2025 Theses Doctoral

Reframing Beginning Teacher Experiences: Pedagogical Agents Negotiating Contextual Elements

Getzel, Alyssa

Within the field of education, many argue that the first year of teaching has lasting impacts on teachers’ practices and determines whether they remain in the profession. Teacher educators, policy makers, school leaders, and teachers themselves continue to discuss the attributes of successful preparation for teachers to enter into classrooms and the professional support, once they have begun independent practice, necessary for them to succeed and to continue in the profession. The increased concern around teacher retention has resulted in a greater emphasis on providing beginning teachers with support to be successful and effective during the induction period.

The nature of the support provided to beginning teachers varies widely in the number and kinds of activities and is unevenly valued within the field. Current approaches often appear to construe learning to teach in overly simple and linear ways: beginning teachers consume practices and strategies and become more equipped and effective educators. This misrepresents the complexity and dynamism of beginners’ contexts for learning (and the interactions within and across contexts), assumes too little about the beginners' thoughtfulness and positions them as if they have no agency. Hence, the purpose of this study was to better understand beginning teachers’ experiences and how they negotiate and construct their teaching practices as they enter the profession.

Using a post-intentional phenomenological research design, including data drawn from teacher reflections using reflection mapping, dialogues, observations, focus group interviews and a collection of artifacts, this research explored the experiences of two beginning high school History teachers in a “high needs area”, with a specific focus on how they negotiated their encounters and interactions within their school environment and how they made decisions in their pedagogical practice.

Ultimately, this study revealed the potential power in situating beginning teachers as agentive actors embedded within a system of ongoing, dynamic interactions that collectively influence their development as educators.

This dissertation concludes with implications for practice and research, suggesting a reframing of beginning teacher experiences where their unique perspectives are recognized as essential assets to their school communities and the broader educational landscape.