Browsing by Subject "opettajan työuran vaiheet"

This study focuses on new teachers’ experiences during the first working years. The aim of this study was to examine the challenges of new teachers, what helps them have strength during the first teaching years and what kind of support they would have needed during the first teaching years. Teacher job strain and job wellbeing has been studied quite a lot and it has been on the media lately. The beginning of the working years has been found to be difficult for new teachers. This study focuses on the beginning of the teaching career. Michael Huberman (1989) has developed a model of teacher career cycle which was also used on this study. This study was an interview study, where seven newly graduated class teachers where interviewed. They had maximum of three years of experience working as teachers. The interviews were transcribed, and content analysed. The results were divided by the research questions. The results showed that new teachers experience the first working years ruff. The challenges they experienced were challenges caused by the parents and pupils and the part of the job that happens outside the teaching part. The job community, positive interaction with the pupils and having a strict division between working and free time helped the new teachers have strength with their job. Novice teachers hoped for more support from colleagues and suggested that practicing the concrete tasks as part of teacher studies at the university would have been helpful. They also wished for mentoring to be a part of starting a new job as a teacher.