Generación de amoniaco – Ciclo del nitrógeno

Unlike many other professionals (e.g. nurses or lawyers), the first time teacher is expected to assume full professional responsibility from the start of their professional lives (Goodman, 1987; Lortie, 1975).

There is a general agreement that the first year of teaching is often marked by frustration, anxiety, anger, withdrawal where people attempt to integrate their idealistic assumptions about teaching with classroom realities (Dow, 1979; Fullan, 1982; Lacey, 1977; William, 1986). In some cases, student and novice teachers have to develop a role identity that may or may not fit with previous beliefs (Tardif, 1984). As a result first time teaching is considered to be very critical to teachers’ subsequent practice and to their longevity in the teaching profession (Lortie, 1975; Ryan, 1986; Rust, 1994). Fuller (1969) and Katz (1972) consider the first year of teaching as the ‘survival stage’ in teacher development. According to Olson and Osborne (1991) this situation often means ‘sink or swim’ for the new teacher depending on how they were prepared for teaching in college and how they experienced teaching practice. Some novice teachers may succeed while others may struggle in their first teaching appointments. Rust (1994) points out that those novice teachers often start teaching without a holistic sense about learning, the classroom, and life in schools and the holistic sense about learning, the classroom and life in schools form the hallmark of thinking among competent teachers (Reynolds, 1992).

Goodman (1987) found that student/novice teachers may not understand the socially constructed nature of school life. This may be partly due to the short period that they may be attached in schools during teaching practice. The short period of attachment may mean that they may not be fully inculcated into socio-cultural practices of the school systems. However, the sociological contingencies within specific schools can also have strong impact on new teachers (Blakey et al., 1989; Goodman, 1987; Zeichner, 1996). Regardless of context, it is most important and essential that student/novice teachers feel accepted both personally and professionally by the school system (Lacey, 1977). Janssens (1987) and Goodman (1987) found that many novice teachers are more concerned about their sense of self and the tasks at hand than about their pupils. They exert most of their efforts towards survival at the expense of understanding other aspects of teaching and learning. While student and novice teachers may unconsciously assimilate what teaching may be (Lortie, 1975; Ryan et al., 1980), they may have many misconceptions about the realities of teaching. They may find their tasks harder and more rigorous to undertake (Lortie, 1975; Odell, 1988; Ryan et al., 1980). This may be worrying for teacher educators as it may indicate that student teachers sometimes start teaching before they are fully prepared for teaching.

Some writers have pointed to the ‘shattering’ of images at this stage in teachers’ careers as the cause of much disillusionment (Cole and Knowles, 1993; Lortie, 1975). For example, student teachers may hold a clear or strong image of self as a teacher and can find their image

compromised or destroyed by the norms of the particular institution in which they teach. On the other hand, others may demonstrate great role ambiguity, being unaware of and often uncertain about their image of self as teachers (Cole and Knowles, 1993). Research studies have documented the phenomenon of ‘reality shock’ which student/novice teachers face (Korthagen et al., 2006). The student/novice teachers are also exposed to a ‘washing out’ effect of insights gained during teacher education and this raises doubt on the impact of teacher education on teacher practice. Wideen et al., (1998) concluded that the transfer from theory presented during teacher education to practice in schools is often little and teacher education practices are often counterproductive to teacher learning. This also questions the extent to which approaches such as learner-centred education which is currently being promoted in teacher education in many parts of the world at the moment can be used in practice in schools. It also questions the nature of relationships that may be built between student teachers and school teachers in teacher education programmes where mentors or ‘cooperating teachers’ are used (see Section 3.3.1 and Section 3.3.2 for detailed discussions of mentoring and learner-centred education respectively).

Some student/novice teachers tend to enter teaching concerned about how to organize instructional environments and how to establish general management routines (Ball and Feiman-Nemser, 1988; Veenman, 1984). Ryan (1986) observed that student and novice teachers tend to focus on what has been called the ‘front stage’ behaviour. This is said to be the behaviour that is obvious and well-known to anyone else who has spent time in classrooms as a pupil observing teachers. It has also been stated that student and novice teachers lack some useful understanding of the contexts in which they would work and this may reflect their inaccurate understanding of teaching (Bullough et al., 1989). In a sense these student and novice teachers enter schools ‘operating on the basis of a radically simplified conception’ of teaching (Scardamalia and Bereiter, 1989: 39).

Sabar (2004) likened student/novice teachers in their initial school experiences in a new school system to ‘strangers’. They are viewed as ‘strangers’ on the basis that they come from one normative system-teacher education college-with clear set of norms of behaviour, and try to enter another-the school-whose norms may be unfamiliar and different from theirs (Sabar, 2004). Further, the cultural difference between the teacher education college and the schools, and the inconsistency between the student teacher’s views of knowledge in a school environment increase the feeling of strangeness. Conway (2001) noted that the difference between student/novice teachers’ expectations and the school reality is a major source of

turmoil. This affects the processes of desocialisation and resocialisation that student/novice teachers undergo in their initial school placement (Sabar, 2004).

In this section I have looked at the vulnerability of student/novice teachers with respect to experiencing potential difficulties in their initial teaching placements. I propose the need to identify early perceptions of student/novice teacher’s challenges and teacher role beliefs relative to the constraints in order to support student teachers’ subsequent development (Haritos, 2004). Mayer and Goldsberry (1993) argued for the importance of student/novice teachers having productive tensions. The productive tensions ensure that student teachers resolve them well for their growth towards becoming effective teachers. By grappling with productive tensions student teachers can begin to interrogate their competing theories of teaching and learning (Copeland and D'Emidio-Caston, 1996; LaBoskey, 1993; Tann, 1993; Valli, 1992). This study attempts to explore the context-based experiences of student teachers during teaching practice within an activity theory framework. This is in line with Bronfenbrenner (2000) who noted that development must be examined in context and is therefore dependent upon the developing individual (known as the subject in activity theory parlance) as well as the environment (known as activity system in activity theory) in which development is taking practice.