International Conference Education, Economy & Society 2010

From isolation to acceptance: How relationships enhance resilience for early career teachers

Presented at the International Conference Education, Economy & Society, Paris, France (July, 2010)

Jane Pearce (Murdoch) and Judy Peters (UniSA)

As teachers’ work has continued to expand and increase in complexity, the public profile and standing of the profession has fallen (MCEETYA, 2003). Ewing and Smith (2003) report that between 25% and 40% of beginning teachers in countries in the Western World are ‘burnt-out’ and are likely to leave the teaching profession in the first 5 years. This paper reports early findings from an Australia Research Council Linkage project addressing the question: ‘What conditions are conducive to promoting teacher resilience and retention in the first two years of teaching?’ The research aims to identify the internal strengths and external strategies that promote resilience in early career teachers. School leaders and first year teachers from sixty schools across two states in Australia contributed to in-depth, open-ended interviews in which they talked about the experiences of beginning teaching. From this data, narrative portraits were developed and emerging themes documented and analysed. The role of relationships in influencing teachers’ feelings of personal and professional wellbeing emerged as a strong theme, with both negative and positive effects reported. The research indicates the importance of paying attention to the effect of relational factors on the positive or negative experiences of early career teachers, and provides some insights into the role of colleagues, schools and educational systems in ensuring that beginning teachers experience the positive benefits of affirming relationships.