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EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF LOUISIANA'S TEACHER INDUCTION PROGRAM:
INSIGHTS FROM A HIGH SCHOOL CASE STUDY
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
Background Statement
Historically, research has demonstrated that beginning teachers leave the profession
within a relatively short time frame (Olebe, 2005). Unfortunately, many first-time teachers are
consumed with the trials of teaching and receive little or no formalized support. Often this lack
of support quickly results in a lack of confidence, job dissatisfaction, and ultimately resignation
amongst novel teachers (Renard, 2003). Newly hired teachers are overwhelmed with issues such
as classroom management, planning and implementing lessons, organization, lack of supplies,
and time management (Martin & Mulvihill, 2017). Being inundated suggests that many
beginning teachers have difficulties applying the skills, knowledge, and disposition acquired
while in a teacher preparation program – their academic learning – to real-life situations
throughout their first year of teaching (Ingersoll, 2012). Most teachers describe their first year of
teaching as the most difficult year of teaching (Renard, 2003). Unfortunately, this time period is
when the support from their academic professors is withdrawn, and the school district’s support
is either very limited and/ or ineffective (Ingersoll, 2012).
This acknowledgment that rookie teachers need additional support to be successful
justifies why priority should be given to new teacher’s professional development. Specifically,
comprehensive teacher induction programs, which is one strategy that can assist green teachers
transition into their profession. Since the early 1980s, the number of school districts that
implement teacher induction programs has grown significantly (Alliance for Excellent
Education, 2014). Gradually, school districts across the United States (US) have implemented
teacher induction programs which incorporates pairing inexperienced teachers with skilled
teachers. Most teacher induction programs provide orientation before the school year starts and
ineffective professional development throughout the year (Ingersoll and Strong, 2004).
However,
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Glazerman, Isenberg, Dolfin, Bleeker, Johnson, Grider, & Jacobus, 2010 urges school districts to
implement strong teacher induction programs that emphasizes not only on operational and
pedagogical matters but also on school culture and teacher efficacy. Additionally, effective
teacher induction programs are proactive and ever-evolving to strengthen the teachers being
serviced (Hudson, 2012). This type of support will take a community of investors to provide
fresh teachers with the support and direction they need to become successful educators (Darling-
Hammond, 2017).
Problem Statement
Before exploring the specifics of effective induction programs, this section will review
how research from the field of education reveals common challenges that new teachers face.
Unfortunately, pre-service teachers are typically naive and often underestimate the challenges
they are about to face, while also discerning teaching as being an easy job. Brock & Grady
(2001) claimed that new teachers typically liked the school setting, were model students, and
entered the profession of teaching because of their appreciation of learning. The school setting
has been a comfortable and familiar place for them. However, when they enter this once
familiar setting in the new role as a teacher, they often experience reality shock. Over three
decades ago, Veenman (1984) defined reality shock as the failure of the ideal expectations
formed during teacher training by the harsh and rude reality of classroom life. Reality shock is a
perception that may cause major dissatisfaction initially in beginning teachers’ careers if their
expectations are not met (Menon & Christou, 2002). This disconnect between an inexperienced
teacher’s expectations and reality is exacerbated by several other phenomena in the new
teacher’s experience.
In education, novice teachers assume the same exact responsibilities as 20-year veterans
(Rogers & Babinski, 2002). Too often, beginning teachers are considered completed projects that
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simply need adjustments, when in fact they have legitimate, ongoing learning needs. In
particular, Feiman-Nemser (2003) posited that teachers can expect to reach competency within
three or four years in the teaching profession, and several more years to reach proficiency.
Unfortunately, the first year of teaching has been historically considered a rite of passage into the
profession (Rogers & Babinski, 2002), something to endure versus paying strategic attention to
the needs of teachers who are green to the profession. When compared to other occupations, such
as medicine and law, which understands the needs of their beginning professionals, the field of
education has been labeled “the profession that eats its young” (Halford, 1998, p. 33). Renard
(2003) claimed that some seasoned teachers can associate their first years of teaching to a horror
story, and view surviving these first few years as a badge of honor. Ignoring the specific needs of
novel teachers is problematic.
While many fresh teachers have had terrific academic preparation and an outstanding
student teaching experience, their limited experience generally yields an equally limited
repertoire of teaching strategies (Sykes, Bird, & Kennedy, 2010). Among the greatest challenges
perceived by mentee teachers were classroom management, motivation of students, dealing with
the individual differences among students, assessing student work, and relations with parents.
Inexperienced teachers must also learn to develop a professional decorum and adjust to a new
school culture, and may feel overwhelmed when expectations are not made clear to them.
Furthermore, schools often have sets of rules, procedures, and policies that must be learned
during orientation at the beginning of the school year. Therefore, green teachers often suffer
from information overload and may become frustrated because they have forgotten important
information that was discussed in orientation. Many neophyte teachers find themselves initially
assigned to unsuccessful, lower socioeconomic status schools, where high attrition roles produce
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the greatest availability of teaching positions (Rosenholtz, 1985). At such schools, other faculty
members typically have little time available to mentor or attend to newcomers’ needs (Martin &
Mulvihill, 2017).
Most rookie teachers are welcomed to their school, but not necessarily included or
adequately supported. Noew teachers may also experience intense feelings of isolation and
loneliness (Olebe, 2005). When beginning teachers join a close-knit staff where collegial
friendships and social groups have already formed and established, developing working
relationships with colleagues may become a challenge. Another challenge of novice teachers is
the lack of feedback to support their professional growth. Feiman-Nemser (2003) indicated that
fresh teachers may feel hesitant to discuss problems or ask for help, believing they are the only
ones experiencing difficulties, and make the assumption that highly effective teachers figure
things out on their own. Walsdorf & Lynn (2002) acknowledged that mentee teachers have a
desire to make a good first impression, therefore, when faced with classroom problems they are
reluctant to seek support from seasoned teachers, fearing that asking for help may be perceived
as a sign of incompetence. This assumption also exacerbates their feelings of isolation and
loneliness as well as creating feelings of inadequacy (Brock & Grady, 2001). The frustrations
that new faculty members encounter when first coming to a school are understandable. Table 1
highlights issues that surface in the literature from the field of teacher induction.
Table 1. Issues and Challenges for Beginning Teachers
Novice teacher issue Researchers Study Year
First assignment in
challenging schools
Rosenholtz 1985
Martin & Mulvihill 2017
Limited teaching strategies Sykes, Bird, & Kennedy 2010
(table cont’d)
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Novice teacher issue Researchers Study Year
Feeling isolated Brock & Grady 2001
Olebe 2005
Lack of feedback and support Feiman-Nemser 2003
Martin & Mulvihill 2017
Fear of asking for help and
appearing incompetent
Walsdorf & Lynn 2002
Intense workload Rogers & Babinski 2002
Abandonment from academic
professors
Ingersoll 2012
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this single case study was to investigate the unique experiences of a
select group of educators participating in one school’s teacher induction program in Louisiana
and examine the impact of the induction program on inexperienced teacher’s development.
Using a qualitative, single case study, shed light on whether green teachers experienced support
in the areas they believe they needed it the most and the impact of that support. The target
audience for this study included teachers, schools, school districts, state educational leaders, and
any other entity that has a stake in teacher professional development. This study may inform
professionals who design and/ or implement teacher induction program activities by providing
them with insight into educators’ perspectives on induction for neophyte teachers. The findings
of this study will not be generalized to all teacher induction programs, but to encourage schools
that implement such programs to evaluate their effectiveness in juxtaposition to this study. Then,
through evaluations, educators at all levels can potentially find solutions to improve the way
induction programs support rookie teachers. This single case study did not take away from the
value of induction programs, such programs are no doubt helping many new teachers. However,
there is a necessity to research improvements that will enhance the program to better improve
the education system.
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Significance Statement
The success of teacher induction programs is vital for the future of education. Quality
instruction begins with quality induction (Moir, 2005). Providing induction to beginning teachers
is a proactive response to the trials and tribulations related with the first couple of years of
teaching as teacher acclimate to their profession. Various studies suggested that providing
teachers with support systems like induction programs, mentoring, and professional development
increases teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction, retention, teacher effectiveness, and student
achievement (Wechsler, Caspary, Humphrey, & Matsko, 2010). Studies also indicated there has
been a simultaneous increase in novel teachers and a decrease in seasoned teachers (Ingersoll,
2012). Fresh teachers are now the largest group within one of the largest professions in the
world, and these mentee teachers have consistently become more prone to leave teaching within
five years in the profession (Gray & Taie, 2015). All of these findings provided evident need for
effective support programs for inexperienced teachers. Therefore, it is crucial for school districts
to invest in effective teacher induction programs. Furthermore, this study is significant because
although induction programs have been researched in many school districts in the US, there is
limited information about the impact of teacher induction programs in Louisiana’s school
districts. Also, the topic has a personal significance for me as the researcher given my role as a
former green teacher. My role as researcher was to not only research educators’ perspectives on
a selected Louisiana’s teacher induction program but to also understand the impact of the
program. This purpose gave me insight on how to conduct additional research to provide
effective supportive strategies for neophyte teachers to guide their practices.
Research Questions
Three questions framed this single case study. The questions are listed here:
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1. What are the perceptions of beginning teachers about the teacher induction program?
Beginning teachers are anxious about lack of preparation time, needs of diverse
students, time constraints, massive workload, and lack of support from colleagues and
administrators (Fantilli & McDougall, 2009). This question will allow beginning
teachers to voice the good, the bad, and the ugly of teacher induction programs.
Understanding perceptions may increase teacher efficacy and decrease teacher burn
out.
2. How do mentors, teacher induction program coordinators, and administrators support
beginning teachers? (Fisher & Ociepka, 2011) argued that a quality teacher induction
program involves a community of educators working together to improve instruction
and student achievement. The theoretical framework of this study explores the four
stages of teacher development outlined by Katz (1972) and mentor-mentee
relationships proposed by Kram (1983). Thus, this research question will allow the
researcher to see which of these stages are included and which stages are perhaps
neglected.
3. How does the teacher induction program impact professional development for
beginning teachers? Very little research has been written about how teacher induction
programs impact teacher education in Louisiana. However, many researchers agree
that teacher induction programs are effective when designed to offer support by
providing, orientation, on-the-job professional development, and ongoing mentorship
and collaboration, which accelerates the beginning teachers’ effectiveness and
increases student achievement (Lopez, Lash, Schaffner, Shields, & Wagner, 2004).
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Therefore, the purpose of this research question is to reflect upon the effects of participating
in the teacher induction program.
Overall, these research questions are aligned with Creswell’s (2018) notion that
“research questions should be open-ended, evolving, non-directional, few in number” and
provide the foundation for a review of the literature and consecutive research (p. 138).
Definition of Terms
The terminology used in the discussion of teacher induction programs can be
potentially confusing. Often, there are key terms that are used interchangeably. For the
purpose of clarity in this study, the following terms have been defined and supported
within the research:
Beginning Teacher (Fresh, Green, Inexperienced, Novice, Neophyte, or
Rookie Teacher). A full-time certified teacher with no prior teaching experience who
entered the profession of teaching. For the purpose of this study a new teacher has 0-3
years of teaching experience (Dempsey & Carty, 2009).
Highly Effective Teacher. A teacher who has a positive effect on student
learning and development through a combination of content mastery, command of
a broad set of pedagogic skills, and communications/interpersonal skills. Quality
teachers are life-long learners in their subject areas, teach with commitment, and
are reflective upon their teaching practice. They transfer knowledge of their
subject matter and the learning process through good communication, diagnostic
skills, understanding of different learning styles and cultural influences,
knowledge about child development, and the ability to marshal a broad array of
techniques to meet student needs. They set high expectations and support students
in achieving them. They establish an environment conducive to learning and
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leverage available resources outside as well as inside the classroom (Varlas,
2009).
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Job Satisfaction. A feeling of fulfillment or enjoyment that a person derives from their
job whether or not they like the job or individual aspects of jobs, such as nature of work or
supervision. Job satisfaction can be measured in cognitive, emotional, and behavioral
components (Ho & Au, 2006; Klassen, Usher & Bong, 2010; Nagar, 2012; Taylor & Tashakkori,
1995).
Mentee. A beginning teacher who is assigned to a mentor for proper guidance in
professional development (Andrews, Gilbert, & Martin, 2006).
Mentor. A more experienced teacher who is paired with a new or struggling teacher to
provide guidance and support. The types of support provided by mentors may include
observations, conferences, lesson modeling, data analysis, and coaching. Generally, a mentor
taught the same content, however exceptions are made where this was not possible (Andrews, et
al., 2006).
Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Knowledge on how to present concepts so that
students will understand them, which concepts are easy for students and which concepts will
present difficulties for students, and common misconceptions that students make in the subject
area (Hightower, Delgado, Lloyd, Wittenstein, Sellers, & Sivanson, 2010).
Professional Development. Is a formal or informal ever-evolving support that improve
teacher’s content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, self-efficacy, job satisfaction, retention,
and overall student achievement. Professional development can take the form of a conference,
seminar, workshop, collaborative learning communities, research, collegiate coursework, or even
mentoring (Mizell, 2010).
Retention. Means to retain teachers in the field of education. Teachers were considered
retained if they returned in any teaching capacity, including changing positions or buildings.
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Teachers were not considered retained if they left the district for any reason, even if they
remained in the field of education or took a similar position in another district (Anderson, 2010).
Student Achievement. Measures the amount of academic content a student learns in a
determined amount of time. Each grade level has learning goals or instructional standards that
educators are required to teach and students are required to learn (Blank & De Las Alas, 2009).
Subject Matter Content Knowledge. Teachers understanding of the subject(s) they are
teaching, knowing the structure and sequencing of concepts, developing factual knowledge
essential to each subject and guiding their students into the different ways of understanding the
content they are learning (Blömeke, 2015).
Support. A wide variety of professional development activities and school resources
provided to teachers in the effort to help them accelerate their students learning progress
(Keilwitz, 2014).
Teacher Induction Program. A program that provides new teachers with support and
resources to fulfill the requirements of being an effective teacher. A variety of different types of
activities for new teachers include orientation, professional development, extra classroom
assistance, reduced workloads, and especially mentoring (Ingersoll & Strong, 2004).
