Teachers of Promise

1. Teachers of Promise Presentation at TEFANZ Conference 2006 Dunedin College of Education, New Zealand Monday 3 - Wednesday 5 July 2006 Marie Cameron, Robyn Baker and Susan Lovett

2. Teachers of Promise: Aspirations and Realities (2005-2008) A longitudinal study of the professional identities, careers and workplace learning of New Zealand primary and secondary teachers from their third year of teaching. Phase One: 2005

3. Overview • Rationale for the research • Research questions • Focus • Methods • Sample • Themes from the first year • Discussion

4. Rationale Teachers are key to improving student learning • Aging workforce • Only 15 % NZ secondary teachers under 30 years • Average age = 45 years Significant attrition in first 3-5 years (37%) • Staffing problems • Loss of teaching expertise • Damage to collective school capacity

5. Questions Why teach? What are the factors that influence decisions to: • Stay in current school? • Change schools? • Leave teaching? How do teachers • Deepen their expertise? • Build their careers?

6. Focus Perceptions and experiences of 57 teachers judged to have “promise” ( 9 ITE Providers and schools) • personal beliefs, values, place of teaching in their lives Teaching as work • social and organisational contexts • professional contexts (how they are supported to build understandings and skills in teaching)

7. Methods a) Methodology • May-June 2005 • Initial interviews (1 hour) face-to-face, semi structured. • Explored reasons for becoming a teacher, experiences of initial teacher education, induction, and current situation. • October- November 2005 • Survey (mailed and collected at second interview) • Second interviews (1 hour) face-to-face, semi structured. • Explored changes, development as a teacher (image and confidence, building knowledge and expertise, future goals). This presentation focuses mainly on the second interview and survey. (Refer http://www.nzcer.org.nz/pdfs/TipTop1Sep2005.pdf)

8. Sample b) The sample (n = 57) Gender Males 33 percent (cf 20% of profession) Ages Ethnicity

9. Sample School deciles (2005) Teaching levels (2005)

10. Qualifications • 19 three-year teaching degrees (6 providers) • 34 one-year graduate diplomas (7 providers) • 16 BA, 5 BSc, rest had commerce, journalism, music, physical education • 3 Masters degrees • 1 PhD (chemistry) • 4 4-year conjoint degrees (3 providers)

11. Sample • 16/57 taught in more than one school already • Deliberate movers changed because school did not meet their initial expectations

12. Movers • “I thought if I’m going to be a teacher, I need to find the right kind of school that’s going to support what I believe and what I want to do.” • “I loved it, but the culture of the school was doing my head in.” • “ I didn’t want to be there anymore, but needed to give teaching a go in another environment.” • “The first school I taught at wasn’t very inspiring at all and it just dragged me down”.

13. Movers • 12 were “deliberate movers” 4  school of higher decile 6  same decile 2  lower decile • 4 had a series of relieving positions before current job

14. Motivation to teach • Primarily intrinsic rewards, plus job security(7), holidays (6) • Career changers (35) dissatisfied with current work • Lack of autonomy • Lack of challenge • Lack of variety • Lack of personal meaning • Expected to enjoy teaching • Colleagues, children and young people, sharing knowledge…..

15. Motivation to teach “I wanted to be challenged, use my qualifications, have a job where you didn’t just wait for a break to arrive, be inspired, make a difference, empower students and share my love of literature.” (Female, secondary)

16. Preparation to teach 37/57 positive/very positive Well I thought it was fantastic. That year was so intense in terms of its study and the content and assignments you had to do. It was more intense than the journalism degree, because I was learning how to be a teacher in one year. When you are teaching a Class 7 curriculum there is an extreme amount of knowledge you have to know. I thought [provider] was fantastic. There were some really inspirational lecturers there. They had been at the game a long time but they were still passionate and enthusiastic. Yes I kind of got inspired by them really.” (Male, 20-25, intermediate)

17. Preparation to teach • Importance of theory-practice links To be honest, the first year I didn’t know what on earth I was doing. Looking back I think I wanted someone to walk in with a big fat folder and say to me “Here is your first divider. This is all we need for learning. Here’s the second folder. That’s all you need for maths” and so forth. I wanted like a manual given to me, so that I could begin to implement it. (Female, Pasifika, 31-40)

18. Survey data on preparation • 1/3 primary felt poorly/very poorly prepared for classroom management/discipline problems (Half were from one provider, school decile not a factor) • 38 percent felt inadequately prepared to work constructively with parents Well you don't get taught it at College, you don't get lessons in how to interact and communicate with parents and have those discussions that you need to have. (Päkehä, female, 26-30, junior school)

