The Socialization of First Year Teachers in Secondary Schools

Lichtenstein, Lynne Ellen

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/66001 Copy

Description

Title

The Socialization of First Year Teachers in Secondary Schools

Author(s)

Lichtenstein, Lynne Ellen

Issue Date

1980

Department of Study

Education

Discipline

Education

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Education, Secondary

Language

eng

Abstract

• The central question addressed in this exploratory study was how first year teachers in secondary schools were socialized into teaching. General areas of exploration included who initiated socializing experiences, what new teachers learned from these experiences, and which experiences the new teachers found most helpful in learning about the job of teaching.
• The researcher used twenty first-year secondary school teachers as subjects personally interviewing them in December and in March. Prior to each interview, the researcher mailed a checklist to each subject which asked them to indicate quantity of time devoted to each item in a list of possible socializing experiences and the quality of the socializing experience in terms of usefulness in helping new teachers learn more about the job of teaching.
• These beginning teachers seemed to become socialized through a series of interactions with students, other teachers, and administrators with each group fulfilling a specific function in the socialization process.
• The students, the most important socializers, socialize the new teachers in terms of actual classroom teaching. They can determine by their behavior what a teacher teaches, how the material is presented, and how a teacher works with the students in a professional and personal way so that discipline is established.
• Other teachers, the second most important socializers, were very helpful because they gave the new teachers what they felt they needed: concrete suggestions or advice which could be carried into the classroom and tried whether in terms of teaching ideas and materials or ways to handle discipline problems.
• The administrator's primary function was to provide the beginning teacher with information about the school and the functions of the school in terms of its rules, regulations, policies, and procedures. The principal relied on the orientation and the school handbook to present this information, the handbook being the more useful tool.
• The rural school principals seemed to serve a function very much like that of other teachers. In addition to providing procedural information, these principals interacted more with their beginning teachers, and the beginning teachers discussed with them the same kind of things they discussed with other teachers. The interrelationship between principal and teachers in the rural schools seemed to be on a professional as well as personal basis. This was not so much the case in the urban schools. These principals generally seemed more aloof, and the interrelationship between principal and beginning teacher was more on a professional level.
• For many of these first year teachers, there was a need for further socializing experiences. The most commonly expressed need was for some kind of curriculum guide or course outline which generally stated what should be covered at a particular grade level in a particular course. The second most commonly expressed desire for further socialization was feedback, particularly from the principal, or a word of praise which would tell the new teachers that what they were doing was correct. These beginning teachers felt that either more formal evaluations or informal remarks would be of great benefit.

Graduation Semester

1980

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/66001

Owning Collections