Teacher Self-Efficacy. When a teacher believes in their own ability to guide their
students to success (Tschannen-Moran, Woolfolk-Hoy, & Hoy, 1998).
Summary
Chapter One provided the rationale of this study. The art of becoming an effective
teacher is not something that happens overnight; yet, most new teachers are faced with this
dilemma. Baccalaureate graduates who apply and accept a teaching position are often required
to carry out the same responsibilities and function as the seasoned teacher in the next classroom.
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The new tasks they are expected to learn and master range from school culture to human
resources to developing and implementing curriculum to classroom management. Providing
beginning teachers with support programs can alleviate them with such burdens. A well-planned
and implemented induction program considers the needs of novice teachers and the students they
serve. This research study adds to the minimal amount of research that exists on the impact of
teacher induction programs. The findings will help district leaders and school administrators
design and implement teacher induction programs with components associated with higher
probabilities of fresh teacher’s job satisfaction, self-efficacy, retention, teacher effectiveness,
and student achievement.
The following chapters support the purpose of this study. In Chapter Two, the literature
was reviewed. In Chapter Three, the methodology for the study was described. In Chapter Four, I
reported the findings. Finally, in Chapter Five, I provided an in-depth discussion of the findings,
presented implications, and offer further avenues for research in teacher induction.
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CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The purpose of Chapter Two was to review literature that influence the methods of
supporting beginning teachers. The literature review was employed to support the perspectives of
educators participating in the teacher induction program and the impact of the program on novice
teacher’s development in a large Louisiana school district. First, the process of analyzing
literature in the field of teacher developed was described. Second, the theoretical framework is
outlined with the exploration of Katz’s perception of teacher’s professional development needs at
various stages in their career; and description of Kram’s four stages of mentor-mentee
relationship. Third, a summary of the different types of teacher’s knowledge. Fourth, a historic
overview of teacher induction programs. Fifth, the evolution of teacher induction programs in the
state of Louisiana. Sixth, a description of how teacher induction programs impact beginning
teachers. Seventh, components of effective induction programs for new teachers. Lastly, the roles
and responsibilities of mentors, teacher induction program coordinators, and administrators in
supporting beginning teachers. This literature review begins with the process of conducting the
literature view for this study.
Literature Review Procedure
A literature review is a written summary and analysis of journals, articles, books and
other documents that describe the past and current state of information on the topic of the
researcher’s study. According to Marshall and Rossman (1989), a review of the literature has the
following purposes: to provide foundation of knowledge on the topic, to show evidence of
research to support the study, to identify inconstancies and gaps with previous studies, to
establish a need for additional research, and to refine the research questions based on findings in
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the literature. Previous research was studied to demonstrate that teacher induction has not, to this
date, been adequately explored as it relates to the characteristics of effective teacher induction
programs and the impact new teacher’s professional development. This chapter was also used to
help develop explanations during data collection and analysis procedures, which provided
theoretical lens to organize the data while discovering the new connections between theory and
the real world.
This literature review was conducted using online access to the Louisiana State
University Library, the local school district and state of Louisiana websites, the researcher’s
local public library system, Louisiana State University coursework textbooks, and professional
literature recommended by professors in the Doctoral of Educational Leadership P-12 program.
The online libraries utilized provided access to various research databases, including the
Education Resource Information Center (ERIC), Sage online journals, Academic Search
Complete, PsycTESTS, and Dissertations and Thesis A&I. Articles related to teacher induction
programs, challenges of new teachers, needs of new teachers, role and characteristics of mentors,
induction coordinators, and principals, and effective professional development practices were
researched to synthesize what other researchers have already stated and formulated common
themes about the study. The following search terms and phrases were used to gain access to the
articles: teacher induction programs, new teacher orientation, support for new teachers,
mentoring, instructional coach, effective professional development, challenges of new teachers,
teacher education, teacher preparation, components of effective induction programs, program
evaluation, first year teachers , Katz’s Stages of teacher development, and Kram’s stages of
mentor-mentee relationship were reviewed, and those descriptors were coupled with job
satisfaction, teacher efficacy, retention, teacher effectiveness, and student achievement. Other
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search terms were qualitative research design and single case study. In addition to the previous
listed sources, references were obtained from the references sections of other researchers and
investigated for related information. Next, this literature review continues with the theoretical
framework for this single case study.
Theoretical Framework
A theoretical framework explains the focus of any study (Creswell. 2018). The
phenomenon of interest for this single case study is to examine the perspectives of educators
participating in the teacher induction program in Louisiana and explore the impact of the
induction program on teacher professional development. It is crucial for school districts to
provide adequate support to novice teachers. Greenhorn teachers need time to become effective
in an environment where “new teachers have two jobs: they have to teach and they have to learn
how to teach” (Feiman-Nemser, 2001, p. 1026). Thus, a comprehensive teacher induction
program does not just focus on retaining apprentice teachers but is a multi-year journey focused
on the development of effective teachers (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004). Therefore, researchers of
this topic pointed to various theories such as the four stages of teacher development (Katz, 1972)
and four phases of mentoring (Kram, 1983). Taken together, the above-mentioned theories
provided a theoretical groundwork for teacher education and supported the study’s research
questions.
Katz’s Theory of Teacher Development
Katz’s (1972) study of teacher development was based on preschool teachers, however
she claimed it could be applied to other teachers. The purpose of the study Katz (1972)
conducted was to outline the professional development needs of teachers at different points in
their teaching career. Based on her findings she suggested that there is a minimum of four
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developmental stages: survival, consolidation, renewal, and maturity (Katz, 1972). These
developmental stages may assist in explaining teachers’ actions in the classroom. Logically,
teachers in the beginning stage may have basic survival needs while teachers in the later stages
may seek their own professional development relating to individualized students’ learning
needs. A mentor’s knowledge about the different stages of development can help determine the
types of support that will best facilitate mentoring (Katz & Raths, 1990). Assuming that a
teacher’s years of experience are directly related to the teacher’s developmental stage is
erroneous thinking (Katz & Raths, 1990). Each teacher matriculates through these stages at
different rates (Katz, 1972). This study was selected because I want to explore teacher
development and how I can best support new and/or struggling teachers.
Katz’s (1972) study found that the first stage, the survival stage, generally occurs during
the first year of teaching. Teachers realized that what they had anticipated from their
undergraduate program was not their reality inside the actual classroom (Katz, 1972). The major
concern of teachers was dealing with daily task and questioning their competence for effectively
teaching (Katz, 1972). Although teachers initially felt ready to enter the classroom, teachers in
this first stage lose these feelings, and simply wish to survive each day (Katz, 1972). This
concern with survival may make new teachers ask, “Can I get through this day or week (Katz &
Raths, 1990, p. 242)?” When observing teachers in the survival stage, they tend to not have
clear rules and consistent procedures in the classroom for managing student’s behavior (Katz,
1972). They also tend to react to students’ behaviors rather than anticipate and prevent potential
problems by using preventive management strategies (Katz, 1972). The teaching style is
typically teacher center with little to no interactions between the students (Katz, 1972).
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During this stage teachers definitely need continuous support, understanding,
encouragement, reassurance, comfort and guidance (Katz & Raths, 1990). Training is needed in
specific skills related to classroom management, content and pedagogical knowledge, all of
which must be provided inside the teacher’s classroom (Katz & Raths, 1990). Mentoring must
be consistently and readily available from someone who knows both the mentee and level of
teaching competency (Katz & Raths, 1990). Additionally, teachers should be assigned a mentor
usually a seasoned teacher to support professional development (Katz, 1972). The mentor must
also have enough time and flexibility to be on call as needed by the mentee (Katz & Raths,
1990). Although the mentor may schedule periodic visits in advanced, this method should not be
counted on to coincide with mentees’ real-time classroom emergencies (Katz & Raths, 1990).
In the second stage, the consolidation stage, Katz (1972) observed teachers figuring out
what they learned in the survival stage, and consolidating their learning and knowledge.
Teachers began to focus more on instruction and the individual needs of their students (Katz,
1972). Katz (1972) highlighted the major difference between the first stage and second stage was
that during stage one, beginning teachers obtain a basic understanding of what students are like
and what to expect of them. By stage two, novice teachers start to recognize specific goals for
students, and organize specific tasks and skills on which individual students should work on
(Katz, 1972). This motivation may allow teachers to search for answers to the question “How
can I help a child who does not seem to be learning.” (Katz & Raths, 1990, p. 245). This question
is now differentiated from the typical survival issues of classroom management in the first stage
(Katz & Raths, 1990). When observing teachers in the second stage, teachers have managed to
implement clear rules and consistent procedures for students with no special commendations
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(Katz, 1972). Katz (1972) found that this stage may take place through the second year of
teaching, and continue into the third year.
During this consolidation stage, mentoring is still valuable (Katz & Raths, 1990).
Mentors can help mentees through mutual exploration of a problem (Katz & Raths, 1990). In
order for teachers to jointly find solutions to the fresh teacher’s problems, the mentor must
observe the mentee interactions with students, to gain firsthand knowledge of the context of the
problem (Katz & Raths, 1990). Furthermore, observations of the mentee’s classroom allow the
discussion between the inexperienced teacher and veteran teacher move toward a solution to a
problem (Katz & Raths, 1990). Also, in this stage teachers seek information about specific
students such as problem students and use a wider range of resources to support most students
(Katz, 1972). Therefore, psychologists, social and health workers and other specialists can
enhance the green teacher's skills and understanding about child development (Katz & Raths,
1990). Another way to help teachers is to provide them with opportunities to share feelings with
other teachers in the consolidation stage (Katz, 1972). This may relieve some of the teacher’s
sense of professional inadequacy and frustration (Katz, 1972).
According to Katz, the renewal stage, teachers are often in their third or fourth year of
teaching (Katz, 1972). During this stage, teachers develop a desire to learn new methods of
teaching, to escape from teaching the same way (Katz, 1972). Teachers in Katz (1972) study
sought to renew their teaching styles, by trying new materials, techniques, and ideas. The idea of
renewal was not necessarily because the teacher felt that the current teaching style was not
competent or not student-centered (Katz, 1972). During this stage, students may be learning well,
however, the teachers’ search for renewal was often a personal one to refresh the teachers’ own
views of teaching (Katz, 1972). They begin to ask more questions about new developments in
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the education profession, such as, “What are some new approaches to helping children learn?”
(Katz & Raths, 1990, p. 248)? When observing this teacher during this stage, the classroom is
likely to be well-managed where students are actively engaged in tasks appropriate for their
learning needs (Katz, 1972).
During the renewal stage, teachers find it valuable to formally and informally meet
educators from different programs (Katz & Raths, 1990). Teachers are also interested in
attending regional meetings, conferences, and workshops and benefit from becoming members
in professional associations (Katz, 1972). Furthermore, their reading expands to include
professional journals (Katz, 1972). The goal is to provide opportunities for teachers in this stage
to collaborate with other teachers about different pedagogy strategies and continuously follow up
on the new methods learned (Katz & Raths, 1990).
Finally, in the maturity stage, Katz (1972) found that some teachers are still interested in
learning new ideas and resources, but begin to think deeper about their philosophy of teaching
and its impact on student achievement. This could occur within three years, but in most cases,
reaching maturity can take about five years (Katz, 1972). Teachers in the final maturity stage
had learned the basics of teaching, and felt secure in their profession (Katz & Raths, 1990).
Mature
teachers now have enough experience to ask deeper and more abstract questions like, “What are
my historical and philosophical roots (Katz & Raths, 1990, p. 251)?” When observing a teacher
during the fourth stage, the classroom is typically like the classroom in the third stage (Katz,
1972). However, the difference is observed through discussions with the teacher (Katz, 1972).
The discussions tend to be insightful about the teacher’s philosophy on teaching and learning
(Katz, 1972).
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During this final stage, mature teachers still seek opportunities to participate in
conferences and workshops (Katz, 1972). They may decide to go back to school to complete a
professional degree (Katz & Raths, 1990). These seasoned teachers enjoy researching new
methods in the education world and welcome the opportunity to discuss these findings with
other educators (Katz, 1972). Also, teachers at this stage are ready to accept leadership roles
such as mentoring new teachers (Katz, 1972). Theses teachers often make excellent mentors
because they have experienced all of the developmental stages of teachers and understand the
frustrations and needs of teachers matriculating through each developmental stage (Katz, 1972).
Furthermore, teachers do not advance through each stage independent from other
circumstances in one’s life (Katz, 1972). Contingent on personal and professional factors, it is
likely that teachers may fluctuate through stages (Katz, 1972). For example, if a teacher goes
through a major life crisis, such as a death of a loved one, divorce, or relocation, teachers
commonly, experience a drop to a lower developmental stage as they cope with this traumatic
experience (Katz, 1972). Also, if a teacher moves to a new school or perhaps new grade level,
the teacher is likely to experience the survival stage again (Katz, 1972). This stage may pass
quickly as the teacher recalls on past experience to function in the new school environment
(Katz, 1972). Additionally, a change from a suburban to urban school setting may also result in
a teacher dropping to a lower developmental stage (Katz, 1972). Again, the teacher may move
back up to a higher developmental stage given the proper support on dealing with this drastic
change in school culture (Katz, 1972). Figure 1 outlines the stages of beginning teacher’s
training and development. In the next section of this literature review, stages of mentoring will
be discussed. Given the mentor-mentee relationship inherent in an induction program, this
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review of literature is germane to the study. Kram’s work is considered seminal in the field of
mentoring (1983).
Figure 1. Stages of Development and Training Needs of Beginning Teachers (Katz &
Raths, 1990, p. 253).
Kram’s Theory of Mentoring
Kram (1983) was one of the first researchers to explore the positive aspects of
mentoring and observed that mentoring was based on an individual’s need for psychosocial
support, guidance to accomplish assignments, and career advancement. In her seminal study,
Kram (1985) discovered that a mentor-mentee relationship went through four stages: initiation,
cultivation, separation, and redefinition. Although a mentoring relationship has a life cycle with
various stages of development, each mentoring relationship has its own unique time frame to
fulfill teacher induction program requirements (Kram, 1983). Regardless of the context or
lifecycle of the relationship, the assumption is that the mentoring relationship is dynamic, ever
evolving, changing the nature of the mentee-mentor interaction through time. Kram (1985)
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highlights the lifecycle concept as each person having different roles, expectations, and set of
behaviors at each phase of the lifecycle. Successful progression into a phase relies upon the
successful resolution of the previous phase (Otto, 1994). The ultimate goal of the mentor-trainee
relationship is the promotion and development of a highly effective educator (Otto, 1994). This
section will briefly describe the various stages that the mentee and mentor are expected to
undergo while the collaborative partnership evolves.
