Impacto del PED sobre las líneas de pobreza

Overwhelmingly, the term that continually appeared in descriptions of the beginning teaching experience was the notion of ‘survival’ (Kiggins & Gibson, 2002; May, 1995; Teasley, 1994). The first year of teaching just has to be survived. It is a phrase used by researchers about the experience, but also by teachers themselves. Mullen (cited in Kane, 1991) in recalling his first year experience, remembered a more experienced colleague’s words of wisdom, ‘To survive around here, you’ve got to be as tough as nails’ (p.68). Lang (1999) wrote that survival has long been associated with beginning teaching. Along with the use of term survival are other words such as ‘coping’, ‘struggling’, and ‘sinking’. The extensive documentation of the problems and difficulties about beginning teaching suggests that the concept of beginning teaching as survival is a logical response to what appears as a very difficult and even traumatic experience. A metaphor presented by Hamilton (2003) highlights the immense physical as well as emotional impact that the experience can have on the beginning teacher. It captures the ‘beginning teaching as survival’ perspective aptly:

When you are a student teacher it is as if you are driving through a car wash. It is a crazy chaotic environment, even dangerous in some ways, but somehow, with the help of a cooperating teacher and your own neutral place of being “not a student and not a teacher,” you drive through safely. Sure, things hit the window and pound against the side of the car, but for the most part, you drive through unscathed. And then there is the first year of teaching, which involves another trip through the car wash. But this time, you walk through. There is no car to protect you (Hamilton, 2003, p.84).

Recognising that many beginning teachers are reported to have little formal support in their first year, the image of them as ‘unprotected’ is apt. The first year can be brutal, as Hamilton’s (2003) metaphor illustrates. In this light why wouldn’t the beginning teacher want his/her first year of teaching to be over quickly?

A scan of many of the titles of past research supports the perception that beginning teaching is a time of survival:

Surviving Your First October (Teasley, 1994)

Heaven or Hell? (Bobbit, 1993)

Planning Since Boxing Day (Kiggins & Gibson, 2002)

Winning the Lottery? (Tromans, Daws, Limerick & Brannock, 2001)

Postcards from the Edge (Martinez, 1994b)

Loneliness, Fear and Disrepute (Bruckerhoff & Carlson, 1995)

The Reality of Uncertainty (McCormack & Thomas, 2002)

‘Survival’ has been used in reference to the first year of teaching for more than three decades. For example, Ryan’s (1970) cynically titled Don’t Smile until Christmas is still considered relevant today. Recently Roehrig et al. (2002) used this text as a starting point to discuss the current experience of beginning teachers. Gail, a participant in Ryan’s research, made the following reflection on her experience of beginning teaching:

But most of all I was glad to be finished – the first year was over, at last! Good-bye school; good-bye people I liked; good-bye people I disliked; good-bye without regret (p.79).

Gail’s tone captures how a beginning teacher can feel when the first year of teaching is viewed as something that just needs to be survived. She is glad that the year has finished. She is letting it go and intending never to think of it again. Her voice is blunt and brutal. It is about celebrating the fact that the year is over. There can be levels of survival. Successful beginning teachers can be described as the ones who survive easily, coping with if not mastering problems, or never experiencing such problems in the first place. Obviously, concern over recent high rates of teacher attrition (Ingersoll, 2001; Williams, 2002) suggests that young teachers are not surviving the transition from training into the profession.

On the other hand, continuing to teach can be seen as successfully surviving. Hebert & Worthy (2001), refer to those that have ‘easy beginnings’ and that ‘teachers are occasionally located whose first years do not conform to the most often reported “painful beginnings” (p.899). Successful beginning teachers can then become examples of a successful entry into the profession. Lang (1999) noted that some teachers did not experience this state of survival, and felt in control of their beginning teaching issues so that they were never completely overwhelmed by problems. Cameron (2001) found that progress was not simply a matter of onward and upward, but that it was more like one step forward and two steps backward. Maynard & Furlong (1993), however, saw survival as a stage that beginning teachers had to go through.

Beginning teaching as survival is about confusion and inability, about coping with the problems of the context, and about coping with one’s lack of skills. Kronowitz’s (1996) metaphor captured this, ‘I was a cook with all the ingredients and many methods courses under my belt; yet I had not the vaguest idea how to combine the instructional ingredients for best effect’ (p.1). Survival is also about surviving disappointments and failed expectations.

There are a variety of responses regarding survival in the form of tips and lists of hints, professional advice and the outlining of best induction practice policies. In the 1960s (Hunt, 1968) advice on how to survive included learning names, learning symptoms of illness, and minding your manners (p.137). In 1978, Kim & Kellough believed that survival rested on avoiding problems. Traps they found were saying too much and talking too fast, and being too generous in marking. Lang (1999) found that there were several ways that a beginning teacher could increase her chances of surviving her first year, including lots of sleep, planning in teams, and ensuring that the beginner is up to date with planning. But recently, Susan, a beginning teacher, wrote to her own lecturers to let them know what she felt she needed but was not receiving in her first year of teaching (Page, Marlowe & Molloy, 2000), ‘I needed someone to sit down with me every night after school for the first week and help me plan the next day’ (p.229). Survival strategies appear as concrete and practical steps that need to be implemented on personal and professional levels. Surviving the first year of teaching appears to give the beginning teacher an increased confidence and the feeling that something significant has been achieved. In other words, a mile stone has been reached. May (1995) wrote about her first year of teaching remembering the words of an aunt who said that ‘teaching is like having somebody walk across your face everyday with cleats on’ (p.68). What helped her survive was to not think about the difficulties, but rather to remember the good times, especially of student successes. She wrote:

On a report card day a parent told me privately, “I know Drew would never tell you, but he really enjoyed your class. And I want to thank you for making him write so much. He really needed that.” Savouring these times like a piece of hard candy is what can carry you through the year. It’s what carried me through my first year. That is why, despite the difficulties, I will be going back for more (May, 1995, p.69).

Beginning teaching as ‘survival’ does not include discussion of professional learning. Instead terms such as ‘coping’, ‘tricks’ and ‘tips’ are used. This does not include discussion of reflection or teacher development, but rather suggests an

hopefully will pass quickly. This perspective limits the beginning teacher’s position in terms of their value or ability to contribute to their teaching context, let alone to become a site of educational reform, as theorists have suggested. Surviving is a passive and in many ways limiting way for a beginning teacher to experience their first year of teaching.