A network of novices: Exploring the first year of teaching

This thesis presents an exploratory study of the first year of teaching derived from transcripts of communication among twenty-seven first year teachers who participated in the Harvard Beginning Teacher Computer Network (BTCN) during 1987-1988.;The analysis of these data begins with a conception of the first year of teaching as a process of developing a teacher persona. This model of teacher learning assumes that beginning teachers must construct their knowledge about teaching through the interaction of prior understandings and new experiences. As such, the trials and tribulations of the first year of teaching become constructive elements in the process of learning to teach rather than a collection of "war stories.".;The network data reveal that these teachers struggled throughout the year to formulate and act upon their visions of good pedagogy. The complex model of pedagogical reasoning and action set forth by Shulman (1987) and his colleagues was clearly embedded in and reflected by the network teachers' communication about pedagogy.;Although research indicates that novice teachers do not possess elaborate student schemata to guide their interactions with students, there is ample evidence that the network teachers were actively engaged in a process of building their practical knowledge about students. As the year unfolded, many of the teachers were increasingly able to find comfortable identities as authority figures, to analyze student behavior, to consult their own growing body of strategies and ideas for dealing with students, and to devise workable systems of classroom rules and procedures.;The issue of professional relationships in schools was a source of great concern for the network teachers. Many of them lamented the numbing isolation from school colleagues which they experienced. Others were more fortunate, and their descriptions of their collegial school cultures provided models and hope for their network colleagues.;An analysis of conversations about educational policy and teacher education revealed significant concern for the moral dimensions of teaching and schooling, and a constructivist orientation to teacher preparation.;The experiences of these first year teachers provide insights into the process of learning to teach and point to the importance of further research on beginning teachers.