Novice teachers as ‘invisible’ learners

Abstract

The present study focuses on the way novice teachers, who are part of a one-year postgraduate diploma in post-primary teaching, have opted to negotiate their status as school teachers. In particular, it asks why novice teachers prefer to hide as they scramble to learn how to teach. On the basis of three separate interviews spaced out though the teaching year 2009 (January, March, May), a team of university-based tutors probed for student reactions to competence-based issues. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, this study drew upon roughly 10% of the pre-service student cohort (n = 17), each in a different placement location. The study looked, in particular, at their negotiating power, particularly the effect of school supports for their reality as learners. Findings suggest that without quality mentoring support, our pre-service teachers prefer to become ‘invisible’ as learners. Three pre-professional stances are identified: fragile, robust and competitive. The key finding is that none of these pre-professional stances mitigate pre-service students’ lack of negotiating power. On the other hand, informal school-based supports can help students considerably.

Keywords:

• pre-service teacher preparation
• school placement
• negotiating status
• novice teachers

Acknowledgements

This publication is drawn from a study which was funded by the Department of Education and Skills (DES), Ireland, and the School of Education, UCC. The Principal Investigator for the Learning to Teach Study (LETS): Curricular and Cross-curricular competences in Initial Teacher Education was Paul Conway, and the Research Fellow was Rosaleen Murphy. The other members of the research team (in alphabetical order) were Michael Delargey, Kathy Hall, Karl Kitching, Fiachra Long, Jacinta McKeon, Brian Murphy, Stephen O’Brien, Dan O’Sullivan, all from the School of Education, UCC.

Notes

The Learning to Teach Study (LETS): Curricular and Cross-curricular competences in Initial Teacher Education was funded by a Research and Development grant (2007–10) from the Department of Education and Skills (Ireland). The research team consisted of Paul Conway (PI), Rosaleen Murphy (research fellow) and the other members of the research team (in alphabetical order) were Michael Delargey, Kathy Hall, Karl Kitching, Fiachra Long, Jacinta McKeon, Brian Murphy, Stephen O’Brien and Dan O’Sullivan, all in the School of Education, UCC.

1. The notion described here as ‘make-believe’ refers to Jacques Lacan’s famous notion of a mirror stage in the child’s development. Besides representing the body image of the child (Ecrits, I, 90), this development constantly marks the development of the self, situating ‘instances of the self, even prior to its social determination, along a line of fiction which is never reducible for a single individual’ (Jacques Lacan, Ecrits, I, 91) [my translation]. In other words, ‘make-believe’ is our term for the more adult version of the ‘mirror stage’ which Lacan defines as a stage in infancy in which the infant sees its reflection in the mirror and ‘assumes an image’ of a whole self as the true self.

2. Dip is the colloquial phrase meaning a pre-service teacher or student of the Diploma.