Caring about caring: newly qualified teachers’ experiences of their relationships within the school community

Abstract

In this inductive and explorative study, we describe newly qualified teachers’ (NQTs) experiences of their relationships within the school community during their first years at work. In a context such as Finland, with a high academic teacher education but yet no formal system for supporting new teachers, relationships especially with colleagues and principals are of great importance in providing informal support. The study comprises data from an open-ended questionnaire survey and altogether 10 focus group meetings. The sample is purposive and includes NQTs (n = 88) within primary schools. A qualitative content analysis identified three main relationships which illuminate tensions of paradoxes: (1) Caring about – nurturance or exclusion, (2) Reciprocity – expansive or restrictive and (3) Caring for – joy or exhaustion. In addition to the importance of introduction and support in the beginning stages of entering the work place, the results of this study demonstrate the even greater significance of a good social atmosphere with genuine concern and caring amongst the members of the school community.

Keywords:

• newly qualified teachers
• relationships
• caring
• primary schools
• support

Acknowledgements

Jessica Aspfors was responsible for the study concept and design of the study, and performed the data collection and the data analysis, discussing the analysis and results with Terese Bondas as supervisor. Both the authors read and approved the final manuscript. Our special thanks to Professor Sven-Erik Hansén for his constructive critique. The greatest thanks goes to the participating informants who made the study possible through their narratives.