Telling tales: the value of storytelling for early career teachers

Abstract

This article examines how early career teachers, participants in a research project, make sense of their experiences through storytelling. The teachers’ stories provide a significant counterpoint to the way standards-based reforms construct their professional development, prompting us as teacher educators to think again about what it means for our students to make the transition from initial teacher education into the institutional setting of a school. We draw on Ricoeur’s understanding of narrative to show the complexity of the identity work they perform and how their stories position them as authorities when it comes to the experience of beginning teaching and of negotiating a pathway within existing policy environments. Close attention to the language of these narratives produces rich insights into early career teachers’ experiences and raises questions as to how researchers might solicit and respond to such narratives.

Keywords:

• Early career teaching
• storytelling
• discourse
• literary theory
• professional identity
• Ricoeur

Acknowledgements

The Studying Effectiveness of Teacher Education project team consisted of Diane Mayer (Victoria University), Brenton Doecke (Deakin University), Mary Dixon (Deakin University), Alex Kostogriz (Deakin University), Andrea Allard (Deakin University), Simone White (Monash University), Bernadette Walker-Gibbs (Deakin University), Leonie Rowan (Griffith University), Jodie Kline (Deakin University), and Phillipa Hodder (Deakin University). The Studying the Effectiveness of Teacher Education project is supported by a partnership involving the Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT), the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD), the Queensland Department of Education Training and Employment (QDETE) Deakin University’s School of Education in Victoria and Griffith University’s Faculty of Education in Queensland. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Australian Research Council or the Industry partners.

Notes

1. ‘The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers comprise seven Standards which outline what teachers should know and be able to do. The Standards are interconnected, interdependent and overlapping. The Standards are grouped into three domains of teaching: Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice and Professional Engagement. In practice, teaching draws on aspects of all three domains. Within each Standard, focus areas provide further illustration of teaching knowledge, practice and professional engagement. These are then separated into Descriptors at four professional career stages: Graduate, Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead’ www.aitsl.edu.au. All graduate teachers must be provisionally registered before beginning their first job and then have two years to move to permanent registration. They do so by demonstrating they can meet the Professional Standards.