Emerging as a Teacher

There is a great difference between doing a teacher's job and actually seeing oneself as a teacher, and all too often teachers in their first years after qualification are left to flounder in search of a workable identity. In this study, the authors chart this process through the case histories of six teachers, involved with children between the ages of 5 and 18, in their first year in the classroom. Through a combination of interviews and extensive observation of the teachers at work, they examine those factors in the experience and context of teaching and in the preconceptions which young teachers bring to the job which help to make their growth into the role of teacher easier or more difficult. The resulting account will give students in initial training an understanding of the journey upon which they are embarked and help more experienced teachers to reflect upon their own development. It will also give those involved in teacher education a foundation on which to build a more sensitive system of training in which problems are recognized and young teachers are supported in the development of an image that works for them.