During the first stage, initiation, two individuals enter into a mentoring relationship
(Kram, 1983). It takes approximately six to 12 months for the mentoring relationship to form
(Kram, 1985). New teachers, mentees, search for experienced and effective teachers, mentors,
whom they admire and perceive as good role models (Otto, 1994). Potential mentors search for
teachers who are coachable (Kram, 1985). Both individuals pursue a positive, influential
relationship that would justify the extra time and effort required in mentoring. Over time, the
mentor and mentee may establish an emotional bond where they get to know one another as a
result of frequent interactions. During this stage, peer observation and professional development
can also transpire (Kram, 1983). The mentor is responsible for collaborating with the mentee to
assist in setting goals, modeling, observing, and providing feedback (Ojewunmi, 2011). The
mentee is expected to be receptive to the mentor’s support.
Novice teachers and seasoned teachers can informally and formally establish a
mentoring relationship (Otto, 1994). Informal mentoring allows the matching process to
transpire through professional or social interactions between potential mentors and mentees
(Otto, 1994). Formal mentoring programs manage the matching process instead of letting these
relationships develop on their own (Otto, 1994). The assignment of a mentee to a mentor differs
for each formal teacher induction program (Otto, 1994). Program coordinators may match
mentors and mentees
24
or allow mentors to review mentee profiles and select their mentees (Otto, 1994). Regardless
of the matching process, an effective formal mentoring program would require both
individuals to explore and evaluate the appropriateness of the mentor–mentee relationship.
During the second stage, cultivation, the primary stage of learning and development
(Kram, 1983). This stage lasts from two to five years which is the longest period in the
mentoring relationship (Kram, 1985). Assuming a successful initiation stage, during the
cultivation stage, the mentee and mentor learn from each other (Kram, 1983). The mentee may
also impart valuable lessons to the mentor related to new technologies, new methodologies, and
emerging issues in the field of education (Ojewunmi, 2011). At this juncture, the mentor has
modeled acceptable behavior, which influence the behavior of the mentee (Ojewunmi, 2011).
Modeling is defined as “learning through imitation… the teacher acts and models a preferred
way of teaching… in actual situations” (Bashan & Holsblat, 2012, p. 207). In the field of
education, modeling is a vital aspect of mentoring because mentees enhance their practice
gained by practical experience, which result in better students’ performance (Bashan & Holsblat,
2012). Additionally, the mentor coaches the mentee on how to work effectively and efficiently.
This stage concludes when the green teacher completes the teacher induction program (Kram,
1983). Overall, the mentee is expected to be an effective teacher that increases student
achievement.
During the third stage, separation, mentees experience autonomy and act independently
(Kram, 1983). It occurs typically after five years (Kram, 1985). At this point, mentors may feel a
sense of accomplishment and pride due to investing a significant amount of time and effort to
prepare mentees to become highly effective teachers (Kram, 1983). However, unprepared
mentees may experience disappointment and frustration when given more autonomy and need to
handle things independently (Kram, 1985). During this stage, the seasoned teacher shares self-
25
management strategies with the developing teacher (Kram, 1983). The separation stage generally
describes the conclusion of a mentoring relationship where the mentee can meet the mentor on a
need basis to guide them back on track (Kram, 1985).
The mentoring relationship may conclude for a variety of reasons. The mentee may not
have anything else to learn, the developing teacher may want to establish independence, or the
seasoned teacher may believe the new teacher is ready for independence (Kram, 1983). Problems
only occur between the individuals when either the mentee or mentor does not want to terminate
the mentoring relationship (Kram, 1983). The mentee may feel abandoned or unprepared if he or
she perceive the separation is premature (Kram, 1985). The mentor may feel betrayed or used if
the mentee no longer seeks guidance from him or her (Kram, 1985). If the separation stage is
mutual the new teacher, now a competent teacher might have been advanced within the current
school or even left the school to teach elsewhere (Kram, 1983). Kram (1985) claims that the
former mentee loses the sense of security provided by the mentor and the mentor loses direct
influence over the mentee’s career.
During the last stage, redefinition, the mentor and mentee intermingle on an informal
basis and may continue their friendship (Kram, 1983). Just like the separation stage, the
redefinition stage generally happens after five years (Kram, 1985). Mentors and mentees tend to
benefit from the relationship. In short, the mentor’s career is reenergized and may even result in
a promotion. (Kram, 1983). Likewise, beginning teachers who received mentoring in
conjunction with additional support from the teacher induction program makes greater gains in
teaching effectively than beginning teachers supported solely by a teacher induction program
(Stanulis & Floden, 2009). If the mentee or mentor's experience was not pleasant, the result may
be that the two individuals grow apart and may even undergo alienation (Kram, 1983). However,
if both
26
individuals successfully negotiate through the separation stage, during the redefinition stage, the
mentor and mentee relationship evolves as into a collegial relationship or social friendship
(Kram, 1985).
In the beginning, there may be discomfort leading to the transformation of a new learning
journey. Both the mentor and mentee soon recognize that their relationship can continue however
that it will not be the same as their mentoring relationship (Kram, 1985). The relationship has
evolved. Unlike the cultivation stage, the mentee’s career development is no longer the focus of
the relationship (Kram, 1983). In fact, due to formal mentee’s high potential they may accept
middle management promotion opportunities (Kram, 1983). The former mentor may start
mentoring relationships with new mentees. Similarly, the former mentee may serve as a future
mentor to others. Figure 2 illustrates the stages of mentoring relationship process.
Figure 2. Stages of Mentoring Relationship Process (Kram, 1983, p. 611)
Both Katz (1972) and Kram (1983) inform thinking about teacher development in the
context of a mentoring-mentee relationship. These seminal researchers conducted early studies
within the teacher development field. Since their work was published, additional studies have
been conducted that also contribute to the field and educators’ understanding of early career
27
teacher development. Next, specific studies that investigate the specific fields of knowledge
novice teachers need to be successful.
What New Teachers Need to Know?
Teaching requires a variety of knowledge and pedagogical skills, knowledge about
students, knowledge about styles of teaching and learning, knowledge about management,
knowledge about resources and assessment as well as knowledge about the content of the subject
matter (Blömeke, 2015). This section of the literature examines some of the components for
instructional practices that are typically viewed as key when developing a culture of effective
teaching. These principles include: subject content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge,
and classroom management. Through the application of these principles, effective teachers can
both challenge individual students and have high expectations for all of their students to make
developmental progress (Clarke, 2008).
Subject Content Knowledge
Subject content knowledge is the actual knowledge teachers are expected to deeply
understand to teach their students (Ball, Thames, & Phelps, 2008). For example, teachers may
need to have a thorough understanding of a Shakespeare play in order to effectively teach it to
students (Blömeke, 2015). The focus of subject knowledge has a very important role in education
because high-quality teaching relies on teachers understanding the subjects they are teaching,
identifying the structure and sequence of concepts, developing accurate knowledge, and guiding
their student’s learning with different methods (Corcoran, 1995). Helping students learn concepts
involves more than delivering facts and information. The goal of teaching is to guide students in
developing intellectual ideas, skills, and resources to solve every day real-world problems
(Blömeke, 2015). Students should see themselves, either alone or in collaboration with others,
and capable of figuring things out (Hightower et al., 2010). To accomplish this goal, teachers
28
need to conceptually master the subject matter and have the capacity to be critical of knowledge
itself in order to empower students to be change agents in their environment (Corcoran, 1995).
Conant (1963) wrote that “if a teacher is largely ignorant or uniformed, he can do much
harm” (p. 93). Hence, when teachers possess inaccurate information or conceive knowledge in
limited ways, they may share these ideas to their students. Teachers may fail to challenge
students’ thinking and misconceptions; they may use texts uncritically or may alter them
inappropriately (Hightower et al., 2010). Subtly, teachers’ conceptions of knowledge shape their
practice, such as the kinds of questions they ask, the ideas they reinforce, the sorts of tasks they
assign (Hightower et al., 2010). Therefore, it is common sense that support the conviction that
subject content knowledge is important because teachers’ own content knowledge influences
their efforts to help students learn subject matter. Effective teaching is not only the teacher’s own
subject knowledge, but the way the teacher delivers the knowledge. In order to support
beginning teachers with developing deep understanding of the content there are teaching,
instructional leaders must create an environment where teacher development is valued (Blömeke,
2015). In such case, instructional leaders may challenge beginning teachers in rich dialogue and
feedback that could lead to substantial improvements in their understanding of the content matter
(Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010). They also must create opportunities for teachers to collaborate in
subject area department meetings to reflect and share teaching practices with one another.
Pedagogical Content Knowledge
The term pedagogy stems from the Greek word that means “the art of teaching children
(Hightower et al., 2010, p. 13).” The pedagogical knowledge of teachers includes all the required
cognitive knowledge for creating effective teaching and learning environments (Hightower et al.,
2010). The concept of pedagogical content knowledge is not new. The term resurfaced with
29
Shulman (1986), a teacher education researcher who was interested in expanding and improving
knowledge on teaching and teacher preparation. He claimed that developing basic pedagogical
skills was insufficient for preparing teachers as was trainings that stressed only content
knowledge (Shulman, 1986). Pedagogical content knowledge is the teacher’s interpretations and
transformations of subject content knowledge in the context of guiding student learning
(Hightower et al., 2010). For example, how can Shakespearian language be made more
accessible for students to help them understand the story and context of the play (Blömeke,
2015)?
Pedagogical content knowledge involves the recognition of what makes specific concepts
difficult to learn, the preconceived conceptions students have of these concepts, and teaching
strategies tailored to student’s specific learning needs (Blömeke, 2015). To teach all students
based on current 21st century academic standards, teachers definitely need to understand
pedagogical content knowledge in-depth so they can support students to create their own ideas,
relate one idea to another, and redirect their thinking to create powerful learning (Ingersoll &
Merrill, 2010). Having thoughtful pedagogical skills can improve the quality of teacher’s
instruction and the way students learn by helping them gain a deeper understanding of
fundamental material. This approach helps students reach beyond simplistic ways of thinking,
like basic memorization and comprehension, to complex learning processes like analysis,
evaluation, and creation (Shulman, 1986).
Teachers also need to perceive how ideas connect across various subjects and to everyday
life, which are the goals of pedagogical content knowledge. Effective content teaching is at the
core of pedagogical content knowledge (Blömeke, 2015). To accomplish this, instructional
leaders need to resist some old traditions in professional learning. Instead, instructional leaders
30
should commit to high quality professional development targeted to develop this type of
expertise. As a result of professional support, teacher’s growth indirectly leads to student’s
academic success (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010). In addition to subject and pedagogy knowledge,
classroom management cultivates a supportive learning environment that allows students to think
critically, experiment with the material, and be open to constructive feedback.
Classroom Management
Empirical research studies revealed that classroom management is one of the major
factors to effective teaching, but also one of the most challenging components of effective
teaching (Corbell et al, 2010). Classroom management involves the adjustment of procedures
with school policy, implementation of consistent and effective routines, and the management of
discipline conducive to learning (Langdon et al, 2014). Obviously, the ultimate goal for any
teacher is an academically productive classroom with engaged students. To achieve this goal,
teachers should plan and implement daily classroom routines and procedures of interaction that
alleviate misbehaviors and distractions. The bottom line is that effective classroom management
is an absolute must. It impacts teacher’s ability to be an effective educator, job satisfaction, and
influence students’ success as learners (Langdon et al, 2014). If the classroom is out of control, it
does matter how passionate the teacher is about their subject or how much they are truly
dedicated to teaching students, learning will be negatively impacted.
There is no doubt that dynamic curriculum and a strong rapport with students are both
desirable. However, it may not be enough to maintain effective classroom management.
Fortunately, there is a wealth of knowledge that, if taught and practiced, could help lessen the
learning curve of inexperienced teachers. Obviously, experience helps, but the capacity to
achieve a well-managed classroom does not have to be learned through trial and error from years
31
of teaching experience (Langdon et al, 2014). Instructional leaders should impart this knowledge
to new teachers, developing classroom management competence in them through instruction and
practice. As a result, this will create a cycle of teachers creating a classroom culture that helps
build relationships with students that produces a functional and productive environment for
teaching and learning (Blömeke, 2015).
Effective teaching composes of deep subject knowledge, operative pedagogical skills,
and an encouraging learning environment. In order to be a dynamic teacher all three
components must be present. If one element is missing, the classroom environment may not be
suitable for teaching or learning. Unfortunately, for many beginning teachers at least one of the
components of effective teaching needs guidance. This realization was one of the main reasons
for training new teachers through induction programs. Subsequently, the literature review will
provide a historic overview of teacher induction programs in the US.
An Overview of Teacher Induction Programs
Establishing an induction program for new teachers is not a new concept; it is an idea
that has gained considerable momentum in the past several decades. The literature on orientation
for the teaching profession has its origins in the 1950s and 1960s in the US, where mandatory
schooling and the professional development of teachers were being questioned in the post-war
period (Serpell, 2000). In the late 1950s, significant practical changes in teacher education began
as a result of a series of grants distributed by the Ford Foundation (Elias, 1980). These grants
were intended to facilitate the development of fifth-year programs that would extend teacher
preparation to an internship in which perspective teachers would learn how to integrate theory
and practice. Similar to the Ford Foundation’s support for fifth-year programs, another
movement for improving teacher education in the mid-1960s derived from federal funding,
Teacher Corps (Elias, 1980). Many of the Teacher Corps developments supported certified
32
teachers and liberal arts college graduates. Although the distinction was not clearly articulated,
fifth-year programs were not necessarily induction programs and despite ongoing discussion
about the intentions of fifth-year programs, the internship itself did not seem to prevent or solve
new teachers’ problems (McDonald, 1982).
