggested by Groenewald (2004). The findings yielded six themes and revealed that: new teachers experienced adaptation challenges relating to forging of new relationships, location of schools and nature of host communities; induction was largely informal and incidental, and the induction supports experienced by the new teachers were limited; the beginners had various teaching and social concerns that needed to be addressed; and, while the new teachers had derived some lessons from their first year of teaching, these were outweighed by their concerns and might not have made a significant impact on their classroom practices. The data also revealed that the partnership between teacher education institutions and schools in providing for teacher professional development was weak. The study concluded that the absence of a policy on induction in the country has resulted in lack of appreciation of the centrality of induction on the teacher development continuum and the haphazard manner in which issues of induction are being handled. The main recommendations from the study were that a policy on induction should be put in place, that schools are empowered to provide induction and induction supports that are amenable to the country’s context be fully exploited. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Didactics)

Primary school teaching and learning, and indeed the whole teaching profession continue to be shaped by the ever – changing knowledge economy and global educational trends. To this end, professional teacher development in Zimbabwean primary schools has become an important focus area in terms of how it can facilitate and contribute to effective teaching and learning in line with the new educational developments. There is consensus among primary school stakeholders that the success of teaching and learning is dependent on promoting an efficient and student - needs driven in – service programme. The purpose of the study was to explore the influence of the university B.Ed (primary) in – service teacher development programme in its mandate to fulfill the critical function to develop primary school teachers with knowledge, skills and competencies for the Zimbabwean primary education system. The imperative has been for the university in – service programme to offer competences and skills that are needed by primary school teachers and for these teachers to upgrade and update their skills for effective teaching and student learning. The theoretical approach that informed the study was Vygotsky’s Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) with its main perspective being that knowledge is socially constructed and takes place in real contexts. The study ontology was interpretivism in which the qualitative single case study design was employed. The data were collected through semi - structured interviews with the Chairperson and five lecturers of the Curriculum Studies Department and focus group discussion in respect of ten B.Ed (primary) in – service student teachers. The participants were purposefully sampled taking into account their knowledge and experience with the in – service programme and primary school teaching - learning contexts. The study found that the B.Ed (primary) in – service programme had minimal influence on primary school teachers’ teaching and learning needs. The programme had not fully addressed the primary school teachers’ expectations in terms of imparting knowledge and skills useful for classroom teaching and learning. One of the major contributory factors was that there were curriculum design frailties of the programme which were as a result of lack of dialogue, engagement and consultation between and among important primary school education stakeholders especially in – service teachers. As a result, the programme had not adequately raised the teachers’ knowledge and skills in the critical areas of their practice, yet this was the core function of the programme. From the findings, the study recommends that the University sets up a strong Curriculum Development Department funded and staffed with experts in research and curriculum design and development. These should manage the designing and preparation of curriculum documents by involving primary school stakeholders, especially primary school teachers. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / Ph. D. (Curriculum and Instructional Studies)