19. Beginnings….. The first day was scary because you turn up and you see all those smiling faces and the odd parent who has come to see [what’s going on]. You look around and there is no associate to call back up on. You’re it ! And that’s when it hit me, because coming in early and setting the class up, that was all cool, but when they are all sitting there looking at you saying “right, teach us!”, you’re going “It’s all up to me now” and that was cool. (Päkehä male, 26-30, middle school) It’s not until you have your own class that you can do things your way and try new things and fail and “Oh that didn’t work this time, what am I going to do better about that next time? (Päkehä female,26-30, junior primary)

20. Mentoring supports in first two years • Systematic and supportive induction: • 19/25 primary • 4/10 intermediate • 8/22 secondary • 10 reported no/extremely limited induction( 8 in secondary schools

21. Good experiences I think that for the rest of my career I’ll always look that fondly on my first year. I had so much fun in my first year, it was unbelievable. I don’t know what it was about it particularly; the kids were great, the class was great and I had a lot of fun with them. I remember that there wasn’t so much pressure on me, that could be partly related to the time allowance we had, of course, more time to prepare and things like this. (Päkehä male, 26-30,secondary)

22. Left to “get on with it” I had another beginning teacher next door and I had a teacher in the other classroom next door to me. I think it was his 2nd year or something, and we all had to muddle along together and we just really relied on each other and experience–wise we didn’t have a lot of stuff behind us. We were just starting out ourselves, we were left as a wee group to figure it out and support each other with things. It would’ve been nice, you know, particularly for my tutor teacher to have just been there a bit more. They didn’t really know what was going on in the classroom at all, no one seemed to be really interested in my programme. I think I got observed once in 2 terms. It [felt like] “here’s a class, go free, teach them!” and no one was really interested in what I was actually doing. (Päkehä female, 26-30, junior primary)

23. The second interviews • 52/57 still teaching • 3 women OE • 1 woman maternity leave • 1 woman resigned I have to say also that I didn't realise how discontented I was with teaching until I stopped doing it. It's the old brick wall scenario, you know, you don’t realise how much damage you're doing until you stop banging your head…Since I've left I have realised how much extra work I was doing out of school, how much work I was doing that was unrecognised…. (Päkehä female, 41-50, primary)

24. New roles • More than half had roles in additional to teaching Secondary (n=18) • 2 acting HODS • 3 Deans • Extra-curricular ( choir, dance, drama, sports) • 3 curriculum leadership Primary (n=34) • 14 curriculum leadership (usually arts related) • 4 kapa haka, 4 sports • 3 mentors for BTs

25. Risks of extended roles I think on reflection I need to know when to say “Stop”, or “No” to responsibility. I’ve enjoyed taking on extra responsibilities, however I think the main priority in any school is the children. It concerns me that any one individual taking on quite a lot will result in the children losing out, whether it’s energy wise or time wise. (Mäori, female, 20-25, primary)(Became DP of her school at end of second year teaching)

26. Expectations • Majority felt that teaching met their original expectations • Half the primary and slightly more secondary agreed that “teaching has turned out better than I thought it would be”

27. Motivation • More than 2/3 were more motivated to teach than when they began teaching Growth in confidence I think I'm enjoying it a lot more than I was probably at the beginning of the year and definitely over the last couple of years just in terms of becoming a bit more relaxed and feeling in control of everything that you're doing… realising that I am doing a good job, so now I'm kind of reprioritising and thinking about what I can be doing to spend more time with them and different ways to approach things. It's more to do with confidence in myself and just knowing that I'm doing it right. So just relaxing a bit more and therefore enjoying it. … Like I think it matches what I hoped it would be like at training college and what I got from kind of practicums and the enjoyment I had then. I think then you hit the reality of the learning curve in the first two years and now it is like how I hoped it would be, getting past the other stuff. (Päkehä, female, 20-25, primary)

28. Motivation • Enjoyment of school I couldn't speak highly enough of the profession, I love it, absolutely love coming to school and I look forward to it. I look forward to seeing staff members and I look forward to seeing the kids every day .. . I look forward to seeing staff members and I look forward to seeing the kids every day. (Päkehä male, 26-30, primary)