During this era, a large number of pilot induction programs were started to address and
potentially solve problems new teachers faced. The most pressing problems expressed by new
teachers tended to be classroom management and teaching strategies (Darling-Hammond, 1995).
Historically, induction programs were conceptualized as a way of amending these recognized
difficulties by compensating for what was perceived as the inadequacy of teacher education
programs in preparing teachers for actual practice (Elias, 1980). While the idea of teacher
induction programs has evolved and changed with increasing interest in the topic, induction was
founded with four broad primary goals: socializing the teacher into the school culture, improving
teaching skills, resolving beginning teachers’ predictable concerns, and assuring teachers’
professional development (McDonald, 1982). The spread of induction programs supported by
states and school districts prompted the inclusion of two additional goals: increasing retention
among promising new teachers and satisfying mandated requirements related to induction and
certification (Hu ling-Austin, 1989).
Odell (1990) observed the rapidity of the implementation of induction programs. She
reported that in 1980, Florida was the only state that provided formal support to new teachers
through mentoring. By 1987,11 states were implementing induction programs, six states were
piloting induction programs, 15 were planning to implement an induction program, and 19
reported no activity of additional support for new teachers (Odell, 1990). In 1989, the number of
states having an induction program increased to 31, with only eight reporting no activity (Odell,
33
1990). Although most states during this time had an induction program for new teachers, some
have yet made it mandatory for new teachers to participate in or school districts to implement. In
1991, 51% of new teachers participated in a teacher induction program and by 2012, 85% of new
teachers did (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2014, p. 5).
Although many states have some form of support for new teachers, the effectiveness of
these programs became questionable. Zeichner (1979), concerned with the diversity of induction
programs, he recommended that the education of a teacher should extend beyond the preparation
period and continue throughout a teacher’s career. He indicated that this recommendation had
first been implemented in the late nineteenth century (Zeichner, 1979). In 2014, 29 states
required new teachers to participate in a teacher induction program, and as a result, more new
teachers received mentoring through induction programs than ever before. Additionally, nine of
those states required support for new teachers beyond their first two years of teaching (Alliance
for Excellent Education, 2014). Louisiana was one of the states that believed that their new
prospects needed additional support during their first couple of years of teaching. As a result, the
state implemented several initiatives in hopes of having a positive impact on beginning teachers’
development and commitment. The evolution of Louisiana’s induction programs was addressed
in the following section of this literature review.
Teacher Induction Programs in Louisiana
Like many other states, Louisiana seen a demand for providing support for new teachers.
In 1994, the Louisiana Department of Education (LDE) implemented the Louisiana Teacher
Assessment Program (LaTAP) which had some, but not all the components of an effective new
teacher induction program (The Louisiana Department of Education, 2019). This program had
two purposes: to improve teaching and learning and to ensure that certified teachers in Louisiana
34
were competent professionals (Rosselli, Girod, & Brodsky, 2011). To accomplish this, the
teacher went through a series of classroom observations and interviews that were designed to
collect data which were directly related to the Louisiana Components of Effective Teaching
(LCET) (Rosselli, et al., 2011). If a new teacher did not complete the assessment program
during the first year and was allowed to return for a second year, the new teacher had to
demonstrate competence by the end of that second year, or he/she was denied regular
certification in Louisiana public schools for at least two years (The Louisiana Department of
Education, 1995).
In 1997, the legislature, realized the need to provide more assistance for new teachers and
renamed the program to the Louisiana Teacher Assistance and Assessment Program (The
Louisiana Department of Education, 1998). The program also amended to include a mentoring
component. Mentor teachers are assigned to mentee teachers for support for both semesters
(Rosselli, et al., 2011). The new teacher was assigned an assessment team to ensure professional
competence during the second semester (Rosselli, et al., 2011). The mentor had no part in the
assessment process or in recommendation for future certification in Louisiana (The Louisiana
Department of Education, 1998).
In 2001, as Louisiana strengthened its efforts in school and district accountability, the
need for a stabled and qualified teaching force became clearly evident. During this time, the
Blue-Ribbon Commission on Teacher Quality had established statewide goals for K-12 schools
and higher education institutions that would improve student achievement (The Louisiana
Department of Education, 2002). The commission had also concluded that improving teacher
quality was essential to achieving this statewide goal (Rosselli, et al., 2011). To accomplish these
goals Louisiana’s Framework for Inducting, Retaining, and Supporting Teachers (FIRST) was
created and implemented (Rosselli, et al., 2011). The program was an innovative program
35
designed to equip Louisiana school districts with resources that would meet the needs of
Louisiana’s new teachers in an effective and efficient manner (The Louisiana Department of
Education, 2002).
Today, with the aim of supporting new teachers and contribute to the enrichment of
students’ learning, the Beginning Educator Success Track (B.E.S.T.) was developed (The
Louisiana Department of Education, 2019). The program serves as a teacher induction program
for teachers with 0-3 years of experience and teachers that are new to the district to improve the
recruitment, retention, & success of new teachers (Rosselli, et al., 2011). The program is set to
engage teachers in job-embedded professional development that is centered around mentoring
and induction practices, the Louisiana Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric (COMPASS),
and the successful implementation of the Louisiana State Standards (The Louisiana Department
of Education, 2019). Throughout the progression of induction programs in Louisiana, the intent
remains to improve new teacher self-efficacy, accelerate the process of becoming an effective
teacher, and increase fresh teacher retention. Thus, a comprehensive teacher induction program
will provide multiple opportunities for beginning teachers to feel confident while reflecting on
how to enhance their teaching abilities. The next segment of this literature review highlighted
the effects of participating in a teacher induction program.
The Impact of Teacher Induction Programs
When new teachers enter the world of education, they are eager to meet the needs of their
students. These inexperienced teachers rely on their educational degrees and teaching internships
to suit up for this new world. There is a great deal of researched literature that documents the
struggles new teachers face in their early classroom years. School districts have designed support
systems to guide new teachers during this fragile stage in their career. The concept of teacher
induction programs has been implemented for decades. Since the early 1980s, there have been
36
repeated demands for support programs to assist beginning teachers (Ingersoll, 2012). From 1990
to 2008, the number of teacher induction programs in US have increased to more than 40%
(Education Week, 2008). Teacher induction programs were created for new teachers as they
adjusted to their new roles when transitioning from being a student to a professional (Blair
Larsen, 1998). An effective induction program should be proactive to beginning teachers’ needs
and reflective of positive educational strategies. Therefore, an effective teacher induction
program does not consist of a crash course or one-time orientation of how to teach students
(Glazerman, el at., 2010). An effective teacher induction program supports teachers by building a
community of learners and improves teacher self - efficacy, job satisfaction, retention, teacher
effectiveness, and ultimately student achievement.
Support
Support can be defined as a combination of elements put in place to help teachers
succeed (Hudson, 2012). The challenge, of course, is to give novice teachers the kind of support
needed if they are not only going to remain in the profession, but to develop into the kinds of
educators needed to teach to today’s high standards (Breaux & Wong, 2003). Teacher induction
programs, can aid schools and districts to meet this challenge. The Louisiana State Department
of Education (Louisiana Believes, 2006) defines teacher induction program as a professional
development program that incorporates mentoring and is designed to offer orientation support,
and guidance for new teachers during their first couple of years of teaching. Effective teacher
induction programs are designed with at least four elements: structured mentoring, common
planning time and collaboration with other teachers, intensive professional development, and a
cycle of observations, feedback, and reflections (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2004). The
key component to an effective teacher induction program is successful veteran teachers
37
mentoring new teachers (Wood & Stanilus, 2009). The teacher induction program is an umbrella
program to support teachers in adapting to a new workplace culture (Breaux & Wong, 2003). It
is also considered a form of professional development that starts before the school year to give
priority and support of the most immediate needs of new teachers, followed by continued support
throughout their first few years of teaching (Hudson, 2012).
Currently, there are approximately 38 states require an induction program for teachers
(Goldrick, 2016). Goldrick, Zabala, & Burn (2013) believed that teacher induction programs are
much needed in the workforce because of the inadequate distribution of experienced and new
teachers. In agreement, other researchers support the investment of creating and implementing
effective teacher induction programs that aligns with the state and/ or district teacher evaluation
system (Goldrick, 2007). A well-designed and implemented program can improve content
knowledge, pedagogical strategies practice, and apply theoretical concepts acquired in their
teacher preparation programs to the complexities of real-life teaching (Smith, Desimone, and
Porter, 2012). More importantly, such programs can improve teacher retention rates by
enhancing teacher efficacy, job satisfaction, teacher effectiveness, and student achievement (Van
Zandt Allen, 2013). New teacher support should be looked at as a continuum, beginning with
personal and emotional support and expanding to include professional support to help the
newcomer develop a capacity for effectively teaching students (Breaux & Wong, 2003).
Teacher Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy studied in the context of teachers has been labeled teacher self-efficacy.
Skaalvik & Skaalvik (2007) defined teacher self-efficacy as a teacher’s confidence in their
ability to guide their students to success. A lack of adequate training and limited support from
the administration team can lead new teachers to feel overwhelmed and ineffective (Caprara,
38
Barbaranelli, Steca, & Malone, 2006). The demands of teaching can be frustrating. It is very easy
for new educators to feel like they are drowning in paperwork, lesson planning, grading and
assessing, teaching multiple courses, and the many extracurricular activities they generally take
on. An effective teacher induction program can encourage self-efficacy within fresh teachers
(Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy, 2000). Induction programs that is designed to truly understand and
acknowledge the difficulties inexperienced teachers face, will guide new teachers and make them
feel supported (Caprara, et al., 2006). When a new teacher is placed in an ineffective induction
program or none at all, they often feel overwhelmed and can lose their sense of efficacy
(Goddard, et al., 2000).
Research suggests that mentors play an important role in helping novice teachers in ways
that support their growing sense of self-efficacy as professionals (Ross & Bruce, 2007). Mentee
teachers observing their mentor modeling a lesson can be an important mediated experience for
them to see themselves as capable of achieving the same outcome, thus being a source for
building self-efficacy beliefs (Caprara, at el. 2006). This is especially true when the rookie
teacher sees the model as effective, where the mentee hopes to be like the mentor teacher, and
sees the model as similar to his/her teaching style (Caprara, at el. 2006). Additionally, when
beginning teachers observe teachers that teach the same grade or subject would provide a more
realistic model that the new teacher can identify and connect with (Goddard, et al., 2000).
Satisfaction
Another element of teacher induction programs is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction can be
defined as the way that people feel about their jobs and different aspects of their job (Ho & Au,
2006). Job satisfaction is any combination of psychological, physiological, and environmental
circumstances that leads a person genuinely believe that they are indeed satisfied with their job
39
(Nagar, 2012). A person could be satisfied with one element of his/her job and dissatisfied with
another (Ho & Au, 2006).
Research by Ouyang and Paprock (2006) reviewed a number of sources that not only
connected retention and job satisfaction, but also professional development with satisfaction.
They concluded that understanding the effects of job satisfaction will help with the retention
problem (Ouyang & Paprock, 2006). There are a number of different elements that can lead to
job satisfaction, some related to professional development and others that are not as closely
connected (Nagar, 2012). The research study produced seven impactful predictors for teacher job
satisfaction. The predictors were a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (Ouyang &
Paprock, 2006). The seven items were, salary, opportunities for advancement, professional
autonomy, working conditions, interactions with colleagues, interaction with students and
professional development (Ouyang & Paprock, 2006).
Retention
Another major benefit of teacher induction program is increased teacher retention.
Teacher induction programs have been implemented across the nation to end the high costs of
teacher turnover and to help prepare and support high quality teachers (Barnes, Crowe, &
Schaefer, 2007). Not all states require new teachers to participate in induction programs, yet
trends advocate that such programs have a positive effect on beginning teachers and aid in
increasing the retention rate (Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004). Teacher turnover is real and expensive,
and statistics show that starting teachers are leaving the profession at a rate of 30% to 50%
between their first and fifth years (Gray & Taie, 2015, p. 3). Not surprisingly, rates are even
higher in high-poverty, high-minority public schools (Gray & Taie, 2015). Olebe (2005) claimed
that teachers who do not participate in an induction programs are twice as likely to leave within
40
the first three years of teaching. Every year Louisiana spends approximately between $1 million
and $1.5 million to keep pace with teacher turnover (Wong, 2003). Clearly it is not cost
effective to hire brand-new teachers and put them into a sink or swim situation.
One study conducted in the Chicago Public Schools, which uses an induction model with
a strong mentoring component from the New Teacher Center, a national organization focused on
induction, examined the effects of induction on attrition (Synar & Maiden, 2012). Specific
elements of the induction program had a higher connection to teacher retention. When
comparing schools that focused on specific elements of induction, the study found that when
strong mentoring is provided in conjunction with professional development, neophyte teachers
were three to four times as likely to remain at their schools compared with teachers who did not
participate any induction program (Kapadia & Coca, 2007). Furthermore, a beginning teacher
assigned to a mentor from the same subject and common planning time had the highest rate of
retention (Ingersoll, 2012). This shows that strong mentoring is a great method to induct novice
teachers and could support higher retention (Inman & Marlow, 2004). This is important for
policy makers and designers of teacher induction programs to consider. Providing effective
professional development for starting teachers that focus on best teaching strategies in areas like
classroom management, curriculum and instruction, assessments, and student intervention help
increase the retention of new teachers (Olebe, 2005). In return teachers are more likely to feel
supported and are more likely to stay in the profession.
Teacher Effectiveness
The effectiveness of teachers and student achievement are two of the countless issues
that have captured the attention of policymakers. Research clearly indicates there is a direct link
between the effectiveness teachers and student achievement (Blank & de las Alas, 2009). Hence
41
the effectiveness of teachers has been consistently considered one the most influential factors of
student achievement (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010). This led to researchers to study the specific
behaviors in which how highly effective teaching operates, the degree to which it drives learning,
and how effectiveness evolves as teachers progress through their careers (Van Zandt Allen,
2013). Furthermore, the education system is still searching for clarity about how to develop,
measure, and sustain teacher effectiveness (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010). This ongoing research has
also studied efforts to support accountability by defining highly effective teachers based on
growth of student achievement (Van Zandt Allen, 2013).
