The Alberta Teachers’ Association

In their foreword to The Future of Teaching in Alberta (Alberta Teachers’ Association 2011), Dennis Shirley and Andy Hargreaves note that although much of teaching has changed over time, many of its core characteristics have endured.

The characteristics that Shirley and Hargreaves say make teachers good people and teaching a good profession are a deep sense of vocation, care and concern for the well-being of children, and the will and ability to respond, year in and year out, to changing and sometimes tumultuous classroom conditions. Dan Lortie’s (2002) preface to the second edition of Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study, originally published in the 1970s, affirms much of the continuity and durability of the profession noted by Shirley and Hargreaves. If we’re serious about improving learning for all students, we need to be relentless about supporting high-quality teaching practices in all schools.

Beginning teachers’ experiences have common features that have persisted over time and have been well documented in many countries. We know, for example, that almost all new teachers experience vulnerability and uncertainty, which stems from the highly public and performative nature of the role (Kelchtermans and Ballet 2002; Palmer 2007). We also know that much of what a new teacher must learn happens through practice or authentic experiential learning. We know that teachers’ jobs are complex and, by extension, teacher induction is complex and demanding. In short, beginning teaching has never been easy and probably never will be.

Fortunately, we know a great deal about the types of work and learning experiences that can ease the challenges of early-career teaching in the short run, and encourage effective, ongoing professional learning in the long run. In the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s Beginning Teachers’ Five-Year Study, almost 100 teachers have continued with the study over the years, sharing with us their learning journeys through annual telephone interviews.¹ Some teachers expressed gratitude for the support they have received from their colleagues and school communities, whereas others have struggled in isolation. Teachers’ experiences, for better or for worse, confirm that good induction practices work hand in hand with practices that help all teachers to thrive.

Preservice and early-career learning

An observation made by teachers in The Future of Teaching in Alberta (ATA 2011) and beginning teachers’ studies is that preservice education—what is learned in university and through practicum—does not prepare new teachers for the complexity of their work. Participants in the beginning teachers’ study have consistently pointed to their own experiences and opportunities to reflect on those experiences with colleagues as the most significant drivers of their professional learning.

Yet the structures to systematically support experiential learning are fragmented. Alberta’s teacher practicum is short compared with those offered in other countries (Howe 2006), and as the new teachers we worked with indicated, the practicum does not provide experience in areas such as managing the administrative components of the job, writing report cards, planning for the entire school year and setting up a classroom. When teachers begin to teach on their own, induction supports vary widely and most occur outside of teachers’ classrooms.

The kinds of support that would move new teacher induction from being an “add-on” to a fully integrated and recognized stage of professional development would require a major reorganization of preservice education and early-career placements. Research points to a full internship model as an ideal. New teachers would spend a substantial portion of the school year working alongside a master teacher in the classroom, practising and documenting skill development. In this way, the core of teachers’ work—the decisions they make and the strategies they use in the classroom—become the objects of ongoing critical inquiry.

“How am I doing?”

Lack of feedback during the first years of practice was a dominant theme in our study. For teachers who have difficulty obtaining a continuing contract, feedback is notably absent. Teachers without contracts—about 15 per cent of our sample—expressed ongoing confusion and frustration because they can’t get consistent or reliable feedback on why they have not been able to secure a contract or on how they might improve in order to get one. Teachers with contracts can’t shed much light on the process either; they simply describe themselves as “lucky” compared with their untenured peers.

New teachers’ confusion about the mechanics of hiring is in many cases followed by confusion about how their jobs work. In the best cases, new teachers receive orientation and support from a strong administrator, from a committed assigned mentor, or through the outreach of a grade-level partner or department colleague. In other instances, however, review and evaluation processes are cursory administrative functions.

Most interesting, perhaps, has been new teachers’ deep sense of disappointment when their efforts to learn and improve go unrecognized by administrators and colleagues. Taught throughout their preservice training about the importance of reflection and ongoing critical scrutiny of one’s practice, some teachers are surprised to find that evaluation is a “hoop to be jumped through” rather than a learning opportunity. Most important (and this should give us great hope) is that teachers want to improve and they want safe and supportive feedback.

Building on the will to collaborate

Many teachers continue to lament that teaching is an isolated and intensely “privatized” practice: teachers go about their business in their classrooms and, in some cases, reach a point where they actively choose to work in isolation (Kardos and Johnson 2007; Little 1990). Teachers do not start out this way, however. Our sample of 135 new teachers began their careers with idealism and enthusiasm.² They have the expectation (and the desire) to collaborate with colleagues. This is good news.

