supporting and retaining able, enthusiastic and committed new teachers, and plays a
key mediating role in influencing their decision to leave or stay in the school or the
profession. In addressing the critical challenge of supporting new teachers and
enhancing their enthusiasm in the profession, Kardos and Johnson ( 2007 ) urged
policy makers and school leaders to create an‘integrated professional culture’in
schools—a culture of professional support and commitment that‘promotes frequent
and reciprocal interaction among faculty members across experience levels;
recognises new teachers’needs as beginners; and develops shared responsibility
among teachers for the school’(ibid.: 2083).
In the VITAE project (Day et al. 2007 ), the large majority (75%) of teachers in
thefirst 7 years of their professional lives remained highly committed and moti-
vated. However, one in four found it difficult to cope with the social and cultural
realities of teaching and were at risk of being lost to the profession.
3.4.1 Professional Life Phase 0–3 Years—Learning Which
Builds Identity and Classroom Competence
The outstanding characteristic of the large majority of teachers (85%) was their high
level of commitment to teaching. Two sub-groups were observed within this pro-
fessional life phase: one with a developing sense of efficacy and the other with a
reducing sense of efficacy. Teachers who had an‘easy beginning’benefited from a
combination of influences that were more positive than those for teachers who
experienced‘painful beginnings’. Teachers in both groups reported the negative
impact of poor pupil behaviour on their work. For new teachers who were strug-
gling to survive the challenges of a new professional life in the reality of the
classroom, the impact of combined support from the school/departmental leadership
and colleagues was highly significant in helping to build their confidence and
self-efficacy and deciding the direction of their next professional life path.
CPD activities in relation to classroom knowledge were most frequently reported
as having a positive impact on their morale and as being significant to the stabil-
isation of their teaching practice. These activities included school/department-based
training and INSET days, external newly qualified teacher (NQT) conferences, and
visiting and working with teachers in other schools.
The key influences on these teachers’potential professional life trajectories were
found to be the level of support, recognition of their work and the school culture.
However, it was the influences of head teachers, colleagues and cultures in the
school that were crucial to their learning about how to behave and how to be as a
professional. Thus, in terms of professional learning and development activities, it
would seems that those which focus upon building a sense of professional identity
and classroom competence are likely to be most effective for the development of
these teachers.
3 Variations in the Conditions for Teachers’Professional... 41