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Abstract
This article presents findings from a large‐scale, longitudinal study of teachers’ experiences of initial teacher preparation and early professional development in England. Data were generated via annual surveys, in‐depth interviews and email communications. The study established that beginner teachers’ perceptions of the support they received were a major factor shaping their experiences of becoming and being a teacher. This article examines the importance of support to beginner teachers, what they understand by support, their perceptions of their support needs, and apparent successes and failings in the support provided to beginning teachers. The findings are situated in the broader literature on beginner teacher support and a number of implications for policy and practice are discussed.
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to all members of the Becoming a Teacher research team and project Steering Group for their valuable contributions to the study, and especially to Pat Ashby, Angi Malderez, Louise Tracey and Peter Tomlinson who, in addition, made insightful comments on a draft version of this article.
Notes
1. The terms ‘beginning teacher’ and ‘beginner teacher’ are used interchangeably in this article to refer to those undertaking a programme of initial teacher preparation or in their first four years of teaching following the successful completion of such a programme. The term ‘initial teacher preparation’ (ITP) is used to refer to what is variously described as ‘pre‐service’ teacher training, initial teacher training (ITT) and initial teacher education (ITE). My preference for the use of ITP has been explained elsewhere (e.g. Hobson et al. Citation2008).
2. This writer is uncomfortable with the term ‘instruction’ in this context given its literal meaning as ‘the process or act of imparting knowledge’ (which underplays the social and situated nature of learning and fails to do justice to the pedagogical techniques employed by most teachers), but recognises that such connotations are not intended by many writers and educators who use the term.
3. The Career Entry Profile was introduced in 1997, revised to take account of the new statutory Induction arrangements in 1999, and subsequently developed in 2003 as the Career Entry and Development Profile (CEDP). At the time of writing, it is undergoing further review.
4. For those unfamiliar with initial teacher preparation in England, a brief overview of the main routes to Qualified Teacher Status is provided as an Appendix.
5. The Becoming a Teacher project was a six‐year (2003–2009) longitudinal study of beginner teachers’ experiences of initial teacher preparation, Induction and early professional development, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the General Teaching Council for England, and the Training and Development Agency for Schools, and carried out by a research team from the University of Nottingham, the University of Leeds and Ipsos MORI Social Research Institute.
6. In relation to ITP alone, in 2002–2003 the (then) Teacher Training Agency in England spent £187 million on funding ITP courses and an additional £127.6 million on student teacher bursaries (Teacher Training Agency Citation2003).
7. The ejournals were introduced in the second year of the study, for those interviewees who successfully completed their ITP and subsequently took up a teaching post.
8. The term ‘support’ in this survey question was not defined for respondents; rather they were encouraged to interpret this in their own way. Participants’ interpretations and conceptions of ‘support’ were explored at a later date through the analyses of interview and ejournal data (see Findings section in the main text).
9. As indicated above, for those unfamiliar with initial teacher preparation in England a brief overview of these ITP routes is provided as an Appendix.
10. A range of evidence substantiating the existence of these support needs is presented in the following sub‐sections.
11. Given the nature of the data generated on this subject it is not possible to be more precise than this in quantitative terms.
12. Further details can be found in Hobson et al. (Citation2007, 85–6 and 143–4).
13. In some respects, the decline in support was even more marked than these figures suggest, since (as we saw in the Findings section) those participants who rated the support they received less highly were more likely to leave teaching (and thus less likely to remain in the survey sample). Repeated measures analysis of the responses of those participants who remained in the sample between Waves 3–6 reveals that the decline in respondents’ ratings of support was statistically significant (p < 0.001). For further information see Hobson, Malderez, et al. (Citation2009, 154–5).
14. Further details of these statistically significant (chi square: p < 0.001) results can be found in Hobson et al. (Citation2006, 35–6).
15. Further details of these statistically significant (p = 0.03) findings are available in Hobson, Malderez, et al. (Citation2009, 154–5).
16. Further details are available in Hobson et al. (Citation2007, 85–6 and 143–4).
17. Further information can be found in Hobson, Malderez, et al. (Citation2009, 154–5).
18. That said, comparison of the achieved Wave 1 sample with national profile data (Training and Development Agency Performance Profile data for 2003) suggests that in terms of gender and ethnicity survey participants were representative of trainees throughout England.
19. A more comprehensive account of the limitations of the BaT research is provided in Hobson, Malderez, et al. (Citation2009, Appendix III).