The challenge in our schools is to meet and exceed these new teachers’ hopes for strong, supportive and open school cultures. And, indeed, some of our early-career teachers have enjoyed precisely such conditions, which is evident in their optimism, in the curiosity and enthusiasm that characterizes their professional growth planning, and in their expressed sense of being part of something good that is more than the sum of its parts. Perhaps most important, we see beginning teachers who have been well mentored and well supported. Some of our study participants, feeling more settled and confident, are now assisting their more junior colleagues.

Getting it right everywhere

When we began the beginning teachers’ study with a pilot project in 2007, we had the general goal of examining beginning teachers’ experiences and making sense of them. What became apparent was the challenge of describing the commonalities without diminishing the significant differences between teachers’ experiences. From a research perspective, these differences are rich and engaging, and from a policy perspective, they highlight the challenges of moving great teacher learning beyond individual schools into something that is sustainable and systemwide.

For this reason, it’s important to resist the temptation to target new teachers with “induction programs.” When induction is a program and is simply bolted onto existing systems, its outcomes are likely to reflect the status quo. Although many Alberta school districts are providing induction supports, our teachers’ experiences suggest that implementation has been uneven and success is varied.

Getting it right for everyone

In the report of our beginning teachers’ study, we’ve consistently stated that “what is good for beginning teachers is good for schools.” Improved theory-to-practice connections, ongoing focused feedback for learning, and cultures of collaboration benefit teachers throughout their careers. Again, it’s clear that while some new teacher learning needs are indeed unique to the early phases of a teaching career, much of what we call “good induction” is just good teacher PD  across the board. This fact has been consistently supported in educational research.

Getting it right for good

To date, school districts and schools have attempted to improve new teachers’ experiences without significant challenges to the existing order of things. Collaboration and mentorship are “squeezed in.” Programs of study remain bloated and obsessively detailed. In many cases, classrooms remain too large, and resources for students with special needs are scant.

If “what is good for beginning teachers is good for schools” is true, so is its inverse: if schools are better places for all teachers, new teachers are likely to benefit from veterans who have more time and more energy to support them.

Much of the long-range vision for public education in Alberta discussed in The Future of Teaching in Alberta (ATA 2011), Inspiring Education (Alberta Education 2010) and The Courage to Choose (ATA 2010) calls for “breathing space”—time, space and collegial connections that allow teachers to work together toward their common interest: the intellectual growth and emotional well-being of Alberta’s children and youth.

Notes

1. Year four of the longitudinal study was completed in 2011. An interim report of the study (end of year three) is available on the ATA website (www.teachers.ab.ca).

2. The original study sample consisted of 135 beginning teachers. Attrition has reduced our numbers to 98 teachers at the end of year four of the study.

References

Alberta Education. 2010. Inspiring Education: A Dialogue with Albertans. Edmonton, Alta.: Alberta Education. Also available at www.inspiringeducation.alberta.ca/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=BjGiTVRiuD8%3d&tabid=37 (accessed April 26, 2012).

Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA). 2010. The Courage to Choose: Emerging Trends and Strategic Possibilities for Informed Transformation in Alberta Schools: 2010–2011. Edmonton, Alta.: ATA. Also available at www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research-Updates/PD-86-11c%20The%20Courage%20to%20Choose.pdf (accessed April 26, 2012).

———. 2011. The Future of Teaching in Alberta. With a foreword by A. Hargreaves and D. Shirley. Edmonton, Alta.: ATA. Also available at www.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research-Updates/PD-86-20%20The%20Future%20of%20Teaching%20in%20Alberta.pdf (accessed April 26, 2012).

Howe, E. R. 2006. “Exemplary Teacher Induction: An International Review.” Educational Philosophy and Theory 38, no. 3: 287–97.

Kardos, S. M., and S. M. Johnson. 2007. “On Their Own and Presumed Expert: New Teachers’ Experience with Their Colleagues.” Teachers College Record 109, no. 9: 2083–106.

Kelchtermans, G., and K. Ballet. 2002. “The Micropolitics of Teacher Induction: A Narrative-Biographical Study on Teacher Socialisation.” Teaching and Teacher Education 18, no. 1: 105–20.

Little, J. W. 1990. “The Persistence of Privacy: Autonomy and Initiative in Teachers’ Professional Relations.” Teachers College Record 91, no. 4: 509–36.

Lortie, D. C. 2002. Schoolteacher: A Sociological Study. 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Orig. pub. 1975.)

Palmer, P. J. 2007. The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass.

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Laura Servage is a doctoral student and sessional instructor at the University of Alberta. Servage also conducts research for the Alberta Teachers’ Association.