Teacher Identity Development of Non-Education-Degree Individuals

This chapter reports on the analysis of the narratives of two non-education-degree teachers to highlight the process of their teacher identity development. The analysis showed that their teacher identities were initially developed during their childhood, but then overshadowed by aspirations to have other professional identities; therefore, they did not enroll in teacher education programs. Upon graduation, they entered the teaching profession either accidentally or deliberately. Their teacher identities were shaped via active participation in teaching and professional development activities, and their ability to negotiate between their teaching competence and the practice required in the school. After their teacher identities were established, often by receiving a teaching qualification, they continued to develop their teacher identities by imagining and negotiating their teaching practices with their future selves. Generally, their teacher identity development involved a complex interaction of personal and contextual factors as well as much effort and resilience.

Teacher Induction for Teachers Prepared Online

Innovation and change in university preparation of teachers requires acquisition of technological pedagogy in response to the demands of a knowledge economy where students are engaged in technology implementation in a constantly changing world. Teacher preparation programs historically have been contained on campus using face-to-face instruction. As the second decade of the twenty-first century unfolds, universities have adopted online learning in teacher preparation to accommodate the needs of a more diverse clientele. Educator preparation now faces two major challenges: a critical mass generated by net generation students who have increased demands for online access to learning and a teaching force without prerequisite skills and dispositions to dramatically alter modes of instruction.

Mentoring for Novice Teachers

The purpose of this chapter is to explicate the concept of “mentoring.” First, the confusion on the “mentoring” concept is fixed in this chapter and then the purposes of mentoring practices are examined. The theoretical background of mentoring, roles and responsibilities of mentors, and main mentoring models are reviewed. Then, benefits of mentoring practices are discussed thoroughly. After clearing up the concept of “mentoring,” the qualities that a mentor should have are mentioned in this chapter. Additionally, the selection of mentors, mentor-novice matching, and mentor training issues are highlighted. Finally, the interaction between mentors and novice teachers, the effect of mentors' and novice teachers' workload to mentoring practices, and incentives for mentor teachers are discussed.

Teacher Induction in Culturally, Ethnically, or Linguistically Diverse Settings

The first year in teaching is a special period, and beginning teachers face many challenges in induction period. Current demographic changes all around the world bring about an increasingly diverse student population with different cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds. The purpose of this chapter is to explicate teacher induction in culturally, ethically, or linguistically diverse settings. Accordingly, teacher induction is clarified within the framework of culturally responsive teaching. As the concern of education is to be responsive to students' diverse cultural or linguistic backgrounds in culturally responsive teaching, it is considered to be appropriate pedagogy for beginning teachers in diverse settings. Furthermore, beginning teachers' relationships in the learning community and larger society have great importance in induction period. Therefore, this chapter aims to clarify the scope of beginning teachers' relations with students, parents, and larger society in culturally diverse settings.

Ecological Cycle of the Novice Teachers in the Induction Process

In this chapter, the condition of the novice teachers is scrutinized within Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory (EST). The theory was originated in the psychology concerning human development. The nests in EST are dealt with concerning the novice teachers. “Microsystem” is considered as a professional “family” for them to make them acquire the ecological environment of the school. The parents of the students and the school administrators and the residents of the school environment are included in “mesosystem.” The educational system is totally defined as “exosystem” and all other systems such as economic and political systems are involved in “macrosystem.” “Chronosystem” focuses on development and transformation of the novice teachers to become real teachers in time. Among these nests, the novice teachers have face-to-face contact with the first two nests and they have secondary contact with other though they sometimes get affected more. Moreover, this theory contributes to the professional development of these within the educational socio-cultural context.

Empowering Novice Teachers Through Blended Feedback

There have been high rates of increase in teacher attrition, especially during the first years of teaching. Novice teachers experience high levels of stress, disappointment, and challenges in the classroom due to lack of teaching experience. This chapter highlights the impact of feedback. It is believed that high-quality feedback coming from various sources during the initial years of teaching can significantly impact teacher retention by developing collegiality among teachers and providing the essential support novice teachers need. A background for the role of peer feedback in teacher education and the importance of its quality are explained, peer coaching and its benefits are clarified, the relationship between peer feedback and teacher efficacy are provided together with a brief information about teacher induction process in Turkish context. A model that employs different sources of feedback is suggested to empower teachers during pre-service, induction, and in-service period. An example peer feedback training lesson plan with worksheets is also provided.

Teacher Socialization in a Changing World

The purpose of this chapter is to examine teacher socialization with different aspects. Therefore, teacher socialization was investigated as a concept. Afterward, the primary socialization traditions—functionalist, interpretive, and critical—were explained, and then the idea of teacher socialization was examined thoroughly according to these traditions. Throughout the chapter, the items of the stages of socialization, and Lacey's model of socialization, the social strategies of beginning/novice teachers, the socializing factors, the socialization role of preservice teacher education and induction period, socialization in the workplace and culture were examined.

Teacher Socialization and Teacher Isolation

This study addresses teacher socialization and isolation primarily within the context of induction to the profession, workplace learning, and informal learning. Since the content of the subject is covered by fields of sociology, pedagogy, psychology, management, and organization, the concepts of induction to the profession and workplace learning were used to establish the basis for teacher socialization and isolation. How the teacher socializes influences the quality of education because socialization influences how the teacher performs his job. Increased interest in teacher training results in increased teacher quality, thereby increasing educational success. Increased interest in teacher training is accompanied by pursuit for quality in teacher training systems. Increasing teacher quality is not only related to training the teacher in preservice programs. Considering the fact that there are teachers who had received preservice training, yet started the profession prematurely, in-service learning processes are important in efforts to ensure teacher quality as well.

Learning to Teach During Novice Years

The novice teacher's training is playing an important role in the education reform. In Xi'an Gaoxin No.1 Primary School, the school leaders host a pilot way of training the new teachers. The new teacher training of the school is special and meaningful. The training not only includes professional skill, student management, and teacher's ethics, but also includes art, calligraphy, reading, and so on. The authors invested 73 teachers (male=9, female=64) who had got the job one year ago. After one year's training, 73.97% of novice teachers express full agreement about the training and are quite satisfied with the training. Comparing with the beginning of the career, the novice teachers have improved the teaching abilities a lot.

The Induction of the Principal Teacher in the Instituto Politecnico Nacional en Mexico

The objective of the research was to assess the Diploma in Teacher Training in the Instituto Politecnico Nacional in the induction of the teaching staff of the School of Medicine in the areas of planning, teaching strategies, and evaluation. The type of study that was used was a quantitative methodology with an exploratory-descriptive cross-sectional design because it focused on the diagnosis on the induction of the teaching staff of the School of Medicine of the IPN. Thus, the instrument that was elaborated was a questionnaire based on a Likert scale with five options of answer understood always, almost always, occasionally, rarely, and never. The main conclusion was that it was identified that the teachers of new income agree with the need to professionalize the planning, development, and evaluation of didactic strategies.