Teacher induction programs are an influential factor to impact teacher’s competency
(Hudson, 2012). Teacher induction programs help inexperienced teachers become competent
and effective professionals in the classroom by incorporating mentorship and is designed to offer
support and guidance, which accelerates new teachers’ effectiveness and increases student
achievement during their first years teaching (Hightower, Delgado, Lloyd, Wittenstein, Sellers,
& Sivanson, 2011). At best, induction programs help teachers integrate the newest and effective
strategies into the classroom.
Student Achievement
Although some researchers have claimed that there is inefficient amount of evidence
showing a positive correlation between teacher induction programs and student achievement,
others have found professional development as a method to improve student learning
(Glazerman, 2010). One of the leading influences of student achievement is the quality of
instruction; therefore, professional development that focuses on content and pedagogic
knowledge is critical to improving student achievement (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010). Effective
teacher induction programs can accelerate the growth and success of green teachers that will
42
ultimately increase student achievement (Ingersoll & Strong, 2012). Studies have indicated that
students taught by effective teachers perform significantly better than those assigned to
ineffective teachers (Hightower et al., 2011). Today’s classrooms consist of students with a wide
range of educational needs. Unfortunately, many rookie teachers lack the skills needed to meet
the needs of every student (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005).
Teacher induction programs can positively impact the quality of instruction by increasing
new teachers’ content and pedagogical skills in order to meet the needs of all students
(Desimone, 2011). Professionally-trained teachers are able to successfully assess students’
strengths and weaknesses and make necessary adjustments to bridge gaps and deepen
understanding (Hightower et al., 2011). Effective professional development can support teachers
to improve their teaching, professional responsibilities, and ultimately improve student
achievement (Lieberman, 2000). It is with this information that professionally trained teachers
are able to create positive learning experiences for classrooms with students of diverse academic
needs (Ingersoll & Strong, 2012). Professionally trained teachers also know of different methods
to make learning more meaningful and engaging (Darling-Hammond, 2017). Obviously, these
findings paint a clear picture of our knowledge about the relationship between professional
development and improvements in student learning.
Quality teacher induction programs incorporates mentoring, on-site professional
development, and self-reflection practices (Nasser-Abu & Fresko, 2016). In combination,
Zembytska (2016) suggest these elements provide various opportunities for starting teachers to
assimilate into their new professional scenery, begin to hone into their professional educator
skills. The proceeding piece of this literature review elaborated on the effective strategies for
implementing teacher induction programs.
43
Components of Effective Teacher Induction Programs
A great deal of researched literature documents supportive strategies for new teachers
(Hudson, 2012; Ingersoll, 2012; Keilwitz, 2014; Robinson, 1998; Wang, Odell, and Schwille,
2008; Wynn, Carboni, & Patall, 2007). Minimally, such programs can improve teacher retention
rates by enhancing new teacher satisfaction (Wynn, Carboni, & Patall, 2007). Over the last three
decades, many states and school districts have researched and implemented teacher induction
programs as part of the professional development initiative to support beginning teachers
(Hudson, 2012). Although Hudson (2012) recommends each program to focus on the major
components of teacher induction, there is no one true model for implementing a teacher
induction program. It is also worthy to note that an effective teacher induction program cannot
be implemented with just one of the components; it must be comprehensive including all the
major
components that make up the whole (Wang, Odell, & Schwille, 2008). At the very least, all
teacher induction programs should consist of: mentoring from a highly effective veteran,
professional development for new teachers before the school begins with supportive activities
scheduled throughout the first couple of years, and time for collaboration with other educators
and self-reflection (Keilwitz, 2014).
Mentorship
The term “mentor” is frequently cited in regards to professional development for
teachers, but also has origins in other fields of study (Stanulis & Floden, 2009). In the classical
Greek poem, The Odyssey, the mentor was given the job of supporting and guiding the mentee
(Littleton, Tally-Foos, & Wolaver, 1992). Ingersoll & Strong (2012) indicated that the term
mentor is loosely described as a coach, trainer, leader, facilitator, or role model. Mentoring is
defined as a formal or informal learning relationship, typically between two people where the
44
mentor has both experience and expertise in a specific area and provides information and
resources to the mentee (Ingersoll & Strong, 2012). It is an empowering method considered by
availability of an experienced educator and openness of the neophyte educator (McDonald,
1982). This method of support is conveyed through observation, ongoing discussions,
questioning, and planning together in an adult learning style (Ingersoll & Strong, 2012). The
influence of the experienced teacher is pervasive and continuous, while still protecting the
independence of the rookie teacher (McDonald, 1982).
Throughout the academic year, mentors provide opportunities for follow-up discussions
that allow the new teacher to be self-reflective after an observation (Ingersoll & Strong, 2012).
Constructive feedback from the mentor can enhance mentee’s teaching skills and provide
guidance to mentees when handling with complex problems (Kidd et al., 2015). Mentors also
provide support in learning the standards and curriculum, assist in refining teaching strategies,
and help identify the needs of all students and their various learning styles (Darling-Hammond,
2017). Another task for mentors is to provide professional support such as determining
appropriate professional development, providing personal support, serving as a liaison to other
teachers and sharing educational resources (Keilwitz, 2014). This permits first-year teachers to
be exposed to a variety of instructional practices, and allows opportunities to build a
confidential and professional relationship with their mentor (Kent, Green, & Feldman, 2012).
Professional Development
The best professional development is continuous, practical, collaborative, and related to
and resulting from working with students and understanding their culture (Darling-Hammond,
Hyler, & Gardner, 2017). Therefore, professional development for teachers should be looked at
as an ongoing process. This is valid because learning is a lifelong progression (Ingvarson,
45
Meiers, & Beavis, 2005). It is on this foundation that continuous professional development is
prioritized. An effective teacher induction program should begin in the early stages of a teacher’s
career, if not before during student teaching, and continues throughout at least the first few years
of teaching (Ambrosetti, 2014). Throughout the first year of a teacher’s career, the induction
program should be constructed to meet the needs of beginning teachers where the district’s
expectations are shared through orientation, workshops, conferences, or mentoring on various
aspects of teaching that are vital to student achievement (Kent, Green, and Feldman, 2012).
Professional development for starting educators usually begins with orientation. This
typically occurs before the school year starts. The purpose of orientation is to provide an
opportunity to answer questions, define roles and responsibilities, assess skill level and
experience, set expectations, meet other colleagues, and anticipate problems that may arise the
first few weeks of school. Professional development for teachers should connect the content to
teacher’s classrooms to build understanding, and provide opportunities for teachers to learn
effective strategies by actively trying them out (Sykes, Bird, and Kennedy, 2010). Just like
teachers should provide opportunities for their students to actively learn in peer-to-peer
interactions, any workshop or conference can be enhanced with the implementation of learner-
centered pedagogy (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, and Gardner, 2017). Therefore, when teachers are
in training, majority of time should be reserved for teacher collaboration, feedback and reflection
of classroom observations, analyze student work, and model new effective teaching strategies
with each other (Sykes et al., 2010). There is no time wasted in having science teachers
participate in the hands-on projects they are creating for their students, or in having English
teachers design a platform for their students to pose Socratic Seminar questions to their peers
(Darling-Hammond et al., 2017).
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Most professional development occurs occasionally and covers a variety of topics during
full or half work days when students are not at school (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). Topics
may range from student literacy, classroom management, blended learning, making student
coursework rigorous, parental involvement, and student assessment. The presentation of the
topics is often disconnected from each other and from the teacher’s classroom. This information
overload without coherence typically averts any new strategies from transferring into the
teacher’s instructional repertoire (Sykes et al., 2010). Professional development should go in-
depth into each teacher’s professional needs by prioritizing application of knowledge in
instruction instead of discussing generalized topics sporadically (Darling-Hammond et al.,
2017). Going deep does take time, but it is time that worth investing. According to Ingersoll &
Merrill (2012), teachers who received at least 80 hours of professional development focused
specifically on instructional strategies that led to increased student achievement were much more
likely to put the new strategies into practice than teachers who received fewer hours of intense
professional development.
A well-organized induction program understands the greatest needs of new teachers. It is
impossible for new teachers to learn everything at once, therefore, spacing out conversations
around school culture, collaborative planning, curriculum, teaching and learning, and assessment
across the year is practical (Blömeke, Hoth, Döhrmann, Busse, Kaiser, & Köenig, 2015).
Providing novice teachers with more time to engage and process new information, they can
begin to comprehend how the pieces of the whole fit together. When conversations are planned
around a coinciding idea or issue, understanding deepens (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017).
Although comprehending a curriculum’s belief and background is certainly significant, teachers
often express they have more immediate needs (Wynn, S. Carboni, & Patall, 2007). This may
47
mean instead of discussing philosophy in the beginning of the school year to jump right into
practicality such as teaching and learning, content knowledge, or assessment (Blömeke et al.,
2015). It is imperative to structure professional development activities that are consistent,
creates opportunities for teachers to practice what they are learning, and support them in
connecting the dots between all the moving parts (Darling-Hammond et al., 2017). After mentee
teachers have developed teacher efficacy within their classrooms and school environment, they
will be more mentally inclined to discuss theory (Glazerman et al., 2010). Building flexibility
into the plan is also necessary. Allowing teachers to discuss what their issues are and planning
sessions to address those issues as they arise is being supportive of colleagues (Wynn et al.,
2007).
Flexibility and Time
Gleason (2010) indicated that time is crucial so that teachers can learn, develop their
skills, and problem solve to improve their content knowledge and pedagogical skills. According
to Guskey and Yoon (2009), in order for induction programs to be effective it entails significant
amount of time, and that time must be well organized, purposefully constructed, and focused on
content, pedagogy, or both. In agreement with this, Yoon et al. (2007) stated if teachers have an
average of 49 hours of professional development focused on their curriculum in a year, then
student achievement would increase by 21 percentile points (p. 32). However, one of the greatest
challenges of professional development is time (Odden, 2011). In order to begin having
conversations that will improve student and teacher learning, it takes time and exertion to
establish professional relationships based on trust.
Additionally, time is essential to form trusting relationships, which will allow the mentor
to complete other mentoring duties. Bandura (1961) claimed that human behavior can be
developed by observing and imitating behaviors of others. Therefore, allowing mentees time to
48
observe mentors modeling best pedagogical practices is an extremely beneficial feature of the
induction program (Martin & Mulvihill, 2017). Furthermore, the mentor needs time to observe
and evaluate the mentee’s progression of teaching skills (Keilwitz, 2014). Like-minded, Kram
(1985) suggested mentoring relationships thrive when both parties are willing to invest in the
time to produce personal, academic, and professional growth. It is imperative for schools and
districts to creatively find time for collaborative professional development (Corcoran, 1995).
Time may be employed through common planning time, the use of substitute teachers, or days
when only teacher report to school (Odden, 2011). Flexibility and time are essential for teacher
and student growth for two reasons: first, longer activities allow for more in-depth conversations
and second, more time used wisely creates opportunities for teachers to implement new
strategies in their classrooms and to receive feedback on their progress (Grossman and Hirsch,
2009). The professional relationships between beginninge teachers and other educators provide a
personalized level of support that the other activities are unable fulfilled (Strong, 2009). With
this in mind the next content will describe the responsibilities of sponsors in the teacher
induction program.
Roles of School Leaders in Teacher Induction Programs
It has specifically been emphasized that beginning teachers need a village of supporters
to improve their teaching skills (Anderson & Bobis, 2005). For years, researchers have sought to
pinpoint how school leaders can be effective in order to better supporters of beginning teachers
(Strong, 2009). School leadership is receiving increased attention as a possible lever for
improved instruction, recruitment and retention of effective novel teachers, and student
outcomes (Orland-Barak & Hasin, 2010). School leaders assume a wide range of responsibilities
to support beginning teachers. These roles include encouraging, observing, coaching, mentoring
fresh
49
teachers along with collaborating, planning, and reflecting past experiences to enhance teacher’s
teaching skills (Stock & Duncan, 2010). Whether these duties are assigned formally or shared
informally, they build the entire school’s capacity to improve the quality of teaching (Darling-
Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017).
Mentors
It is well supported in the literature that mentorship plays a crucial role in strengthening
teacher development (Anderson & Bobis, 2005; Orland-Barak & Hasin, 2010; Saphier,
Freedman, & Aschheim, 2011; Stock & Duncan, 2010; Strong, 2009). Veteran teachers may be
given the task to mentor beginning teachers. The mentor’s primary job is to encourage the
development and growth of the new teacher (Stock & Duncan, 2010). The newly-developed
mentor-mentee relationship has the potential to thrive because mentors provide non-evaluative
support, collaboration, and empathy for new teachers who accepts the role of mentees (Orland-
Barak & Hasin, 2010). Beginning teachers may be assigned a mentor and receive support for up
to five years (Saphier, et al., 2011). Seasoned teachers make great mentors as they may vividly
remember their struggles during the early years of teaching career and desire better experiences
for their mentees (Strong, 2009). After listening to and understanding their mentees’ challenges,
mentors may provide various types of support such as: observing, modeling, collaborating, co-
teaching, and reflecting to pass on pedagogical knowledge and develop a meaningful relationship
based on trust that enables the pair to learn from each other (Orland-Barak & Hasin, 2010).
Overall, mentors provide continuous hands-on professional development to instill effective
strategies learned from years of practice into their mentee (Strong, 2009).
Observations are an important part of professional development for teachers, especially in
the beginning of their career (Stock & Duncan, 2010). During an observation the mentor
50
observes their mentee to document specific behaviors (Stock & Duncan, 2010). The observations
not only allow the mentor to discover an area of practice that the new teacher excel at but should
strengthen (Anderson & Bobis, 2005). Once both teachers discuss and agree on what area the
new teacher should improve in, the veteran teacher plans to model the desired behavior in a
classroom setting (Anderson & Bobis, 2005). It is not uncommon for new teachers to have never
observed exemplary teaching (Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013). The mentee observes their
mentor modeling a specific technique or strategy that they wish to implement in their own
classroom (Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013). For example, the mentor could model checking for
understanding every five-seven minutes, introducing the day’s learning target, circulating
through the classroom, or a structure for collaborative group work (Darling-Hammond, et al.,
2017). After the mentor models a strategy, the two teachers plan to co-teach and implement the
strategy together in the classroom (Strong, 2009). Through this method, the teachers share the
responsibility for planning, instructing, and assessing in a manner that involves the mentor
guiding their mentee as the new teacher practice the new strategy (Jones, Youngs, & Frank,
2013).
