This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/accepted for publication in the following source: Crosswell, Leanne & Beutel, Denise (2017) 21st century teachers: how non-traditional pre-service teachers navigate their initial experiences of contemporary classrooms. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 45 (4), pp. 416-431. This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108077/ c Consult author(s) regarding copyright matters This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under a Creative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use and that permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the docu- ment is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then refer to the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recog- nise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe that this work infringes copyright please provide details by email to [email protected]Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record (i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub- mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) can be identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear- ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2017.1312281
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This may be the author’s version of a work that was submitted/acceptedfor publication in the following source:
Crosswell, Leanne & Beutel, Denise(2017)21st century teachers: how non-traditional pre-service teachers navigatetheir initial experiences of contemporary classrooms.Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 45(4), pp. 416-431.
This file was downloaded from: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/108077/
This work is covered by copyright. Unless the document is being made available under aCreative Commons Licence, you must assume that re-use is limited to personal use andthat permission from the copyright owner must be obtained for all other uses. If the docu-ment is available under a Creative Commons License (or other specified license) then referto the Licence for details of permitted re-use. It is a condition of access that users recog-nise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. If you believe thatthis work infringes copyright please provide details by email to [email protected]
Notice: Please note that this document may not be the Version of Record(i.e. published version) of the work. Author manuscript versions (as Sub-mitted for peer review or as Accepted for publication after peer review) canbe identified by an absence of publisher branding and/or typeset appear-ance. If there is any doubt, please refer to the published source.
In readiness to take on a new social identity, individuals start to build an ‘anticipatory identity’ (Amiot &
Jaspal, 2014) adjusting their sense of self in line with their personal experiences and existing stereotypes
of the new identity. Aspiring teachers consider who they want to be (and not be) as a teacher (Beijaard,
Meijer, & Verloop, 2013). The data from the initial questionnaire, administered on the first day of the
program (at t1), and prior to any engagement with school classrooms, revealed the cohort’s anticipatory
identity to be heavily focused on the caring work of teaching. It is important to note that the participants
discussed ‘care’ as a broad notion that included a cluster of values such as empathy, sensitivity and
responsiveness. The cohort understood care to be an active practice of teachers that focused on building
relationships to support student growth as well as an ideal that guides teacher judgement and action
(Hamington, 2010; Held, 2006). As such, it could be argued that the participants were conceptualising a
feminist notion of care in that it focussed on the relationships between people and positioned teachers to
value attentiveness, responsibility, competence and responsiveness (Tronto, 2005).
Care as an active practice was evidenced in multiple ways within the data in regards to recognition of and
responding to students. Qualities such as being patient (n=15) with the interrelated adjectives of
compassionate, caring, sensitive and kind featuring prominently as key qualities of ‘good’ teachers. Care
for the needs of each and every student was evident in responses such as “build positive and supportive
relationships with all students”, “understanding students are all different” and “realising the different
personalities and learning styles of each individual and teaching accordingly” and the use of terms such as
tolerance, empathy and understanding. Furthermore, care and support for learners was demonstrated
through a common view that good teachers make learning fun (n=12) and engaging (n=6) while also
being firm (n=13) or fair (n=10). The latter two concepts were often discussed in close association and
generally the cohort understood that for teachers to effectively demonstrate care, then they must provide a
safe and supportive learning environment for their students. While it could be argued that a different
interpretation of these terms (firm and fair) could be conceptualised as control and authority over
students, this interpretation was not apparent within the anticipatory identity data set.
A broad understanding of care as active practice was also evident in the widely held view by the cohort
that good teachers demonstrate high levels of organisation (n=8) along with the capacity to be responsive
to the changing dynamics within the classroom. Terms such as ‘flexible’ (n=5) and ‘adaptable’ (n=5)
demonstrate an awareness of the range of variables that impact on a teacher’s work environment and the
constant adaptations and thinking on their feet that effective teachers take on as part of their job. Care
was also discussed as an emotional attachment to, and excitement about, learning and teaching. Good
teachers were described as genuinely enthusiastic (n=6) and passionate (n=17) and vitalised by their work
and it is this excitement that serves to engage and inspire their students.
The cohort arrived to the teacher preparation program with anticipatory teacher identities strongly
attached to the caring work of teaching (Hamington, 2010; Held, 2006). However, it was the classroom
experiences within the program that allowed the cohort to reality check their prior assumptions about the
day to day work of teachers. This practical contact with schools allowed the career-changers to challenge
and review their anticipatory teacher identities.
