Section archive - Beginning Teachers

This research explores the perspectives of newly qualified primary teachers (NQTs) who worked in multilingual classrooms in their first year of teaching. The findings indicated that that NQTs were engaged in reflection on pupils’ needs and interests and then try to tailor provision to engage pupils in formative challenging activities. Twenty one NQTs believed that they had begun to develop responsive forms of teaching, aided by support from and collaboration with other colleagues, including teaching assistants, many bilingual.

This article discusses the impact of initial teacher education )ITE) on teachers’ professional experiences around the classroom teaching and interpersonal relationships with colleagues and parents. This article also explores what areas newly qualified teachers (NQTs( identified as deserving more attention within college courses. This article discusses the findings of a large scale mixed-methods research conducted on a variety of early professional experiences of beginning primary teachers in the Republic of Ireland. The findings reveal that majority of the sample expressed that they generally felt well prepared for teaching and carrying out teaching duties through their first year in practice. In addition, majority of preservice teachers identified teaching practice as the most important element of the ITE course. However, majority of the beginning teachers identified teaching methods as the most important element of the ITE course.

This article examines the realities of practice for beginning early childhood teachers. The article reports the beginning teachers' views about the issues they faced, their perceptions of preservice teaching, and the impact that this had on their transition from student to teacher. Findings reveal that the reality of moving from the role of the student to teacher was disconcerting for these new teachers. The move to being a “real” teacher was a formidable experience for these participants and this should be recognized relatedly.

This article describes the decision to use narrative interviews in conjunction with an iterative validation process between the researchers and the participating teachers in research project at Newcastle University. This article examines how the decision to use narrative interviews supported a meaningful and ethical exchange between the teachers and researchers.The article also explores where knowledge generation was foregrounded, and how despite each teacher producing a unique, highly contextual story, cross-narrative themes emerged which have enabled the research team to broaden our understanding of practitioner enquiry.