Narratives of Three Novice in-Service Science Primary School Teachers: Their Journey of Achieving Teacher Agency and Teacher Belief

Abstract

This study explores the phenomenon of 'school adaptation of novice primary school teachers' in the process of entering their actual primary school field. This study also studies the achievement of teacher agency and their teacher belief establishment procedure as novice teachers, not only in the actual teaching context but also as teachers who faced a special situation where their given role was different from what they learned from their university life. This study used a 'narrative' methodology. Narrative inquiry starts with 'researcher's narrative', which begins with the researcher's own story. The participants joined in interviews and submitted their teaching diaries. The participants of this study were three novice in-service teachers who were newly assigned to their primary schools. The research results are as follows. First, the novice primary school teachers achieved teacher agency while adjusting themselves to the school for a year. Second, novice primary school teachers did their best in terms of preparing for their classes in the process of being familiar with their schools’ culture and system. This study highlighted the need for dual support of teaching and administrative tasks for novice primary school teachers. Keywords: designing science lesson, novice teacher, science education, teacher agency, teacher education

Teacher Agency of Novice Teachers: A Scoping Review

“…Although the criterion for working experience duration was set at 0-5 years, two studies were included in the research due to their approximately 7-8 year longitudinal studies from the first year of teaching, which were deemed valuable contributions. (Ashton, 2021;Bamber, Bullivant, Clark, & Lundie, 2019;E et al, 2022;Eteläpelto, Vähäsantanen, & Hökkä, 2015;Gan, 2018;Heikkilä, Iiskala, Mikkilä-Erdmann, & Warinowski, 2022;Heikonen, Pietarinen, Pyhältö, Toom, & Soini, 2017;Keogh, Garvis, Pendergast, & Diamond, 2012;Lim & Yun, 2022;Lu, Leung, & Li, 2021;Naraian, 2022;Nolan, 2016;Noyes, 2008;Paris & Lung, 2008;Powell, 2019;Rostami & Yousefi, 2020;Starkey, 2010 2) What are the situations that challenges or restrains the agency of novice teachers?…”

“…In addition, since novice teachers believe that administrators and experienced teachers have higher identity and agency, it has been revealed that novice teachers perform better with positive feedback from them, and negative feedback increases the probability of leaving their profession (Rostami & Yousefi, 2020). After the teachers got over the reality shock, it was concluded that with the understanding of the working context, teachers were able to get professional support, trial and error, and to use their initiative and agency in the face of difficulties (Lim & Yun, 2022). Schools need to be equipped and given the necessary support for effective implementation.…”

“…Teachers seek professional support from colleagues in different schools through social media channels (e.g., teacher WhatsApp groups, teacher forums) and emotional support from friends and family (Rostami & Yousef, 2018). When some teachers cannot find the help they are looking for, they improvise to cope with difficulties and develop solutions to their problems using trial and error (Lim & Yun, 2022;Losano et al, 2018). Instead of traditional mentoring, needs-based, individual, supportive, encouraging, directive, reflectivity and dialogic mentoring should be practiced.…”

“…Many teachers are overwhelmed by this heavy workload (Ashton, 2021;Lim & Yun, 2022;Ro, 2019;Rodriguez, 2015). Therefore, the workload of novice teachers should be re-evaluated, and necessary arrangements should be made.…”

“…( Insufficient resources of the school, geographical distance, high poverty, mismatch of the curriculum with the local culture Use of agency in the context of social justice in the form of the use of indigenous culture and language in curricular practices, the elimination of student-teacher power inequalities, and the use of personal funds and resources to combat disadvantage and high poverty (Lim & Yun, 2022) Korean Qualitative Covid 19, School leader The fact that the school principal did not provide the necessary support to the negative situation caused by the pandemic negatively affected the agency of teachers.…”