29. Motivation • Student success I feel really good any time that I get some sort of feedback from the kids that I know is genuine and it just pops out. Where they express perhaps something that was really interesting, or they really enjoyed that or they've now found out something that they'd never have known or they really enjoyed the way something was presented to them. Those sorts of tangible things make me feel good. The times when I get those external results and I see perhaps someone has really peaked and they really came up and they really did the job, those are very satisfying things and make me feel good because I'll have produced a result. (Päkehä male, 26-30,secondary)

30. Demotivators • Having to teach subjects “out of field” I've experienced teaching a subject that I didn’t know much about at all, I was just told “you're teaching it” and I had an hour session on it. They just said to me “oh something has happened in the timetable and instead of your colleague you're teaching it” and I felt completely left out in the loop. It's like asking a mathematician to teach physics even though certain components and formulas might be the same it does not mean that you know how to do it and nobody said to me “we'll send you to a course first”.. I thought “wait a minute this should not be happening, I feel completely incapable of teaching this subject and I know the kids will know it as soon as they see me up there.” (Päkehä female, 20-25, secondary)

31. Demotivators • Constant changes to teaching assignments Well that’s one of the things I’ve been begging the Head of Faculty for next year. Please let me have two years in a row where I’m actually doing the same thing twice, cause every year I’ve had something new. (Päkehä male, 26-30, secondary)

32. Demotivators • School politics Yeah the management has changed since I've been here in the way that it operates and there's a “them and us”. I don't know that that's been deliberate, it definitely hasn't been deliberate. I don't know quite why I don't feel like there's a lot of collegiality and I don’t like that. (Päkehä female, 36-30, intermediate)

33. Demotivators • Too many demands I mean I don’t want to sound lazy or anything but I think it would be so much easier for me just doing the arts and at the moment I find everything that's going on and then you've got all the other things on top of it. You have all the different, I think it's because we over plan at this school and it becomes kind of tedious, you know. (Päkehä female, 31-40, primary) (Has found new job this year)

34. Demotivators • Getting bored I know it changes throughout the year like at the moment I'm frustrated and the motivation is waning because it's a critical time of year as far as revision goes but the kids still haven't come on board yet. I get annoyed. Motivation of course is still there but sometimes you have to try and motivate these really annoying useless kids and yeah. We've finished all the courses now so it's just revision at the moment and that is also hard as a teacher because it is boring to be honest. You're not teaching them new stuff so you're not being a practitioner anymore you're just getting them to do work and then you're just walking around and answering questions so it's a fairly boring time of year but vital time of year of course…. (Päkehä male, 31-40, secondary)

35. Demotivators • Culture of “blame” It's all the way you're treated as a member of the staff 'cos it always seems to focus on the negative, there's no positive reinforcement and when it comes it's not from the heart. You know, you try and do all things for the children but you're told “if your children aren't behaving then you have to look at your programme”. (Päkehä, female, 31-40, primary) (Has left school teaching)

36. Demotivators • Exhaustion I absolutely drain my batteries like I just get exhausted, end of the day I go home and I find it hard to sleep 'cos I'm so tired then you're exhausted the next day and you know and there's always something on outside of your own teaching in terms of what's going on in the school that will either interrupt in some way or will involve you in some way and will take some of your time and your energy again and so yeah it is, it’s a case of wanting to do a better job but just all of those little things talked about just they don't work towards that, they hinder that definitely. (Päkehä male,20-25, primary)

37. Demotivators • Inadequate support for teaching children with significant learning needs I've got this new child and she has zapped my energy already. She started at the beginning of the term so that has been a big change for me to have a child come into an already established classroom of beautiful hardworking children, to have that new personality come in and I've never had an autistic child before so it has been even in the first three weeks, a big learning curve. I am still supported with this new student but it does make it hard when you think you've got to the end of the year and everything's ticking along nicely and then something new and unexpected comes in and causes changes and disruption. She's not fully funded so I have teacher aide coming in three times a day just for three half hour blocks. It’s not a lot and she needs support in the playground at lunch time too. (Päkehä female, primary 26-30)

38. Moving on to management T: Less [motivated] Because I, having done all this kind of deaning stuff it's you know, being in the classrooms alright but doing all the pastoral stuff, I absolutely love it. So I've been more motivated to you know, sit in an office all day and do pastoral stuff, deal with problem kids and you know, 'cos we have, there's two roles in the school, the two deputies. Two of them just do strictly discipline and that's it and I'd love that job. I like teaching, not to say that I've lost interest in teaching, probably not but I like doing this more. Right, so what is it that makes this better than classroom teaching? T: It’s better interactions with the students. You know, I think it's the power, I love the power. (Male, Päkehä, secondary, 20-25)