During the mentoring cycle, the mentor then observes the mentee implement the new
strategy to determine if teacher improved in that specific area of practice (Jones, Youngs, &
Frank, 2013). Together, the mentor and their mentee collaborate to make improvements in the
same strategy practiced or a new one (Richter, Kunter, Lüdtke, Klusmann, Anders, & Baumert,
2013). Through the mentoring relationship effective mentors are accessible, great listeners,
understanding, brainstorm strategies with mentees to implement, and document successes and
challenges during weekly meetings (Richter, et al., 2013). Mentors and mentees benefit from the
mentoring process, when their make time to reflect on their practice (Orland-Barak & Hasin,
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2010). Reflection allows mentors and mentees to think about the rationale for decisions and
develop strategies to improve practice (Richter, et al., 2013). Hence, the role of mentors
encourages novel teachers to have the confidence, adopt problem solving techniques in the
classroom, and practice effective teaching strategies. The challenge, however, occurs when
conceptualizing and operationalizing mentoring relationships. Given that mentor-mentee
relationships must be overseen for compatibility, the succeeding section discussed the
significance of the role of induction program coordinators.
Program Coordinators
The teacher induction program coordinator is the first point of contact for the teacher
induction program on his/her campus (Strong, 2009). The primary goal of the coordinator is to
effectively provide ongoing support to beginning teachers and manage the interactions of all
stakeholders charged with the support and development of beginning teachers on his/ her
campus (Strong, 2009). To accomplish this multifaceted goal, the coordinator must develop and
implement a comprehensive induction program that promotes teacher development
(Dziczkowski, 2013).
Pairing veteran teachers with novice teachers for mentorship is the cornerstone of the
coordinator’s job (Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013). This task includes monitoring the
compatibility between the two teachers to ensure both parties are mutually satisfied and growing
professionally (Dziczkowski, 2013). When mentoring becomes dysfunctional, it is up to the
coordinator to intervene and provide alternate mentoring pairs (Dziczkowski, 2013). The
coordinator also plans and implements orientation and training that clearly communicates
resources, expectations, and support for beginning teachers (Jones, Youngs, and Frank, 2013).
Additionally, the coordinator delivers regular, ongoing professional development focused on
52
helping mentors and mentee teachers grow and develop (Dziczkowski, 2013). Throughout the
school year the coordinator evaluates the program’s effectiveness to ensure fidelity with program
expectations and requirements, as well as, identify and overcome any obstacles to success (Jones,
Youngs, & Frank, 2013). Induction program coordinators often keep records of induction
program progress.
Finally, the coordinator meets regularly with all stakeholders to report data on
inexperienced teacher’s classroom performance and how it has impacted student achievement
(Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013). Coordinators ensure that mentees are getting the best possible
assistance by collaborating with other school leaders. Likewise, coordinators should partner with
administrators to ensure that teachers in training experience are positive, which may increase the
likelihood that qualified teachers will remain in the field of education. Also, coordinators and
administrators collaborate to prepare for the influx of brand-new teachers (Jones, Youngs, &
Frank, 2013). These preparation meetings are focused on identifying neophyte teachers on
campus, providing incentives and training for potential mentors, and finding professional
development resources based on the needs of the mentee and mentor (Keilwitz, 2014). For this
reason, the responsibility of administrators in teacher induction programs was reviewed in the
ensuing literature.
Administrators
The primary role of administrators is to ensure teachers work together, receive the proper
amount of support, and achieve school-wide goals (Florian & Black-Hawkins, 2010). Not
surprisingly, beginning teachers require differentiated support from administrators to remain
committed to their assignment (Leko & Smith, 2010). According to Correa & Wagner (2011), if
administrators fail to provide meaningful support, then rookie teachers may turn to peers for
53
guidance. However, if colleagues also fail to provide adequate support, beginning teachers may
leave the profession prematurely (Jones, Youngs, & Frank, 2013). In a national study, 80% of
beginning teachers stated they chose to stay in education until retirement at schools with a
supportive learning environment (Correa & Wagner, 2011, p. 18). This discovery proposes that
teacher retention may be influenced by administrators who are supportive, share resources, and
focus on teacher development and student outcomes (Gimbel, Lopes, & Greer, 2011).
Administrators works closely with all stakeholders such as district leaders, induction
program coordinators, and mentors involved in the teacher induction program to ensure that
green teachers are provided sufficient amount of support (Hallinger & Heck, 2011).
Administrators also may arrange for training throughout the progression of the school’s teacher
induction program or mentoring program (Brown & Wynn, 2007). As instructional leaders,
administrators should make sure that new teachers have sufficient time to interact with other
teachers and provide professional development that impact student achievement (Whitaker,
2003). Administrators with a high degree of emotional intelligence will evaluate the workload of
beginning teachers to ensure that the teacher can focus on mastering the art of teaching (Nir,
Adam, Kranot, & Nati, 2006). Additionally, administrators may take part in assigning mentors to
mentee teachers and arrange for both teachers to teach the same grade level and/ or content area
(Gimbel, Lopes, &d Greer, 2011). It is very important for administrators to show empathy which
indicates that they truly care about the success and emotional wellbeing of inexperienced
teachers (Whitaker, 2003). Overall, administrators play a strategic role in support of green
teachers.
Summary
Chapter Two synthesized the literature on the training and development of beginning
teacher. The problems of first year teachers range from classroom management to managing the
54
instruction of the diverse learning needs of students. In order to remedy these challenges, school
systems have introduced a range of programs and as a result, a rapid increase of teacher
induction programs has occurred. Generally, any support given to new teachers may result in
improved morale, competent teaching, increased retention, and a better learning environment for
students. Teacher induction is an extension of effective professional development, defined as a
set of activities that provide continuous hands-on support and on-the-job training to new teachers
to increase student achievement by improving teaching practices of new teachers (Robinson,
1998). To encourage and support starting teachers, some states adopted laws that require school
districts to provide support such as teacher induction programs, which requires the district and
local schools to invest time and money to build a community of future educators.
In Chapter Three, I described the methodology for this single case study. Specifically,
the design, research questions, setting, participants, and instrument will be discussed.
Additionally, I described the data collection and analysis procedures, researcher’s role,
trustworthiness, and ethical considerations.
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CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The purpose of Chapter Three was to describe the methodology utilized to investigate the
experiences of educators participating in the teacher induction program and the impact of the
program on beginning teacher’s development in a large Louisiana school district. First, this
section presented the overall research design, the rationale, and facts needed to understand how
the research goals will be addressed and how the questions will be answered. Second, details on
how the setting and participants were selected is described. Third, the instrument used to gather
information about the study was revealed. Fourth, specific details about the data collection were
outlined. Fifth, a detailed description of the data analysis procedure was discussed, Sixth,
researcher’s role in the study was recognized. Seventh, an overview of how trustworthiness was
listed. Finally, participant’s consent and ethical considerations were explained.
Research Design
In the present study, I elected to implement a single case study research design, a
qualitative research method; therefore, understanding the purpose and features of qualitative
research was vital to comprehending the single case study design (Creswell, 2018). According
Doyle, Brady, & Byrne (2009), qualitative method design is used for exploring and
understanding the meaning individuals or groups assign to a social problem. When conducting a
qualitative study, researchers are often answering the questions of “how” or “why” in a
particular context/environment instead of attempting to generalize effects to other populations
(Merriam, 2009). Additionally, because qualitative researchers typically spend a lot time in the
participating environment, they often gain a better sense of both the participants and the context
of what they are studying (Merriam, 2009). Therefore, this participation allows qualitative
researchers to be a voice to their participant’s lived experience (Yin, 2009). Crotty (1998) stated
56
regarding this
57
research method, “Meaning is not discovered, but constructed. In this understanding of
knowledge, it is clear that different people may construct meaning in different ways, even in
relation to the same phenomenon (p. 67).” In the context of this study, I investigated the impact
of induction programs for new teachers. Even though each participate had a role in the same
teacher induction program, each participant’s experience within the program was different.
Similar to other forms of qualitative research, a case study seeks for meaning and
understanding of social realities (Yin, 2009). Creswell (2018) provided the most sufficient
definition that describes a case study, “case study research is a qualitative approach in which the
investigator explores a bounded system (a case) or multiple bounded systems (cases) over time,
through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information, and reports
a case description and case-based themes.” A case study is generally favored when participant’s
behavior and experience cannot be manipulated (Creswell, 2018). Yin (2009) also detailed that
case studies can explore questions or hypotheses, describe a phenomenon, and explain reasons
why something is happening. When conducting a case study, Stake (2006) recommended that
four-10 cases be studied, as 2 to 3 cases do not provide enough interactivity between the
participants’ experiences to lead to comparisons. However, implementing a multiple case study
can be time consuming (Stake, 2006). Due to time constraints and COVID-19 health restrictions,
this research implemented a single case study. The instrumental case study research design was
found to be the most appropriate method to explain the detailed operations of a unique teacher
induction program linked to the impact of beginning teachers (Yin, 2009). This case study
addressed three research questions:
1. What are the perceptions of beginning teachers about the teacher induction program?
58
2. How do mentors, teacher induction program coordinators, and administrators support
beginning teachers?
3. How does the teacher induction program impact professional development for
beginning teachers?
Setting
The school district selected is located in one of the most populous parishes in the
state of Louisiana. It has the highest high school graduation rate, at 82.2%, with 95% of
the teachers being state certified (Louisiana Believes, 2019). There are over 40,000
students being served by approximately 2,000 teachers in 85 schools (Louisiana
Believes, 2019). Although the overall performance score declined in the mid-2010s, the
school district remains a C district, causing the district to go from 44th to 57th in the state
(Louisiana Alliance, 2014). This was the result of failing to earn progress points the state
gives to schools that substantially increase the number of students performing below
grade level to at or above grade level (Louisiana Alliance, 2014).
Participants
Given the purpose of the study and the nature of the research questions, I utilized
nonprobability sampling, a method of selecting participants that does not use random
sampling (Creswell, 2018). Thus, nonprobability sampling, which does not depend on
randomization, is the most common sampling method in qualitative research since
generalization in a statistical manner is not the goal (Merriam, 2009). Due to the fact that
I sought to understand the impact of teacher induction programs, nonprobability
sampling was the most logical sampling method to select participants. Explicitly, as the
researcher, I also engaged in what Patton (2002) mentions as purposeful-criterion
sampling strategy, which is sampling “based on the assumption that the investigator
59
wants to discover, understand, and gain insight and therefore must select a sample
60
from which the most can be learned” (Merriam, 2009, p. 77). According to Merriam (2009)
when using purposeful sampling, the researcher must first determine the selection criteria to
identify potential participants associated to the purpose of the study that will serve as a guide
to identify valuable information.
I began my search for study participants within the state of Louisiana. This geographic
area was chosen because it was convenient for me to gather necessary information for the study
site. Thus, convenience sampling was also employed as per Collins, Onwuegbuzie, & Jiao
(2007). Convenience is also appropriate as target participants are teaching in a parish-wide
(county) public school system in the vicinity of the university setting. According to Collins,
Onwuegbuzie, and Jiao (2007), researchers can make use of a multitude of purposive sampling
schemes. For this study, I specifically targeted an accessible school that implemented a teacher
induction program. This baseline criteria were chosen because it allowed access to educators
who have a role in the program. Some participants were educators in the selected school district
who have taught before, understood the challenges of new teachers, and participated in the
implementation of teacher induction program which includes administrators, induction program
coordinators, and mentors. Additionally, I selected three beginning high school teachers based on
the following criteria: (a) possess less than five years of teaching experience, (b) are currently
participating in an induction program, and (c) teaches full time in the Community Parish School
System (a pseudonym). Study participants also consisted of three mentors, the induction program
coordinator, and one administrator from one school in the studied school district. Thus, I utilized
nonprobability and criterion, and sampling strategies to select participants
Instrumentation
I
I -dep
U
the
P
R
N
S
A
D
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After Louisiana State University’s Institutional Review Board granted permission and
after receipt of written approval from the school administration, the researcher collected data
from multiple sources within a single school. Data collected from multiple sources provided a
profound understanding of the phenomenon and enhanced the trustworthiness and credibility of
the case study. Creswell (2013) referred to multiple sources as triangulation, which is the
implementation of different sources to valid the evidence in order to ensure the accuracy of the
study. To achieve triangulation, the researcher gathered data from interviews, a reflective
notebook, and site artifacts and documents. Figure 3 illustrates the sources used to develop an in-
depth understanding of induction at a single school in Louisiana. The obtained sources were
examined to answer all of the research questions.
Figure 3. Triangulation of Data
Interviews. The primary data source for this study was interview data. Interviews allow
case study researchers to create a story of participants’ responses which honors participants’
meaning-making processes (Creswell, 2018). Seidman (1991) supported this perception,
62
asserting, “I interview because I am interested in other people’s stories. Telling stories is
essentially a meaning-making process. When people tell stories, they select details of their
experience from their stream of consciousness (p. 10).” Based on the scope of this study, which
focused on constructing meaning, I selected interviewing for the purpose of obtaining
information about the impact of teacher induction programs. The interview is often regarded as a
conversation between the interviewer and interviewee, where the interviewer asks questions and
the interviewee answers accordingly (Esterberg, 2002). The intent of interviewing is to discover
what is in and on the interviewee’s mind (Creswell, 2018). Data collected from interviews
allows the researcher to ask open ended questions about what the researcher did not observe and
to understand the perspective of the participants (Doyle et al., 2009). The purpose for open
ended questions is to make the interviews conversational and seemingly more accessible.