Anticipatory Teacher Identity
For many, the first classroom experience in the program provided an opportunity for “ensuring myself
that I've made the right choice in starting this journey”. Feedback on initial classroom experiences ranged
from positive, “I was surprised at how comfortable I was in the classroom with the students and teacher. I
felt right at home” and “I really enjoyed it and cemented that I want to be a teacher” through to the
demoralising message, “other teachers in the school [were] asking, Why the hell do you want to be a
teacher? Get out now!” As such, the experiences in contemporary classrooms and school contexts both
reinforced and challenged the cohort’s anticipatory teacher identities.
1. Reinforced their anticipatory teacher identity
Overwhelmingly the cohort indicated that their initial field experiences reinforced their decision to
change careers to become a teacher. As the cohort’s anticipatory teacher identity was centred on the
notion of care which includes attentiveness to the needs of the students, it was unsurprising to see positive
emotions prominent in responses, “Loved the kids! The kids in my class were all so good, so this may be
an unrealistic introduction to a classroom”, “It was so much fun - the kids were terrible and wonderful
and everything in between”, and “I have made the right decision. Loved it more than I thought I would
and could see myself doing it for a long time”. Positive relationships with others in the school
community also featured prominently, “[I felt] very supported by the teacher and Deputy Principal”,
“They were incredibly supportive, warm, gave lots of feedback, developed friendly relationships” and
“My teacher welcomed me into the classroom and treated me not as a prac. student but as a teacher and
person”.
2. Challenged their anticipatory teacher identity
While many of the career-changers were bolstered by their interactions with students, they were also
confronted by the intensity and complexity of the teachers’ workload (Amiot & Jaspal, 2014; Watters &
Diezmann, 2015). Many were taken aback by the unrelenting time demands, “[I was surprised by] the
workload and how tiring it can be”. Some of the cohort had not fully appreciated the multi-layered nature
of teaching, “Having to do something that required me to focus on multiple things and also manage 26
students at the same time”. Adding to these pressures, the career-changers were “Having to spend the 6
hours at school and then coming home to work for hours to prepare lessons. I also have to work to pay my
rent and eat so the field experience was extremely intensive.” However, by their final field experience
many of the career-changers had started to normalise these aspects of teaching, “Always trying to put in
150% effort to make lessons innovative, interesting and engaging for students”. While the career-
changers grew in confidence in their final field studies (“[I was given] more responsibility and freedom
to try new things with my class”), the increased pressures and responsibilities placed on them from
within the schooling contexts (“I knew more and was accountable for absolutely everything”) challenged
their emerging identities and resilience.
Teacher resilience
Field experience has been identified as the most stressful component of initial teacher education
(Chaplain, 2008), and our data validated this with all participants reporting moderate to high levels of
stress during classroom experiences. The key stressors appeared to be contextual in origin: the work
involved in learning how to teach (“huge workload, challenging class in terms of behaviour, wide range
of learning needs”, and “Overwhelmed by what I needed to learn”) and the expectations or attitude of the
host teacher (“as a grad dip I was expected to be in line with 4th year students”, “host teacher expected
more”, “lack of positive attitude to learning from the teacher”). Stressors stemming from personal factors
emerged from their own expectations of their own performance (“the pressure of being watched and being
too critical on myself”, “my own self-demands ie. planning and performance” and “my own need to plan
everything to the nth degree”) and attempting to juggle multiple responsibilities (“juggling family, work
and planning”, “new baby, running a business”).
As discussed earlier, this paper adopts a transactional-ecological framework through which to analyse the
data. Like others researching teacher resilience (see Day & Gu, 2014; Johnson, et al., 2014) we consider
teachers’ work to exist in an ecosystem in which contextual and personal elements work in relation to
each other. Table 1 outlines the positive and the negative influences that exist within the contextual and
personal systems of influence as reported by the career-changers.
INSERT Table 1 HERE
Positive influences on Resilience
Contextual and personal factors enabling resilience were identified. In terms of contextual support, the
cohort commented on the positive influence of having a supportive relationship with their host teacher
(eg. “The host teacher made a place for me to sit, assist her in teaching … I was treated as if I were a
member of the teaching team”, “talking through my performance with my teachers and acting on that
feedback”), a positive school culture (eg. “Good students, good culture between colleagues, strong
student leadership program, good behavioural expectations”) and accessing formal support from
university staff (“meeting with my university liaison who I credit with helping me and reducing my
stress”). From the personal system, many career-changers discussed the benefit of having supportive
family and friends. “Thankfully I have a wonderfully understanding and supportive family” and “my
husband … always listened to my problems and helped me to cope with stress”. Specific coping strategies
included adopting a pragmatic approach (“just got on with it, I knew it would come to an end eventually”,
“remained realistic and focussed on one day at a time”), self-care (“eating well, exercise and sleep”, and
“prayer”), personal support networks (“debriefed with other grad dip students”). As such, this group
demonstrated resilient behaviours (Mansfield, et al., 2016) such as establishing personal boundaries and
self-initiating strategies to navigate the stresses inherent in the transition to teaching.
