OBJETIVOS GÉNÉRICOS

As with the first interview the potential teacher was met by the subject tutor, who introduced himself and accompanied her to the interview room. Interestingly this part was observed and it was noted that there was a light-hearted exchange between subject tutors as they were leaving the main room and a comment to the potential teacher caused her to smile and look more relaxed. This interview was transcribed and incident coding was used. 8 different incidents being highlighted.

The first incident was where the subject tutor considered the academic qualifications of the potential teacher. They went through the certificates and checked there were copies and the grades were acceptable.

The second incident lasted longer (over four minutes) and began with the question from the subject tutor:

You want to be a … teacher, so tell me what (subject) is, what the new areas are? (Transcript E)

The potential teacher began to answer but also asked questions about how the subject was taught in schools. The discussion moved on and included some insights into how the subject could be taught and she did impress the subject tutor with her knowledge, which he commented on and challenged her to give more in depth answers:

…let’s see what you can remember, how good you are, what (subject question).

as the potential teacher answered the subject tutor was quick to praise: …pretty good, very good (Transcript E)

Incident three asked the potential teacher to refer to a self audit of skills and was asked to discuss what she felt her strengths were and why.

Incident four, again using the audit, she was asked her to consider her weaknesses or areas that would need to be developed. Here the potential teacher was able to bring in that she had been reading a school text book for the subject to give her greater insight into the subject.

Incident five asked the potential teacher to think about the extra curricular activities that they would be willing to offer as a teacher.

Incident six asked the potential teacher to design and talk through a teaching activity in her subject that she would use with a year nine. The subject tutor used this activity to further probe her knowledge of schools and pupils. She was asked how old the year nine pupils would be that she was planning this teaching activity for.

The seventh incident lasted over 6 minutes. This was a subject based discussion and the subject tutor asked a variety of questions about her knowledge of the subject using various source materials as prompts for these questions. The subject tutor also explored how she continued to engage with the subject having completed her degree several years previously.

The final incident was the subject tutor asking the potential teacher if there were any further questions. There were three different topics that were discussed.

This interview had lasted 25 minutes and the subject tutor had been able to quickly reach a decision on the potential of this person to make a teacher. Having asked for the tape to be switched off the subject tutor then explained that ‘subject to

formalities’ they would like to offer her a place. In discussing this after the potential teacher had left the subject tutor commented that they would have a quick word with the teacher but was really impressed with this potential teacher.

Returning to the transcript and considering these incidents five groups emerged from this focus coding. These groups are headed:

• Subject knowledge. This included subject specific questions and tasks, as well as an audit of subject strengths and the activity of planning a subject project in school.

• Subject enthusiasm. Where the potential teacher was asked about her degree and what she was doing in her work place and outside of work with her subject, which generated a lot of animated discussion during the interview. • Teaching knowledge. This encompassed aspects linking to schools and

included asking about the teaching of the subject in school and her ability to offer extra curricular activities as well as the planning of a teaching activity. • Reflection was a heading given to another category which included

development further and some of the questions asked towards the end of the interview which were of a reflective nature.

• Academic qualifications, an important element of the interview.

Comparing this interview with the earlier one it was apparent again that the concept of personal qualities had not been directly referred to. Again an overall impression by considering groups of information seemed to have been made. The concepts of ‘subject knowledge’ and ‘enthusiasm’ emerged in both these interviews as did the concept of ‘teaching knowledge’ and the task of confirming academic qualifications. In the first interview the category ‘personal awareness’ had arisen whilst in the second one, ‘reflection’ had emerged. When the transcripts were revisited to consider these two groups, it became obvious they both focussed around the self audits and potential teacher’s ability to highlight their strengths and ‘weaknesses’ so although they had been initially termed differently they contained very similar data. Data about of ‘knowledge of pupils’ came across strongly in the first interview but not as strongly in the second, in fact the potential teacher was not asked about her school visits. Further consideration of the data however highlighted that she was asked questions relating to pupils in one of the activities, which had been grouped in the ‘teaching knowledge’ category. The second aspect that came across strongly in the first interview was of ‘school knowledge’, in the Interview E it didn’t explicitly arise but on further analysis of the script the potential teacher had asked questions about the teaching of the subject in schools. This would suggest that this was an area in which the potential teacher had some basic understanding but needed to build up this knowledge. It was interesting how initial observations were more critically

considered as more data was available and how the sensitivity towards the data developed.

From these two selection interviews two emergent ideas began to develop. The first was that the specific qualities were not explicitly asked about; but are indirectly explored using a variety of activities and questions. The second idea was that although there were similarities in the interviews the decisions as to whether a potential teacher was offered a place on the course was made through the overall impression gathered not from a list of ‘required’ qualities.