Literature reveals that beginning teacher educators are dealing with organisational and professional difficulties in their induction period. At the Teacher Education Institute of Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg, The Netherlands, a special induction programme was developed for the induction period. The programme was designed using recommendations from literature and focused on both organisational induction as well as professional induction. This programme was evaluated through an inquiry. Experiences of participants and as non-participants in the programme were taken into account. The evaluation reveals that all beginning teacher educators (participants as well as non-participants) have learned a lot from their colleagues, for example through conversations or while preparing lessons together. The majority of the participants hold the opinion that the goals of the programme have been reached and they appreciate the programme for the possibility to exchange experiences with other beginning teacher educators.
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Second career teachers (SCT) are key role models in vocational education (VE) because they prepare students for the vocational practice they were part of, and they bring up-to-date vocational knowledge and skills into VE schools. Therefore, the early leaving of SCTs in VE is a problem, adding to the worldwide teacher shortages. Induction programs have been developed to support starting teachers to grow into their new profession and to diminish high attrition rates. However, it is argued that current induction programs fail to support SCTs adequately. For instance, induction programs rarely adapt to SCTs’ various needs, such as recognizing and integrating previously developed competencies and specific backgrounds. Further-more, SCTs’ induction programs in the specific context of VE are largely under-studied. This study explores the experiences of SCTs in VE during their induction programs regarding four themes identified in research on SCTs in other education sectors: 1) professional identity development, 2) learning processes, 3) tailor-made coaching, and 4) co-creation of induction programs. Eleven SCTs from eight Dutch VE schools were interviewed. The data show a rich variation of SCTs’ experiences. For example, they experienced the opportunity to develop their professional identity as teachers while preserving and including their former identity as practitioners of the vocation they teach for. Yet, only a few SCTs experienced co-creation of the induction program, which seems to have a positive impact. The insights of this study offer an understanding of what SCTs in VE go through and what might support them during their induction.
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Introduction and theoretical background In the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the specific position of beginning teacher educators. In the book 'Becoming a teacher Educator' (Swennen & Van der Klink, 2009) several chapters deal with this subject. In conclusion, teacher educators have to deal with stress and uncertainty during their first years in the profession. They have to find a place within the university (organisational induction) as well as to grow into the role of teacher educator (professional induction). Swennen, Shagrir & Cooper (2009) give some examples of organizational induction which beginning teacher educators encounter, such as workload (a combination of new tasks and the wish to perform these tasks well) or a sense of isolation (being the only one with this problem, being thrown into the deep, no 'peers' in the same situation). Murray (2008) also describes professional induction. Beginning teacher educators have to get used to several things: being confronted with teaching students (young adults), uncertainty about the sufficiency of their subject knowledge, and uncertainty about their role as teacher educator being a 'second order teacher' (Murray and Male, 2005). Design of an induction program At Fontys Teacher College Tilburg, the Netherlands each year, new teacher educators get started. According to a quick scan amongst beginning teacher educators in their first year, many of them would like some kind of support. Supportive aspects which are mentioned are partially organisational related (getting to know the institute and its rules), partially related to the organisation of the work (planning, workload) and partially related to the content of the work (how to deal with young adult learners, theory about teaching methods). At Fontys University of Applied Science, we would like to support beginning teacher educators in order to retain them for the organisation and for the profession. To support the new colleagues, a special induction period was designed to support their grow within the organisation and the profession. The induction period consisted of two components: (1) personal support from a 'buddy' e.g a colleague, 2) weekly meetings in which an experienced colleague supports a small group of beginning teacher educators. Evaluation of the induction program This induction program was offered to all new colleagues during academic year 2010-2011. What is gained out of the program by new colleagues was investigated through an evaluative inquiry. In this inquiry, a questionnaire was used and some interviews were held. At the conference in April 2012, the results of the evaluation will be presented. Aditionally, we will also discuss some recommendations for the induction of beginning teacher educators. References Murray, J. and T. Male (2005). Becoming a teacher educator: evidence from the field. Teaching and teacher Education 21 (2005), 125-142. Elsevier Ltd. Murray, J. (2008) Teacher educators' induction into Higher Education: work-based learning in the micro communities of teacher Education. European Journal of teacher Education, Vol 31, no 2, 117-133 Swennen, Anja & Marcel van der Klink (eds) (2009). Becoming a teacher educator. Theory and practice for Teacher Educators. Springer Science+business Media B.V. Swennen, Shagrir & Cooper (2009) Becoming a teacher educator: Voices of beginning teacher educators, 91-102 in: Swennen, Anja & Marcel van der Klink (eds) (2009). Becoming a teacher educator. Theory and practice for Teacher Educators. Springer Science+business Media B.V.
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