Constructivist research often use naturalistic research methods, such as personal
interviews and observations, in which findings are co-created by both the researcher and
participant (Angen, 2000). In order to effectively conduct an interview, a combination of rapport
and trust must be established (Esterberg, 2002). To establish the trust and rapport necessary for
the conversation, I shared information about myself with the participants, reminding them I had
also been a beginning teacher at the onset of my career. This allowed me to put participants at
ease by providing personal experiences related to the topic being studied. Additionally, in an
effort to build rapport and earn trust, my goal was to conduct all research interviews face-to-
face. In person interactions allows both the interviewer and interviewee to read and respond to
each other’s body language, which cannot be occur through paper questionnaires or phone
interviews (Esterberg, 2002). Face-to-face conversations enhances the dialog because listeners
become co- narrators through verbal and non-verbal replies, which can lead to great storytelling
(Bavelas,
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Coates, & Johnson, 2000). Although face-to-face interviews were preferred, due to COVID-19
all interviews were conducted via Zoom, an online platform of video and audio conferencing.
Also, when establishing trust and rapport, active listening and nonjudgmental behavior are two
of the key practices that should be prioritized when interviewing for single case study research
(Bavelas, Coates, & Johnson, 2000).
There are six types of questions (Merriam, 2009) which were employed during the
interview process for this case study research: (a) experience/behavior, (b) opinion/belief, (c)
feeling, (d) knowledge, (d) sensory, and (e) background/demographic. Interviews with beginning
teachers addressed research questions one and three. Likewise, interviews with the mentors, the
induction program coordinator, and an administrator provided insight into research questions two
and three. Eight participants participated in a one-on-one interview in one setting within a one-
month time frame in the summer of 2020. Interview questions one through five were asked to
obtain demographic information from each participant (see Appendices E-H).
To gain a better perspective on the impact of induction programs on high school
beginning teachers, interview questions twelve through sixteen addressed these concerns (see
Appendix E). Participating in teacher induction programs influences novice teacher’s perception
of self-efficacy, job satisfaction, retention, teacher effectiveness, and student achievement. If
implemented effectively, induction programs may determine whether beginning feel supported
(Glazerman, et al., 2010). To understand the type of support that new teachers require of peers,
school administrators, and the induction program, interview questions five and nine through
eleven addressed these concerns (see Appendix E). Research suggests that mentee teachers
expect quality induction programs to provide them with mentors within the same certification
and school, common planning time, reduced workload, time for observations and reflections, on-
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the-job and on-going professional development, and opportunities to network with other
teachers (Fantilli & McDougall, 2009). Overall, rookie teachers want to be a part of an
organization that is encouraging, compassionate, and understanding.
To understand the support of mentors on beginning teachers, interview questions six
through ten were developed (see Appendix F). A well-trained mentor provides emotional
support, reduce isolation, and motivate mentees to implement effective pedagogical strategies
(Orland-Barak & Hasin, 2010). To provide insight on the role that mentors have on how teacher
induction program impact professional development for beginning teachers interview question
eleven and twelve were asked (see Appendix F). Wang et al. (2008) argued that mentors were
perceived as effective if they are able to influence neophyte teachers to implement content-
specific pedagogy aligned with national curriculum standards. Overall, mentoring is successful
in a collaborative school environment that supports green teachers.
To appreciate the methods that coordinators use to support beginning teachers, interview
questions six through ten were proposed (see Appendix G). A coordinator “builds relationships
with mentors and mentees and provides mentors with professional development” (Smith &
Israel, 2010, p. 38). To understand the role that coordinators have on how teacher induction
program impact professional development for starting teachers interview question eleven and
twelve were asked (see Appendix G). Their support is vital to the success of an induction
program for inexperienced teachers. Overall, coordinators act as a liaison between district
leaders, administrators, mentors, and new teachers.
To provide insight to on how principals support beginning teachers, interview questions
six through ten were proposed (see Appendix H). Research suggests that 50% of beginning
teachers leave within the first five years due to lack of support and job dissatisfaction (O'Connor,
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Malow, & Bisland, 2011, p. 222). This statistic suggest that school administrators pays an
important role in ensuring that novice teachers feel supported in order to reduce turnover. To
gain a better perspective of the role that administrators have on how teacher induction program
impact professional development for mentee teachers interview question eleven and twelve were
asked (see Appendix H). Fantilli & McDougall (2009) argued that principals supported green
teachers by arranging for mentoring, differentiating support, and reduced workload. Overall,
principals set the tone for support for the induction program coordinators, mentors, and rookie
teachers.
Site Artifacts and Documents. As a secondary data sources, used to triangulate
interview data, I also reviewed district and school-level documents and artifacts pertaining to
induction. The site documentation provided insightful details that would otherwise be unknown
to the researcher (Patton, 2002). As questions arose from the interviews, the researcher asked the
administrators, site coordinator, mentors, and beginning teachers to provide additional
documents. Documents were obtained to clarify or authenticate the participants’ statements.
Creswell (2018) posited that site documents provide objective evidence about the phenomenon
and are another source that increases the study’s trustworthiness and creditability. To determine
which documents would be appropriate for this dissertation, I utilized the criteria set forth by
Merriam (2009). She stated that researchers should choose document that contain information or
insights relevant to the research questions. Therefore, I made every effort to collect as many
useful and appropriate documents as possible to further my understanding of the study and
triangulate my findings. These artifacts included: e-mail correspondences, professional
development documentation, and the district’s induction program handbook. In essence, I was
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gathering documents that was available through public record or was provided by the educators
during their participation in the induction program.
Researcher’s Reflective Notebook. As a third data source, I also maintained an
electronic notebook. The purpose of a reflective notebook was to record my thoughts, issues,
responses to interviews, and other pertinent information as I envisioned the study, while
conducting the study, and post data collection. During the interviews, I actively took notes,
sometimes about connections to the literature reviewed, oftentimes about my reflections as a
beginning teacher, but also noted what interviewees were expressing. While highly personal and
admittedly subjective, the notebook also reflected my thoughts about the study and the issue of
induction. Due to the study being conducted in a qualitative case study design, the reflective
notebook became a benchmark for the trustworthiness and creditability of the study (Morrow,
2005). According to Morrow and Smith (2000), the use of a reflective notebook adds rigor to
qualitative inquiry as I was able to highlight my reactions, assumptions, expectations, and biases
about the research process. Therefore, acknowledging my personal thoughts and interpretations
of the data in the reflective notebook aided me within the research process and helped prevent
bias from affecting the results (Stake, 2006).
Data Collection Procedure
Prior to collecting and data or contacting potential participants, I received approval from
Louisiana State University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) (see Appendix B). As an initial
step, I searched for high schools in the district that was implementing Louisiana’s teacher
induction program. From the list of schools that fit the criteria, my next step was to email the
principals at each research site for permission to interview themselves and their faculty members
that meet the criteria (see Appendix C). I choose the first and only school that responded with
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approval to conduct the study. As an ethical disclosure, the school that was selected is also the
school where I am employed. My collegial relationships with faculty and administration may
have convinced them to participate. My initial intention was to try to gain entrée to at least two
sites, one a lower-ranking school and one, a higher-ranking school. I followed up with over 20
emails and calls. However, as I was attempting to reach schools in the height of the COVID-19
pandemic, and given that Louisiana schools were ordered closed in mid-March, 2020, my
emails and calls went unanswered. This was disappointing to me as a researcher, but clearly
beyond my control. Thus, in consultation with my advisor, I reached out to my committee,
requesting to switch my design from a multiple case study to a single case study, fully
understanding the fragility of such a choice as if participants decided to discontinue, I would be
forced to reconsider my entire study.
The school administrator gave permission first, so I was cleared to reach out to teachers
and other faculty. Once I received the approval from the school, I then sent an email to the
teacher induction coordinator of the school and requested a list of potential beginning teachers
with five or fewer years of experience and their assigned mentors. An invitation email,
accompanied by the criterion survey, and informed consent form, which highlighted the
participant’s required characteristics and also explained the participant’s right to refuse to
participate or withdraw at any time during the study, was sent to potential participants. Again, I
selected the first three beginning teachers and the first three mentors that met the selection
parameters and agreed to participant in the study.
After the potential participants responded to the invitation email and agreed to participate
in the study, I conducted a five-minute initial interview via telephone with each potential
participant to ensure that the participants understood the research procedure and their right to
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refuse to participate or withdraw at any time during the study, thus, informed consent was
obtained verbally. I also explained the overview of the study as per IRB regulations, verified
participants’ qualifications to be included in the study, clarified the interview process, obtained
the actual consent form electronically and gained permission to video record the interview,
verified that the candidate did not have difficulties articulating his or her experiences, and set
interview dates.
My intent, face-to-face interviews in a mutually convenient location, would have been
ideal, however, due to COVID-19 restrictions all interviews were conducted via the Zoom®
platform. Zoom was the next best choice because it allowed me to safely video/audio record the
interviews and save the file directly on my laptop. Additionally, I used the Zoom video/ audio
recordings feature because it captured the “actual details” of the interview (Sacks & Jefferson,
1992). Sacks & Jefferson (1992) have argued that no interviewer can recall verbatim the actual
words, much less the non-verbal exchanges used in the conversations. Also, Sacks & Jefferson
(1992) believed video/audio recordings enhance the strength of research because the researcher
can replay the actual words of the conversation. As a novice researcher, while I took notes during
the interview, I found the claims of Sacks & Jefferson (1992) to resonate. This approach was also
convenient for both the participants and myself because it allowed us to participant in the
interview in the comfort of our homes. Each interview was one-on-one and lasted approximately
30-minute; some exceeded this time frame; others were a bit shorter.
Before conducting the interview, I began by reminding each participant about the
purpose of the study and consent to record the interview. I also reminded each participant that he
or she could make a request to stop the interview at any time without any penalty. During the
interviews, I recorded notes in an electronic notebook about my observations and interpretation
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of the stories told. The researcher’s reflective notebook maintained a record of the participant’s
profile and prevent distortion of information, which could occur if I relied only on my memory
(Riessman, 2008). Once the interviews were completed, I informed each participant I would
make the completed interview transcript and findings available to them as per Patton’s member
checking procedure (Patton, 2002). A thank-you email was sent to the participants immediately
after the interview. I transcribed interviews within 48 hours of each interview using Rev
software, an online video/audio transcription service. This data software was utilized to assist me
in ensuring that the interviews are transcribed thoroughly; transcribing immediately after each
interview allowed me to consider transcript responses in a timely manner. Within two days after
the interview, the researcher emailed the transcripts to the participants to give them an
opportunity to check the accuracy of the content. Once the participants gave their approval of the
transcribed interviews, I was then able to analyze the data to obtain further documentation.
Based on the responses of the participants in the interviews, I asked them for additional
artifacts and documents to corroborate their experiences. I sent a text message asking them to
call me at their earliest convenience about the research study. Once the participants called me, I
was able to ask for email related the induction program, meeting agendas. In addition, I was able
to obtain the district’s induction program handbook online through a Google search. I emailed
the site coordinator to confirm if the document was accurate and used on campus. Once the
coordinator confirmed the handbook, I was able to synchronously examine the interviews and all
of the documents obtained from the participants to support the findings of the single case study.
Data Analysis Procedure
Stake (1995) explains, data analysis “essentially means taking something apart (p. 71).”
Hence, it is the method of understanding the ways researchers use and make sense of data, and
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also identifying and defining the patterns that emerged from the interpretation process (Stake,
1995). From this guideline, I grouped data from different educators’ responses from the
interview questions, the documents obtained from the participants, and my reflective notebook
in order to sort, code, categorize, assign themes, and analyze their different perspectives on the
impression of Louisiana’s induction programs on teacher development.
First, as I collected the transcribed interviews, site documents, and digital notebook I
entered them into the Atlas.ti software program to analyze the data. This software was utilized
because of the visual representation feature for qualitative data analysis, in which the tool
searched for and highlighted patterns (Segal, 2004). Second, I began the analysis process by
reviewing the documents I had collected following each participant’s interview. I reviewed each
document within 24 hours of collection in an attempt limit undue influence regarding my
understanding of my participants’ responses. Third, after I reviewed each document a few times,
I recorded notes detailing my thoughts and responses that seemed most beneficial to my research
questions. Reviewing the documents thoroughly allowed me to break the data into small units
such that meaningful information could stand alone (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Third, each unit
of information was coded and then sorted into open codes using the constant comparative
technique (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). With each additional unit of
information, I determined if the unit fit into an established open code or if it contained meaning
not in any open code (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). If the latter occurs, then the unit of information
became a new code (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Fourth, each code was reviewed to make certain
that all units of information belonged to a code category (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). During this
stage, I reviewed the documents again until a hierarchy of themes emerged to me. Finally, all
categories were clustered and given a theme title (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). This process allowed
me to develop
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my own theory about the impact of induction programs on training beginning teachers.
Additionally, my resulting data analyses was subsequently utilized to enlighten my interpretation
of the interviews as well as site documents and my reflective notebook in an effort to effectively
triangulate my findings.
As previously stated, the graphical networking feature on Atlas.ti allowed the creation of
a visual representation of themes to guide my interpretation of the data. Creswell (2018)
acknowledges that a researcher’s own experience is just as valuable in interpreting the data as a
researcher’s trustworthiness to a theoretical lens. During my own interpretation process, my
experience as a new teacher informed my understanding of the participants’ stories.
Furthermore, to express the participants’ perceptions of their experiences accurately, I focused
specifically on what they were saying, the conclusions they drew, and their intentions for future
participation of the induction program. The themes that emerged from this study came directly
from my awareness of the healthy conflict between my own biases and the participant’s own
interpretation.
Trustworthiness
Being able to trust the research results of this study is especially important since
practitioners and policymakers in the field of education utilized such findings to intervene in
teacher development to produce positive student achievement outcomes by implementing
effective pedagogical practices. It was my aim to therefore present insights and conclusions that
were trustworthy. According to (Amankwaa, 2016), researchers should establish the protocols
and procedures necessary for a study to be considered worthy of consideration by readers.
Additionally, Creswell (2018) encouraged researchers to follow their detailed research plan so
that findings would be credible, transferable, confirmable, and dependable.
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Credibility is the how the researcher proves that the findings are true and accurate
(Creswell, 2018). Credibility was achieved through member checking, which builds trust
between the researcher and participants (Lincoln & Guba, 1986). Member checks occurred when
I asked participants to review the data collected from the interviews and my interpretations of
the data. Trust is an important element of the member check process. Participants usually
appreciate the member check method because it gives them an opportunity to verify their
statements and fill in any gaps from the interviews (Shenton, 2004).
