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Transitions into teaching : exploring how career change teachers in Singapore transfer previous knowledge and practices and grow as teachers during initial teacher preparation
Author
Hanington, Linda Mary
Supervisor
Ng, David Foo Seong
Abstract
In Singapore, as in many countries, individuals who have had other careers are recruited into the teaching profession in substantial numbers and a growing body of research looks at their motivations, training and early teaching experience. However, there is a significant gap in terms of exploring how the knowledge, competencies and skills they acquire previous careers transfer to teaching and how they grow as teachers during this transition period.
Based on understandings of learning that combine the socially-situated with the cognitive (Billet, 1996), this study explores this gap and increases understanding of how the transfer is effected. It was conducted in Singapore which offers a unique training context for future teachers in that all trainee teachers are employees of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and are trained at one institution. A case study approach (Yin, 2003) was adopted in order to explore the experience and perceptions of fifteen career change teachers aged 30 and above enrolled on a Postgraduate Diploma in Education in 2014.
The data were collected from two sets of interviews, and triangulated using surveys of practicum supervisors and academic staff, and samples of the participants’ teaching philosophy statements and lesson plans. They were explored using both a priori and emergent coding. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s (2002) Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (IMTPG) helped establish patterns of growth. A more longitudinal perspective is taken in this study and, in combination with analysis tools such as the IMTPG, it sheds new light on the phases in the transition processes. Furthermore the exploration of the impact of the extended period of teaching as an untrained teacher, known as contract teaching, which all the participants undertook prior to their initial teacher preparation (ITP), adds a different dimension from previous studies.
The main findings relate to how the participants view themselves and are viewed at different stages during their transitions and the tensions that result from being experienced individuals in previous careers yet novices in a new one. The study highlights the transfer of personal qualities and generic interpersonal skills, and the critical role they play during a challenging period. It demonstrates how competencies and skills developed in previous careers and through life experience form a resource that supports individuals while they focus on a new career horizon. It also shows how these individuals were active agents in their own professional development and surfaces the significant role of taught courses and of cooperating teachers in fostering development.
The study helps confirm findings from previous research into career change teachers with some distinct differences, such as the participants’ preparedness to take on training due to exposure to today’s teaching environment during contract teaching, their affirmation of the value of having a common course with their fresh graduate peers and the importance of designated school support staff during practicum.
It provides course developers in training institutions with insights that may impact training approaches and adds to the body of research into a group that forms a substantial proportion of today’s teacher workforce.
Based on understandings of learning that combine the socially-situated with the cognitive (Billet, 1996), this study explores this gap and increases understanding of how the transfer is effected. It was conducted in Singapore which offers a unique training context for future teachers in that all trainee teachers are employees of the Ministry of Education (MOE) and are trained at one institution. A case study approach (Yin, 2003) was adopted in order to explore the experience and perceptions of fifteen career change teachers aged 30 and above enrolled on a Postgraduate Diploma in Education in 2014.
The data were collected from two sets of interviews, and triangulated using surveys of practicum supervisors and academic staff, and samples of the participants’ teaching philosophy statements and lesson plans. They were explored using both a priori and emergent coding. Clarke and Hollingsworth’s (2002) Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (IMTPG) helped establish patterns of growth. A more longitudinal perspective is taken in this study and, in combination with analysis tools such as the IMTPG, it sheds new light on the phases in the transition processes. Furthermore the exploration of the impact of the extended period of teaching as an untrained teacher, known as contract teaching, which all the participants undertook prior to their initial teacher preparation (ITP), adds a different dimension from previous studies.
The main findings relate to how the participants view themselves and are viewed at different stages during their transitions and the tensions that result from being experienced individuals in previous careers yet novices in a new one. The study highlights the transfer of personal qualities and generic interpersonal skills, and the critical role they play during a challenging period. It demonstrates how competencies and skills developed in previous careers and through life experience form a resource that supports individuals while they focus on a new career horizon. It also shows how these individuals were active agents in their own professional development and surfaces the significant role of taught courses and of cooperating teachers in fostering development.
The study helps confirm findings from previous research into career change teachers with some distinct differences, such as the participants’ preparedness to take on training due to exposure to today’s teaching environment during contract teaching, their affirmation of the value of having a common course with their fresh graduate peers and the importance of designated school support staff during practicum.
It provides course developers in training institutions with insights that may impact training approaches and adds to the body of research into a group that forms a substantial proportion of today’s teacher workforce.
Date Issued
2016
Call Number
HD58.7 Han
Date Submitted
2016