Teaching is a Story Whose First Pages Matters : Four Type Narratives From The Beginning of a Teaching Career

Abstract

From a broad perspective, the entire time spent in teacher training can be characterized as a period of professional growth. Specific professional growth and development are realized when the students enter the advanced stage of master's studies to independently practise their profession in their own class of pupils. The uncertainty of a novice teacher and, on the other hand, the ‘burden of competence’ gained from teacher training make this induction phase very sensitive and critical, as all the competencies they have obtained during teacher training should culminate in this specific phase. The development of a student into an independent teacher is a growth story in which each person's identity, experiences of teaching, and the knowledge structures gained from teacher training determine how they experience their growth, how their multiple skills develop, and how their individual growth story evolves. In this study, we look at the writings of primary school teacher students who have just entered working life. In their writings, the students who are in the beginning of their teaching career highlight their experiences, critical points, decisive moments, meaningful experiences, and professional growth in different ways. What can we, as teaching practice supervisors, learn from our students’ experiences? What conditions and actions strengthen or destabilize the teacherhood of a newly graduated teacher? This study examines these questions through type narratives specific to narrative research by summarizing the students’ experiences in four different type narratives.