Teacher professional socialisation: Objective determinants

Abstract

Entry into teaching is generally recognised as a crucial phase in the professional life of a teacher. The initial years at school can be a critical part of a teacher's career having long-term implications for teacher effectiveness, job satisfaction and also career length. The problem of a high drop-out rate of novice teachers has gradually become a global issue. Therefore, teacher professional socialisation as a specific field within a larger body of research into occupational socialisation has received increased attention in the last decades. The paper presents a brief overview of teacher socialisation research paradigms within which both the anticipatory socialisation (pre-service) and the workplace (organisational) socalisation are investigated. Further on, the focus is specifically on the latter and on the factors that determine the processes of workplace socialisation of novice teachers. While recognising the significance of subjective determinants, we aim to survey mainly the objective ones in this article. Three layers of social context are addressed: interactive (pupils and classrooms), institutional (school culture, staff, and leadership) and cultural (local social community as well as broader economic, political and cultural environment).