39. Working conditionsn=35 primary, 18 secondary • The majority of teachers • Felt part of an effective team (40) • Worked in a collegial atmosphere (44) • Were encouraged to be innovative (39) • Felt proud to work in their school (46)

40. Working conditions • Only half said there was enough time for them to work with their colleagues on planning and assessment • A minority agreed that they tended to be left alone to teach and sometimes felt isolated in their classrooms • While 21 felt recognised for their teaching, the same number was ambivalent, and 11 disagreed

41. Working conditions • Half felt that they were involved in decisions that affected them • Over half agreed that there were opportunities for them to develop their leadership skills

42. Primary and secondary experiences • 2/3 primary, less than half secondary received feedback from performance appraisals that helped and motivated them to improve their teaching • ¾ primary, half of secondary agreed their principals were consistently supportive • 15 primary spent on money on classroom resources ( usually in low decile schools) • Only 2 secondary teachers spent own money

43. Primary and secondary experiences • Only 7 primary and 7 secondary agreed that their current salary was appropriate for their work. Half disagreed • Half primary and secondary agreed that their workload was manageable, but sizable strong disagreement • Half secondary, and somewhat less primary did not think their workload was acceptable

44. Opportunities for further learning • Overwhelmingly: Learning from their colleagues For me it's seeing teaching fleshed out. Being told something, getting something on paper, doesn't matter how good the presentation is, it's still not real. When you see a classroom in action you've got everything in front of you and you've got the contacts basically. You're seeing how things work in the classroom, how the children respond, you just get, it's probably the feel factor that you get. You get a feel for what's happening whereas you don't get that when you're just sort of taught it or told it. (Päkehä male, 31-40, primary)

45. Opportunities for further learning • Reflection on practice Reflection I suppose, a general one. Thinking about, oh I always think about what I've done and how I could do it better, it's just something that you know, you learn it at college and you find you're doing all the time anyway, yeah thinking oh did that work, why didn't it work? (Päkehä, female, 31-40, primary) Reflecting. I remember we got so sick of that word at teachers college but it is true, it is so important to actually look at what you’re doing and think about well is that working and if not well I’ll stop doing that and I’ll try something else. I think that is a really important part of growth. (Päkehä, primary, 20-25, primary)

46. Opportunities for further learning • Feedback Getting feedback from children and allowing time for lots of conferencing with them and the appraisal has highlighted some of my needs or things I could be doing to improve my teaching Päkehä, female, 31-40, primary • NCEA assessment

47. Opportunities for further learning • Further education (only one teacher) Yeah definitely that, my Post Graduate Education paper at Massey, it's called Current Issues in English and it's dealing with current issues and it's definitely developed my teaching techniques in English this year. (Päkehä female, 26-30, secondary) • School based professional development (several in primary) The ICT lady comes in and actually works with you and you can share work on the spot. That's the best way I can learn with them right there and doing things. It has kind of opened the door for other things. (Mäori female, 20-25, primary)

48. Opportunities for further learning • Personal effort Reading anything I can get my hands on, you know, newspaper articles with regard to my subject with health, keeping up to date with the latest trends. I often think if there's been subjects in the past that I haven't been sure about, you know, when I've been looking at, for self defence or sexual harassment, going and getting books out and reading all or I actually, anything, anything I can get my hands on. (Päkehä female, 31-40, secondary) (Still hasn’t a permanent job) This year I've been reading quite a bit about the history of science and just general interest biology reading. (Päkehä male, 31-40, secondary) Mostly by my own efforts. You develop as a teacher every time you moderate with your colleagues or discuss the subject area and try to improve it, but most of the improvements have been done by me in the last couple of years, my ability to talk to other people from other schools, my ability to stay up at night and research as much as possible. Apart from that, no. (Päkehä, female, 20-25, secondary)

49. Constraints to learning • Structural Something I’d like to do more of would be to go into the classrooms of other good teachers which is I think something that doesn't happen much at many schools. It should happen more. (Päkehä male, 31-40, secondary, Yr 9 Dean) • Lack of resources • No computer in classroom (secondary maths) • No training to use interactive whiteboard • Minimal professional reading available in school

50. Constraints to learning Probably not having the books, you know, college was brilliant because the books were there, you know, all the psychology and sociology books and things like that were there and I don't get the time to go to the public library. I mean I'd love to have some of those books here. (Mäori female, 26-30, intermediate)