Introduction

Introduction Page

**An Analysis of the Experiences of Teacher Induction Programs in**
 * Three Different Districts:**
 * Insights into Beginning Teacher and Mentor Experiences**

The question, “What are teachers’ experiences with induction?” has guided our group study. The purpose of our research is to gain a better understanding of the results of mentor and beginning teacher experiences from professional opportunities that are offered through induction. Making a difference in teachers’ experiences with induction can be a crucial component of professional, personal, and educational success; it can affect the proficiency and vision of education. Perhaps supporting teachers in their first few years of teaching can benefit the teachers themselves and the overall health and sustainability of the teaching profession. We recognize that teachers experience challenges in the first few years. Regardless of how prepared beginning teachers are, there are still thrills and spills that come with being a novice.
 * Purpose**

In defining our question, we are looking at several terms of reference. For the purposes of our study, we have used the following definitions:
 * TERMS OF REFERENCE **

· **//Teacher //**// – Anyone holding a BC College of Teachers Certificate. // · **//Beginning Teacher – //**//A teacher who has been teaching for five years or less. // · **//Experience //**//– Involvement which leads to struggles and/or successes in teaching. // · **//Induction //**// – The support and guidance provided to teachers in the early stages of their careers; induction encompasses orientation to the workplace, socialization, mentoring, and guidance through beginning teacher practice. // · **//Mentoring //**// –The relationship between two teachers (Mentor and Mentee) with varying degrees of experience, sharing information about teacher practice. Mentor - A teacher with the greater experience within the mentoring relationship Mentee - A teacher with the lesser experience within the mentoring relationship //

Are there more terms of reference to include??

We have chosen to take the approach of researcher as subject in order to relate lived experience to what is “promised” in literature on teacher induction. We come from three different school districts in the public and private sectors. The schools in which we work use the British Columbia curriculum from grades eight to twelve. Our teaching experience ranges from four to nine years in the profession, and the subjects taught include sciences, humanities, and information technology. In addition, we have been particularly committed to extra-curricular activities in our schools; coaching, club sponsorship, professional development, and a participation in variety of committees are prominent in our experiences.
 * Researchers’ Backgrounds**

Our induction experiences have varied from formal structures involving orientations and scheduled meetings, to informal structures involving relaxed conversations and casual assistance from colleagues. Our experiences with the accessibility of induction support have also varied. One of the districts we represent offered an involved and ambitious mentoring program that paired a beginning teacher with an experienced teacher for one full year. The two other districts had limited induction resources; one district was underdeveloped and the other had induction development that was still in infancy.

We do not propose that our combined experience is a complete representation of the teaching population. We are a mere sampling of high school teachers. However, in providing a personal perspective to the research, it is our hope that the findings become more accessible to the creators of teacher induction policies and those involved in its implementation. Furthermore, to clearly but anonymously distinguish ourselves, we have chosen to assign identities according to colour: Teacher Green, Teacher Blue, and Teacher Pink. These colours were chosen based on those we used on our wiki website throughout the process of this project.

All teachers go through a cycle of learning which includes anticipation, survival, disillusionment, rejuvenation, and reflection (Gonzalez and Sosa, 1993). In July and August, teachers are excited about the thrill of finally having their very own classroom and their own students. Teachers "fantasize" about how they will set up their classroom, the activities in which they will engage their students, and the meaningful learning that will happen in their classroom. There is a thrill and fear of the unknown, not only in the classroom itself, but also in the staffroom and playground.
 * The Teacher Learning Cycle**

Once the school year starts in September, survival mode kicks in; the realities of the classroom are revealed. The lesson planning, marking, meet the teacher nights, staff meetings, committee meetings, and extracurricular expectations all start to sink in. The fabulous fantasy world of the classroom suddenly comes crashing down as beginning teachers realize that the classroom can be quite a chaotic place.

Next, disillusionment sets in during October, November, and December. As the days grow shorter, the list of the demands for the classroom increases. New questions about assessment, marking, report cards, parent-teacher interviews, planning, and covering the curriculum emerge. Unfortunately, this is the time that most teachers feel most alone. How is it possible for thirty "angelic" children to become terrors of the classroom?

