The study of beginning teachers' perceived problems with classroom management and adult relationships throughout the first year of teaching

Abstract

The public elementary school is a social organization dependent on teachers who can grow and change as the teaching problems, job circumstances, and future times demand. As the pendulum swings into a new century, it seems appropriate to reconstruct and perhaps reconceptualize a perceptual framework for education's most critical resource: the beginning teacher. This study investigated the narrative accounts of problems with discipline, classroom management and adult relationships as perceived by six first year teachers over the course of a school year as they engaged in problem solving within the context of a support group community. Data analyses support current research findings that discipline and classroom management issues were most prevalent in numbers of problems presented over the year. Consistent with prior research, these types of perceived problems decreased over the year. Discipline problems included one-student interactions, interactions with small groups of students, and large group management. However, analysis of the data collected revealed that as problems with discipline declined, perceived problems with professional adult relationships were found to increase over the year, proved more difficult to overcome, and infiltrated many other aspects of their teaching including behavior management issues. Several adult relationships with other teachers, administrators, and parents were perceived as increasingly problematic over the course of the school year. Of particular concern to the novice teachers were the mentor-novice relationships and the mentor-classroom assistant relationships. When perceived as problematic, these problems negatively impacted the new teachers in their perceptions of self, school context, and teaching effectiveness. Further in-depth examination of support group narrative dialogue among new teachers contributed to a more detailed and personal profile of the first year teacher. Two methods of language analyses were implemented: (1) references to "self" over the first year, and (2) changes in perceived confidence as a teacher. Patterns found in the analyses of novices' language over time provided an illustrative overview of novices' perception changes toward a more advanced and multi-dimensional view of the teaching context, self as a teacher, and teaching effectiveness. This study suggests factors impacting perceived problems include the match between personality, school context, and career realities, teaching impact and success with students, confidence in teaching, emerging adulthood issues, time management, stress management, first year teacher efficacy, mentor and classroom assistant assignments, and supportive measures for beginning teachers. In summary, the findings illuminate the powerful and often unacknowledged interactions between personal biographies and professional contexts. Considering the context of the study, findings suggest positive effects of group problem solving and collaboration in first year practice.