Abstract:
This project has engaged the question of the relationship between teacher education and the effectiveness of early career teachers. Its initial premise was to resist the call to see this relationship as a 'policy problem' (Cochran-Smith, 2008, p.273). Instead the research design recognised the complexity of the area and resulted in a longitudinal, mixed method design in which the key constructs of teachers’ preparedness and performance in their early years and principal’s perceptions of their effectiveness were examined in detail. In the surveys, graduate teachers and their principals were asked to rate their preparation for teaching and effectiveness as early career teachers in key areas of teaching, including: i. Teaching culturally, linguistically and socio-economically diverse learners ii. Design and implementation of the curriculum iii. Pedagogy iv. Assessment, feedback and reporting on student learning v. Classroom management vi. Collegiality vii. Professional engagement with parents/carers and the community viii. Professional ethics ix. Ongoing professional learning Analysis of the survey data consisted of four components, i) descriptive statistics, ii) cross-tabulation of teacher and school demographic data with career and teacher education data to show key trends, iii) longitudinal analysis across the four surveys, and iv) regression analysis to examine factors that influence the rates of movement through and out of the teaching profession. Case study data complemented and informed the quantitative data. The case studies tracked 179 graduate teachers through their early years in the teaching profession. These graduates were selected from 30 schools that represent Australia’s diverse populations and locations. Qualitative analyses of three years of interview transcripts were read alongside the findings emerging from the surveys. The longitudinal components of the quantitative and qualitative data highlight graduate teachers’ changing perspectives on their preparedness and effectiveness over time as they beginning their teaching careers. Storylines and positionings of teacher education entrenched in the schooling and policy discourses are concurrently challenged and reflected. The project findings challenge the location and nature of preparedness and effectiveness. Significantly, the project contributes to understanding the relationship between teacher education and teacher effectiveness in ways which can inform teacher learning as it occurs in schools and in the sites of initial teacher education. Cochran-Smith, M. (2008). The new teacher education in the United States: Directions forward. Teachers and Teaching: theory and practice, 14(4), 271-282.