However, after the winter holidays, January, February, and March bring about rejuvenation and a more optimistic attitude. As the days now get longer, there is more hope. Teachers have had at least half a year to establish rapport with their students and to understand the systems that have been established in the school. Report cards have gone out at least once and lesson plans have adapted, modified, and reworked several times through. The realities of marking have also been revealed and teachers now have a better understanding of when, how, and what to mark.

The final months of the year, April, May, and June bring about reflection among teachers. The teachers and students have survived and there is much to be grateful for. The cycle then repeats itself with anticipation, but teachers now have another year under their belts.

We have acknowledged that the challenges of the beginning teacher are a reality. Thus, supporting the experiences of new teachers is vital to the profession. This cycle is one that teacher education can not adequately prepare its students for, therefore, this is where induction and mentoring take place **.** Thus, a s colleagues and teacher leaders, supporting new teachers and keeping them in the profession is extremely important. Understanding the needs of beginning teachers and best practice for induction will allow us to explore how we, as fellow teachers, can appropriately scaffold the learning of the beginning teachers. Teaching is a noble profession and beginning teachers should be given the best opportunities to experience it.

Hypothesis In our work, we hope to find that, although teachers struggle to find access to induction support, they find some value in the resources provided. We believe that teacher induction does not only involve the beginning teachers, but can also involve mentors. We hypothesize that both mentors and beginning teachers can benefit from the professional development offered through induction.

Process It was not easy to narrow down our ideas and passions regarding education to just one topic; the path we took to arrive at our question of study was windy. However, there are many reasons and motivations as to why we chose to study teacher induction. First of all, we have seen new teachers and student teachers struggle in the profession that is known to “eat its young” (Halford, 1998). Beginning teachers come into our schools and we see that they are challenged with issues such as school policies and procedures, classroom management, and even room location; there is little support in place. Secondly, as a result of our conversations, we noticed that each of us, representing three different school districts, had varying experiences with teacher induction and mentoring when we entered the profession. This inspired us to investigate the types of induction programs available to teachers across our districts. Next, we have noticed that educational resources are often squandered because of attrition; it would be more efficient for school districts to dedicate money towards induction and appropriately retaining teachers in their first few years, rather than accepting a cyclical, revolving door pattern, where teachers leave the profession, and districts are forced to spend more money on recruiting. Therefore, we wanted to explore the benefits and implications of teacher induction implementation. Finally, and most importantly, we pursued this question because, as educational leaders, we would like to better understand how to support upcoming new teachers in their careers.

Given the complexities of the broad educational context, it would not have been possible to carry out our research in a meaningful manner without focusing on specific areas. In recognizing the interconnectedness of our work and experiences, however, we investigated our question - “What are teachers’ experiences with induction?” – from the perspective of our personal experiences as well as the body of research on teacher induction.

Intended Audience
 * Our work will be valuable to many groups, including beginning teachers, experienced teachers, school administrators, teacher education programs, and school districts. The answer to our research question will be wide-ranging, as beginning teacher experiences vary immensely. However, our analysis of teacher experience will serve as a springboard from which others can build upon. Our results will validate the experiences of all those who are exposed to teachers induction. Teachers can take our findings and use them to enrich their own understanding and practice as either the recipient or provider of beginning teacher support through induction.

__Beginning Teachers__: It is important for beginning teachers to understand the availability of support systems in their first few years, because it can influence their decisions about where to work.

__Experienced Teachers__: This research will be beneficial to experienced teachers so that they can better understand how to support beginning teachers at their schools. However, it will also provide insight into how experienced teachers can receive support, training, and guidance for themselves. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 26px;">These teachers represent the invaluable role of both former receivers of induction and potential providers of induction through mentorship opportunities.

__School Administrators__: Our work is advantageous to school administrators, as they will gain a better understanding of their role in best supporting their beginning and experienced teachers involved in the induction process. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 26px;"> In a formal leadership role, administrators have the ability to direct and influence the culture of a school towards one that fully integrates teacher induction practice into the daily working lives of teachers or one which treats it like an activity for the side-lines. Our goal is to provide administrators with evidence of the value of beginning teacher induction.