Negative Influences on Resilience
In some instances, the transactions between career-changers and their supervising teachers challenged the
resilience of the career-changers. Some supervising teachers “[voiced] criticism of the [one-year] Grad
Dip program and strong bias against it” while another “compared my university with X university and
said it [the other university] was a lot better”. Such comments indicated that these career-changers faced
an added challenge of needing to navigate the supervisory teacher’s [lack of] confidence in the quality of
the teacher preparation program and by association the individual career-changers readiness to teach.
Further negative influences emanated from supervising teachers who were “too busy to give guidance”
while another would “skim read my lesson plan the morning of my teaching with no suggestions or
recommendations”. One participant perceived that the supervising teacher “didn’t seem to like my
enthusiasm”, while another appeared “very unsupportive and rude” with several participants lamenting
that they were given inadequate opportunities to teach. From a personal perspective, key constraints were
centred around the difficulties in juggling family responsibilities with the intense workload of field
experience with typical comments such as “[I really struggled] managing full time work with family
commitments”. Other negative contextual influences included the intense assessment load of the teacher
education program which coincided with getting prepared for field experience and the added pressure of
employment processes (submitting applications and undertaking interviews) during their final field
experience.
Discussion
The aim of this research was to explore how the initial classroom experiences of a cohort of career-
changers contributed to their developing teacher identities and resilience. A transactional–ecological
theoretical lens (Sameroff, 2009) was used to better understand the ongoing transactions between the
individual and the social context of the classroom.
First, the career-changers’ emerging teacher identities were adaptable and responsive to the challenging
workloads and expectations of classroom teaching. Like other aspiring teachers (see Furlong, 2013) they
arrived with idealistic views of what teaching would be like and articulated an anticipatory identity
around a broad notion of care. While the cohort enjoyed their initial classroom experiences, they also
reported a sense of ‘reality shock’ (Kim & Cho, 2014), in relation to the complexity and intensity of the
work of being a teacher. While some of the requirements of teaching (such as being organised and
flexible) had been anticipated, the multiple demands and the actual workload had been severely
underestimated by the group. It was evident from the transactions during the first semester classroom
experiences that the cohort needed to significantly adjust their understanding of the work of teachers and
their personal expectations of themselves. Yet, by the final field experience (four months later) most of
the group had normalised the intense demands of the workload. While this response may demonstrate the
successful navigation of the complex transactional-ecological demands of teaching, a commitment to the
profession, or indeed a dedication to completing the one-year teaching degree, the rapid adaptation to the
unexpected and intense demands should be viewed with some caution.
The cohort was initially surprised by the intense daily demands of teaching and the one-year program
allows them only two formal classroom experiences to develop their teaching practice and adjust to these
workload requirements. It is well acknowledged that the workload intensifies for beginning teachers in
their first years of practice (Price & McCallum, 2015). While this cohort seems to have swiftly
normalised complex workload during discrete periods of practicum, successfully managing these may
become an issue as ongoing and continuous demands increase. Excessive workloads for teachers have
been linked to disenchantment (Kelchtermans, 2006), burnout (Day & Gu, 2014) and early attrition from
the profession (Watt & Richardson, 2013). An associated concern is that this cohort is heavily invested in
teaching as caring work, and it will be critical that they learn to balance the energy they invest into caring
for others with developing adequate and ongoing self-care strategies (Zembylas, Bozalek & Shefer,
2014). While some participants explicitly discussed how they attempted to ensure self-care during
practicum, many more identified this as an area that they struggled with especially as they were already
juggling other commitments such as family and child rearing responsibilities. Therefore, while the level
of flexibility and adaptation in regards to their teacher identity is impressive, we question that maintaining
continuously intensive workloads will be sustainable for many of the participants.
Second, the career-changers were agentic in self-activating resilience strategies when faced with
challenging circumstances. To illustrate this we draw attention to how the cohort responded to the
support offered (or not) by supervising teachers. Supportive supervising teachers gave regular and
consistent feedback, guided planning and resourcing and facilitated extended professional networks
within the school community. They were discussed as positive resources for both teacher identity and
teacher resilience which supports current literature (Keogh, Garvis, Pendergast, & Diamond, 2012). An
unexpected story emerged from the career-changers who were paired with unsupportive supervising
teachers. The career-changers’ response to the lack of support was to draw deeply on their individual
motivations to become a teacher and rely on their own self-belief in regards to their teaching skills and
capacity. While this group turned to family, friends and peers for emotional support, they demonstrated a
robust sense of self which has been discussed as a requirement for ongoing teacher identity and resilience
(Le Cornu, 2013). This group was clearly proactive in self-initiating coping strategies through support
networks beyond the schooling context and through this, demonstrated deep commitment and passion for
teaching. These positive dispositions are critical to teacher resilience and intentions to remain in the
profession (Le Cornu, 2013). While a toxic work environment may hinder the ability to call on
colleagues for support (Day & Gu, 2014), it does challenge an individual’s capacity to form supportive
and resilience building relationships in spite of these conditions (Jordan, 2006).
