Faculty of Education - Theses

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    Is induction and mentoring up to standards?: A phenomenological study of Victorian graduate entry beginning teachers
    ANDERSON, MELODY ( 2013)
    This qualitative study examines a select aspect of teacher professional knowledge. The focus is on the construction of the unique novice-expert relationship commonly referred to as ‘induction and mentoring’. The research aims to contribute to an existing knowledge base about the needs of beginning teachers and their early career experiences. It examines issues of early professionalisation and socialisation, pedagogical knowledge, power and agency, professional identity and the combined impact of these elements on teacher retention. This is a two-phase phenomenological study of the beginning teacher-mentor teacher relationship, conducted over 2007-2009. Phase 1 participants had completed the Graduate Diploma of Education at the University of Melbourne. Phase 2 participants were concurrently enrolled in the final year of their Master of Teaching degree at the University of Melbourne in subjects designed to support beginning teachers in their graduate year. Rich data were yielded from individual interviews with beginning teacher participants (n=18) who were undertaking or had recently completed the statutory process for full registration (16 secondary teachers and 2 early childhood teachers). Fieldwork was carried out in the final school term of 2007 (Phase 1) and 2009 (Phase 2). Transcribed data were horizontalised and searched for the invariant horizons of the phenomenon for analysis. Main themes were identified for discussion. This research is complementary to, and will further support, recent international and Australian research by prominent researchers in the field (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005; Darling-Hammond, 2012; Devos, 2010; Feiman-Nemser, 2012; Hudson, 2012, Ingersoll, Merrill & May, 2012; Ingersoll & Smith, 2004; Ingersoll & Strong, 2011; Johnson, 2012; Johnson, Berg & Donaldson, 2005; Martinez, 2004; Richardson & Watt, 2006; Wang, Odell & Schwille, 2008). Within an existing international evidence base, the findings contribute to an Australian research focus on models of mentoring for beginning teachers, highlighting that teacher identity, 'turnaround pedagogies' (Kamler & Comber, 2004) and the interrelationship with teacher retention remain central and affirm the enduring issues in respect to the practices of induction and mentoring in the field of education.
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    Graduate teachers and ICT: the prospect of transformative integration
    Carr, Nicola Marion ( 2013)
    This study is concerned with the enactment at the school level of policies that promote the transformation of learning and teaching through the integration of information and communications technologies (ICT) into schools. The study has a particular focus on how graduate teachers, drawn from a highly digital generation, enact their practices. In an ethnographic study, the ICT-based pedagogical practices of five graduate teachers in their first or second year of teaching were examined during one school year, to identify what factors influenced their pedagogical choices related to integrating ICT and the extent to which their practices were transformative. The study was set in a school ‘in the middle’ - an Australian metropolitan secondary school that was neither technology-rich nor technology-poor, that scored good, but not outstanding academic results, and that did not experience any particular measure of disadvantage. This study reconceptualises the integration of ICT by graduate teachers as a ‘wicked’ problem – one that is messy and complex and for which there is no single, easy solution. The study identifies three intertwined domains of factors – external, individual and socio-material domains – that mediate the pedagogical choices made by teachers when integrating ICT. Within the individual domain, the study shows that teachers’ beliefs and dispositions towards ICT integration are influenced by their folk pedagogies or experiences as learners themselves; the pedagogies they were explicitly taught in their teacher preparation; the signature pedagogies and culture of the disciplines into which they teach; and the built pedagogy, the physical spaces in which they teach. A socio-material perspective is shown to be essential when integrating ICT into school classrooms. The practices of the more experienced teachers have a significant influence on the pedagogical choices made by the graduate teachers, particularly when teaching out-of-field, and reveal a tendency towards reproduction rather than transformation of practice. However, the material world of the school and the local translation of policies, the little things, also have a significant influence on the pedagogical choices made by graduate teachers when integrating ICT. With so many factors shaping graduate teachers’ practices, the study discusses the prospects for transformative integration of ICT by graduate teachers, revealing that, although the socio-material world of the school tends towards reproduction rather than transformation of practice, graduate teachers exert agency in their pedagogical choices. The study identified three categories of agency among the study participants – those who deliberately adopted the dominant practices of their more experienced colleagues, those who reluctantly adopted such practices, and those who actively resisted the dominant practices. A fourth category is also suggested – the active transformer.