Section archive - Beginning Teachers

This article draws on possible-selves theory to describe how future-oriented thought provides identity-relevant information and motivation to pursue self-relevant goals. The authors analyzed the expected and feared possible selves of 221 beginning teachers. The analysis revealed four main categories: interpersonal relationships, classroom management, instruction, and professionalism.

This paper reports on an exploratory study of beginning teachers’ experiences in one secondary multi-ethnic school in Flanders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six beginning teachers and two mentors. The authors concluded that the structural and cultural working conditions as well as the personal belief systems of the teachers were essential to understand the actual impact of the multi-ethnic character of the school on new teachers’ job experiences. Due to the mediating role of these factors, beginning teachers do not consider the multi-cultural character of their working environment as problematic as such.

This article highlights the blurring of boundaries as beginning teacher educators cope with the varying demands of teaching and research activities in higher education institutions (HEIs) in England. Three cases of newcomers to higher education and working in different HEIs are examined over a two-year period. The concept of the 'turning point' as a betwixt state is adopted to help identify significant experiences which result in a developing sense of belonging (or not) to academic and scholarly life. Four different categories are also deployed to highlight the case studies' understanding of being a university researcher.

This article considers the implications of mentoring for the discursive formation of professional identities of newly graduated teachers in Victoria, Australia. The paper draws attention to the effects of mentoring as conceived in this context on the construction of new teacher identities, the close relationship between professional standards and mentoring, the relationship between mentoring and the performative culture of schools, and what it means to be ‘a good teacher’ within this culture.