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Abstract

University teacher educators have a role to play in helping their graduates manage the transition from formal teacher preparation to independent teaching. This study focuses on a shared inquiry that five first-year elementary teachers conducted while participating in a monthly study group facilitated by two teacher educators from their teaching preparation program. The novices regularly perceived a lack of support from their campus administrator, including failing to give the beginning teachers permission to carry out teacher research projects they had designed. After analyzing the degree and kinds of support that they did or did not receive from their principals, the beginning teachers developed four recommendations for principals to help novices feel well-supported during their initial year of teaching, including (1) developing productive relationships with novices, (2) helping novices becoming insiders to the campus, (3) being a visible presence in beginning teachers’ classrooms, and (4) establishing and/or sustaining a professional learning community on the campus.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5038/2379-9951.3.2.1074

Table 1.docx (41 kB)
beginning teacher study group participants

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