This research highlights the well-developed individual resources that the successful career-changers had
access to as they navigated the initial classroom experiences. It was also evident that the career-changers
focussed on the broader systemic system only at two key points (prior to their classroom experiences and
at the end of the program when employment concerns dominated). While strong and trusting relationships
are central to teacher resilience (Mansfield et al., 2016), the classroom and school context offered
inconsistent resources and support for these participants. However, this cohort’s substantial personal
resources assisted them to effectively reframe and adapt their developing teacher identity and self-activate
resilient behaviours during the classroom experiences. It is evident that there is a need for teacher
education programs and associated school communities to better support and differentiate for our career-
changers. Rather than treating all preservice teachers as inexperienced school leavers, there is a need to
acknowledge the experiences and unique skills the career-changers bring to the teaching profession and
ensure they are supported by empathetic supervising teachers. Currently the onus is on the individual
preservice teacher to advocate at a personal level. However, further consideration needs to be given to
how teacher education can better respond to the need of career-change preservice teachers and highlight
the positive impact these career-changers can have on the wider teaching profession. Research into
career-changers who remained in the teaching profession for three years indicates they are seeking both
acknowledgement of their expertise, support in improving their instructional skills and the development
of positive professional relationships in the situated system of the school context (Watters & Diezmann,
2015). Not all of these were evident even in the initial classroom experiences for these career-changers.
Conclusions and recommendations
This study used a transactional-ecological lens through which to explore the initial classroom experiences
of a cohort of career-changers transitioning to teaching via a one-year graduate entry teacher education
program. Shorter alternate programs have been criticised for the limited time that preservice teachers have
to develop their teacher identities and capacities for resilience. This is especially significant in the current
environment in which the complexity of teachers’ work has increased exponentially and teachers are
under enormous pressures as they attempt to manage increased bureaucratic responsibilities and high
levels of public scrutiny as well as meeting the demands of highly performative cultures (Hargreaves,
2010; Price & McCallum, 2015). Although limited to one cohort, this research contributes to developing a
deeper understanding of career-changers’ initial experiences in the classroom and of the impact on their
emerging teacher identities and resilience.
In this study, throughout their transactions with schools, the career-changers demonstrated highly agentic
behaviours about their own development as teachers with consistent evidence of adaptable teacher
identity and self-initiated resilient behaviours (Mansfield, et al., 2016). Both of these capabilities are
critical for all new teachers transitioning into the profession. It appears that this cohort had well-
developed capacities in these areas prior to enrolling in this program. However, we are uncertain how
long these capacities would be sustained especially if the career changers continued to meet intense and
unexpected challenges in their transition to teaching post-graduation.
In light of our findings, this chapter puts forward several recommendations for teacher education and
schooling contexts and for future research. First, while we have reiterated that teaching is a caring
profession, both schooling and teacher education contexts appear to fall short in preparing preservice
teachers for the emotional demands of teaching and the ensuing requirement for ongoing and consistent
self-care. In particular, further exploration is needed of how teacher education programs could assist
preservice teachers to develop coping strategies to manage the tensions between working in a caring
profession while at the same time working in such a performative culture. Investigating how career-
changers can be better transitioned into and supported through teacher education programs is a critical
avenue for program development and for future research.
Like other researchers researching resilience (Mansfield et al., 2016) and utilising a transactional-
ecological framework, we would like to highlight that, while career-changers continue to be a growing
demographic in our graduate population, schooling and teacher education contexts appear to be
unresponsive to the diversity of backgrounds and experiences that career-changers bring to the profession.
Certainly, for this cohort of career-changers, there was a deafening silence in terms of any
acknowledgement and utilisation of their prior skills and expertise of in their transactions with both
contexts. Further consideration needs to be given to how teacher education and schooling contexts can
capitalise on the strengths that career changers bring to the profession and how self-care and teacher
wellbeing can be incorporated into an already crowded teacher education program.
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Table 1: Contextual and personal influences
System Positive Influences Negative Influences
Contextual A supportive host teacher Positive feedback Positive school culture Positive support from university staff Acknowledgement and support from school leadership
Mismatch between the classroom and the Grad Dip program. Managing diverse learning needs and student behaviours Lack of support, feedback or direction from host teacher
Personal Having the support of family and friends Self-care, eating well, exercise, sleep, and prayer
Managing the conflicting demands on time and energy.