Investigating the Professional Adaptation of English Teachers in the First Years of their Profession to School Environment

Abstract

This study investigates English teachers’ socialization to the school environment, their behaviour in the classroom, and their attitudes towards their profession in the first few years after graduation. An explanatory research design was used with a mixed-method methodology. We administered a survey to 800 novice English language teachers in 16 cities where there is high rates of governmental teacher placements in Turkey based on the data provided by the Ministry of National Education (MoNE). The questionnaire included five category components: professional competence, interpersonal relations, organizational history and language, organizational goals and values, and organizational policy. We then selected 9 English teachers using purposeful sampling from the three of the 16 cities in order to gain information about novice teachers’ experiences and to elaborate on the results of our quantitative data findings. After observing the classes of those English teachers, we conducted semi-structured interviews. The content analysis of the responses revealed important issues the teachers experienced during their socialization period. These included their relationships with the school administration, colleagues, parents, and the teachers’ own professional competence, particularly in the areas of the target language (TL) use and language teaching methodology. A discussion of the findings provides suggestions for teacher education programmes, thereby contributing to the development of educational curricula. Having postgraduate studies to sustain professional development has been suggested for teacher growth, which will also establish a link between the university-school partnership. The university-school partnership will only be possible with a willingness to collaborate, dedicated time and systematic feedback to share knowledge and experience.