__Teacher Education Programs__: Teacher education programs will be able to use this work to create programs that would better prepare teachers. Also, it could aid them in designing programs to help strengthen relationships with school districts. This would allow beginning teachers to better access induction opportunities and resources in school districts. ** EDIT

__School Districts__: School districts will find this research valuable, as they are the beneficiaries of induction programs. They want to ensure that the teachers they hire are feeling supported, are learning the best skills available, and will remain in their respective school districts. We do not purport that our work is at all conclusive. As with any research, we acknowledge that there are several limitations that have affected our data collection and how we interpreted the information. Although we acknowledge that these limitations exist, we feel that we can still draw some significant conclusions about induction experiences and how to best support beginning teachers and mentors.
 * Study Limitations**

__Time:__ Time has been a major limitation in this study. First, the time to complete this investigation was extremely limited. As this is a three credit UBC course, our final results had to be compiled within three months; this time frame in which we had to conduct, analyze, and complete this research is scant. This is precisely why we chose to conduct researcher as subject interviews. Exploring each other’s experiences is not only valuable, but also practical. Completing a plethora of interviews could be beneficial, but would require us to gain access to districts and teachers. Given the busy schedules of full-time classroom teachers, we deemed that conducting interviews in person or in a survey format might not give us sufficient or accurate information, as teachers would be rushed to provide feedback about their experiences about their induction experiences. Therefore, we felt that interviews of the researchers would be valuable as they represent a cross-section of experiences and the researchers as subjects would have sufficient time to answer the questions. Ultimately, we wanted to ensure that this project was not only practical but also interesting. Having personal meaning and a connection to the research is very important to us as researchers.

__Sample Size:__ The sample size for this study is three. Although the sample size is small, we were still able to collect valuable information about induction experiences as the participants’ teaching and induction experiences were varied. A small sample size allowed the researchers to delve deeper into the experiences, instead of giving a simple, broad overview.

__Demographics:__ The research was restricted to high school teachers. This was a practical limitation. We acknowledge that the experiences of elementary school teachers are just as valuable and future research can be done in this area.

__Body of research:__ The sheer volume of research about induction is overwhelming; we have only examined a small piece of it. We acknowledge that there have been numerous studies in the area of induction and we appreciate the fact that we are not the only ones interested in this subject. We are grateful that we can build upon the findings of others.

__Generalizations:__ Lastly, despite the fact that the experiences of the participants are worthwhile and give a good snapshot of induction experiences, we understand and acknowledge that we were not able to make generalizations about our conclusions because of our small sample size. Generalizations cannot be justified from research that is limited in both scope and size.

The foundation of our research and analysis will be based upon the body of academic research in this field. The content of this area is vast and will provide a rich background to compare, contrast, and examine with our own experiences. The research says that the creation, implementation and results of teacher induction programs will vary between districts and within a district itself (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004). Choosing to limit the districts to the three in which we are employed will maintain a manageable scope for comparison. We recognize that the possibility of generalizations from our findings is limited because of the unique nature of every school setting.
 * Scope of Literature**

Within the literature there are overlapping ideas and concepts. To focus our work we originally divided the main concepts into four broad themes: Beginning Teacher Experiences, Program Implementation and Components, Implications for the Educational System, and Mentor Experiences. These four themes guided the interview questions asked of our researchers as subjects. However, our current work has been divided into three new categories, based on the trends found in our answers to the interview questions: **Mulitple** Culture** s **, Experiences and Relationships, and Support.

The main goal of this project was to explore and better understand teachers’ experiences with induction. Although there has been much research conducted in the areas of induction, mentoring, and retention, we wanted to clearly examine our personal experiences in relation to district support and academic literature. The personal experiences of our group are extremely valuable and have given authenticity to the project as we had hoped to support patterns, concepts, and ideas with real lived examples and experiences.
 * Summary**

Teaching is a noble career dedicated to the support of life-long learners. Given the rigors of the profession, beginning teachers find their first years challenging. They enter the system with an optimistic view on particular educational values. However, as they struggle to navigate the day-to-day obstacles of the classroom, they find that they have to abandon many of their pre-conceived notions to survive. This is why our research into teacher induction is significant. This support can help beginning teachers survive their first few years while fortifying and sustaining their educational beliefs that originally cultivated their entry into the profession.