Transferability is how the researcher demonstrates that the research study’s findings are
applicable to similar populations (Creswell, 2018). To achieve transferability, I asked the
participants to describe their experiences in detail and then, the interviews were transcribed
verbatim. Participants’ detailed experiences resulted in a “thick descriptive narrative,” which
increased the possibility that this study’s findings could be true for other situations (Lincoln and
Guba, 1986, p. 19).
Confirmability refers to how the findings are based on participants’ responses and not
any potential bias or personal motivations of the researcher (Creswell, 2018). I achieved
confirmability through use of direct quotes and member checking. Furthermore, I maintained an
audit trail, which records and justifies every step of the data analysis process. This process
demonstrates that the research study’s findings are an accurate representation of the
participants’ responses (Shenton, 2004).
Dependability means that if the study could be repeated by other researchers and that the
findings would be consistent (Creswell, 2018). To achieve dependability, I maintained a research
journal with daily experiences, research activities, and contact information and asked an external
auditor to evaluate the findings and confirm the interpretation and results. The use of a research
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journal and external audit ensured that the content and context were accurately represented and
so that future researchers could replicate the study (Shenton, 2004).
Researcher’s Role
Currently, I am pursuing a doctorate in P-12 Educational Leadership and have earned an
Education Specialist degree and Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Louisiana
State University A&M, Baton Rouge, LA. My journey in the education system started in 2015,
after the completion of my Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Spelman College, Atlanta, GA.
I completed an intensive 8-weeks alternative certification program to prepare me to teach high
schoolers mathematics. I have been teaching in Louisiana for five years. Additionally, I assist the
teacher induction program coordinator at my school site with matching mentors and mentees,
providing training for mentors, implementing professional development activities for beginning
teachers, and being a liaison of support and resources for mentors and mentees. As a once
beginning teacher, I am invested and passionate about how new teachers are supported.
Retaining teachers should be a concern of all educators. Upon the completion of my doctoral
degree, I intend to continue teaching high school mathematics, provide support in the teacher
induction program, and become an instructional specialist. My experience as a teacher has
allowed me to have a better understanding of what it means to be a beginning teacher and the
impact of teacher induction programs on a beginning teacher. All of these experiences motivated
me to investigate the impact of Louisiana’s teacher induction programs on beginning teachers.
In qualitative research, the role of the researcher is significant, as he or she collects
data and analyze the data (Creswell, 2018). Thus, my role in this study was an observer-as-
participant (Musante & DeWalt, 2010), and a moderate participant as per Spradley (2016)
since I was the primary instrument of data collection through interviewing participants and
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data analysis by transcribing the data collected and coding the data to uncover the
emerging themes. As a moderate participant (Spradley, 2016) and as previously mentioned,
I am also an employee of the school site where research was conducted. I work with
colleagues daily. Hence, there may be impending bias in my role, which could potentially
impact the findings of the study, making this a very difficult task of being objective and
nonjudgmental in my thoughts, observations, and actions. The potential bias could stem
from my own personal experience as a beginning teacher and participating in Louisiana’s
teacher induction program and my status as a teacher at the school site.
Nonetheless, this insight could also have assisted me in my data collection, data
analysis, and the understanding of the phenomena being studied, such that it is something
that needs to be truly experienced before having the capacity to clearly write about it. That
is why the use of a personal reflective journal to document my own thinking and feelings
through the entire process, which was consumed to further document the relationship I had
with the data was imperative in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting the data.
Additionally, the use of member checking also aided in controlling my bias.
Consent and Ethical Considerations
Each participant was asked to give verbal and written consent following an explanation
of the purpose of the study and the procedures of the interview (see Appendix D). The
explanation reiterated the voluntary nature of the study and the fact that they could choose to opt
out of the study at any point. The explanation of consent also stated the confidentiality of the
results. This research study protected the participants in every way possible. All information will
be strictly confidential. The name of the school district, the name of participants’ school, and
participants’ name will NOT be associated with any responses. The anonymity of all persons
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involved will be preserved by providing pseudonyms. The information will be store on my home
laptop which as a password on it. The researcher has completed the required training in human
subjects’ procedures as prescribed by the IRB (see Appendix B). The certificates were obtained
by completing course work at the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) at the
Louisiana State University using on-line educational modules.
Summary
Chapter Three described the methodology for this qualitative study. A single case study
was appropriate because it allowed me to interview and interpret the experiences of multiple
participants. Following LSU IRB guidelines, eight educators from one school were identified by
the school’s administrators and myself as great candidates for this study. The interview
questions were reviewed by experts in the field to endorse that the questions would produce data
that address the research questions. The use of video/audio-recording and coding technology
assisted in reducing ethical concerns regarding researcher bias. All data were kept confidential
through the use of pseudonyms as well as kept secured on a password locked laptop.
In Chapter Four, I will provide a detailed account of the findings to understand the
experiences of ten educators participating in a teacher induction program. The chapter
will conclude with the essence of the phenomenon.
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CHAPTER 4. FINDINGS
Introduction
The purpose of Chapter Four was to present the findings grounded on rigorous data
collection and analysis. In addition, the findings painted a picture of the standpoints of educators
participating in the teacher induction program in this select Louisiana school, and findings
examined the impact of the induction program on teacher development. First, to accomplish this
task, an introduction to each participant is provided. Second, codes and themes were constructed
from a synthesized analysis of participants’ perspectives, document analysis, and utilizing
comments from the researcher’s reflective notebook. Lastly, the three research questions were
answered in detail, based on participants’ significant statements.
Participant’s Profile
Participants were selected using a purposeful-criterion sampling strategy. All participants
are high school educators in Community Parish School System (a pseudonym). Based on the set
criteria the educators have the following characteristics in common: a beginning teacher that (a)
possess less than five years of teaching experience, (b) are currently participating in an induction
program, and (c) teaches full time; or a mentor, teacher induction program coordinator, or
administrator who provides support to beginning teachers participating in the teacher induction
program. Participants were assigned pseudonyms in alphabetical order from A – Z.
Beginning Teachers
Arianna. Arianna is an African American female in her late twenties. She earned her
bachelor’s degree in engineering and is a robotics and computer science teacher. She has taught
for two years. Arianna assimilated easily into the school’s culture because she knew she had the
support of her administrators and peers. Nevertheless, as a beginning teacher she was surprised
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that many veteran teachers had some of the same questions as she did but did not seek for
additional help. Arianna described her experience this way:
Like if I had an issue and nobody had an answer, I knew this is not somebody’s first
concern. And it’s sad to say, but I had a lot of teachers who have been teaching for five
to seven years that was saying, Oh, I went through the same thing when I was a first-year
teacher, but I just had to figure it out. I don’t think it’s fair that as new teachers, we
should have to figure it out. We should have something there to give us the information
and knowledge that we need. You know, it shouldn’t be just a figuring out situation
(Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Brenton. Brenton is an African American male in his mid-thirties. He completed his
bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and is a health and physical education teacher. He has three
years of experience as a teacher. Brenton went into the education professional expecting the
unexpected. He understood that it is a profession that you must experience to truly understand
and is not a profession for everyone. Although he has experienced quite a few challenges as a
beginning teacher, he believes that being an educator is a calling that he needed to answer.
Brenton stated his perspective this way:
I expected to have challenging students. Um, I expected to have issues unknownst to me.
Um, but you have to do it to get full exposure and full understanding of how big a deal it
is for you to be a teacher. I don’t think anything that I’ve seen or experienced thus far as
surprising, so to speak because I came in very thoughtful about the situation and very
thoughtful about the decision, I was making about my profession. However, I realized
that school didn’t prepare me for it and that’s really, um eye-awakening, I kind of
learned from my more senior teachers and tried to, um, navigate the educational system
that way, it takes some getting used to (Personal communication with participant, June,
2020).
Christiana. Christiana is a White female in her late thirties. She has a bachelor’s degree
in psychology and teaches social studies. She has taught for half a school year and is looking
forward to teaching a full year in the upcoming school year. At times she felt like she was
drowning with all the responsibilities that came with being a teacher. However, the induction
program gave her a space to receive support and advice on challenges she faced as a new teacher.
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This support system allowed her to feel comfortable to return the following school year.
Christiana viewed her first-year teaching experience this way:
To be honest, most days I feel like a failure. Uh, I mean, it’s been an amazing
experience, but it’s very hard and it’s very draining, and I don’t have the same
experience as everyone else. Like if you majored in education or you, um, teach under
somebody for a year, or you student teach, then it’s different, you know, I decided I was
going to do this program in February and then in July, people started calling me for jobs.
I didn’t think I was going to get into the school year, this year. So, it came up rather
suddenly. And so, a lot of times I felt like I was like just above water (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
Mentors
Devin. Gerald is an African American male in his late forties. He earned his master’s in
administration and supervision and is a social studies teacher. He has been in the education
system for over twenty years and has been a mentor for about fifteen years. He stated that his
first-year as a teacher was very challenging, to the point that he wanted to quit. However, the
following year he was given a mentor that changed his outlook of teaching. Grateful for the
support he received as a beginning teacher, Gerald always wanted to be a mentor and recalled
his own experience as a beginning teacher:
It was difficult as a beginning teacher. I actually wanted to give up, I didn’t want to go
back my second year. I decided to go back and I was assigned a mentor and my mentor
name was Sarah. And through dealing with the mentor-mentee program, she worked with
me, gave me motivation, constantly checked on me. I went back in for 20 years
afterwards and it has been getting better and better (Personal communication with
participant, June, 2020).
Elizabeth. Elizabeth is an African American female in her early thirties. She recently
earned her master’s in educational leadership and is a former social studies teacher and the
magnet coordinator on her campus. She has been an educator for about ten years and has been
mentoring other teachers for approximately five years. Although there was an induction program
for new teachers when Elizabeth started teaching, she was not invited to participate. She believed
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that as a beginning teacher she slipped through the cracks and was not given the opportunity to
be mentored. She claimed through the help of informal mentoring and teaching herself she
eventually became the teacher she knew she could be. Yet, she felt that trial and error could
have been avoided if she was not overlooked. Elizabeth summed up her experience in the
following manner:
Well mentoring means lot, because I didn’t have one and I definitely could have used
one, although I kind of, you know, just latched on to people to help me, but to actually
have one that was responsible for helping me maneuver through the classroom and just
different things like that would have been great and I want to be there for somebody
because I did not have that. And I know it’s very difficult because I can remember times
staying up to like two or three o’clock in the morning and try to figure out what I’m
going to do for the next day after I spent the whole day planning and everything, but I
knew it was easier routes to get to where I was going, but, you know, um, I didn’t have
that leadership and I didn’t have that mentorship to help me through. So, um, being a
mentor teacher, I will help anybody on that campus, as many people as I can. Um, I will
overextend myself to help a new teacher (Personal communication with participant, July,
2020).
Faith. Faith is African American female in her mid-sixties. She earned her master’s in
administration and supervision and is an English teacher. She has been in the education system
for over forty years and has been a mentor for about nine years. When Faith started as a
beginning teacher, she realized that nothing that she learned in her teacher program in college
prepared her to teach her students. However, due to the induction program she received a lot of
support from her mentors and colleagues which gave her strategies to become an effective
teacher and stay in the education system. Faith believes being a mentor to a beginning teacher
can be career changing for both parties and states the following:
Being a support to incoming teachers is very important. Um, a good mentor can make
the difference in a person’s career. Uh, when you have a mentor who is not vested in the
program and who does not take that responsibility seriously, uh, it trickles down to the
teacher and then to the students who that teacher would be interacting with that year. I
think sometimes mentors can make the difference in our retention of good teachers
(Personal communication with participant, July, 2020).
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Program Coordinator
Grace. Grace is an African American female in her early fifties. She has her bachelor’s
degree in English and is the English department chair. She has been an educator for twenty years
and this is her fourth year being the teacher induction program coordinator on her campus. Grace
feels honored to be in a position to help other teachers. She has a strong desire to nurture and
guide her new colleagues. She is a strong advocate of observing and modeling appropriate
behavior. Grace summed up her thoughts and said candidly:
Being the coordinator means assisting teachers when they are new to teaching, to give
them the guidance, to give them or, to show compassion, you know, to make sure that
every question they have is answered and make sure that they are given strategies when
they’re not really familiar with the school or with teaching period, to give them good
strategies that they could use (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Administrator
Harrison. Harrison is a White male in his early forties. He has his master’s in
educational leadership and is a former teacher and assistant principal. He has been in the
education system for over fifteen years and has a total of four years of experience as an assistant
principal. As a former classroom teacher, Harrison knew first-hand how it felt to be a small fish
in a big pond. Thus, he took his experience to stress the importance of not only being a non-
judgmental administrator but a supportive mentor who models good instruction and flawless
transitions. As he reflected on his role supporting beginning teachers, Harrison said:
The other side of being an administrator is needing to be a coach for teachers, especially
new teachers. And some people are better at that than others. So, I think probably the
coaching part of it is the most important part of being an assistant principal and being
supportive, being able to answer questions, not being looked at as an evaluator, but more
of as a mentor (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Codes
Responses to the open-ended interview questions were analyzed using qualitative,
validated coding measures as this confirms accuracy in reporting emerging patterns, themes, and
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results in data (Creswell, 2018). A fuller description of the creation of codes was discussed in
Chapter Three under the Data Analysis Procedure section. The interviews were transcribed and
reviewed for accuracy. The information obtained was sorted using the constant comparative
technique using a qualitative data analysis software, Atlas.ti (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Corbin &
Strauss, 2008). Responses offered by participants were also analyzed, coded, and categorized
based upon the participants perception of the support beginning teachers received in the district’s
teacher induction program. The codes were defined based on the information obtained from the
participants and served to summarize, synthesize, and sort the countless comments made by the
educators during the interviews. I coded open-ended responses by generating a list of all the
responses to a specific question. I assigned a code to each response to support each of the
research questions. Each response fit into one of the code categories. Coding responses into
themes was also beneficial for identifying mutual and conflicting philosophies expressed by the
participants.
Themes
After collecting data from eight participants, three beginning teachers and five members
on the leadership team (three mentors, the program coordinator, and one administrator), themes
were identified by examining the participant’s interviews. A more detailed procedure of the
formation of themes is discussed in Chapter Three under the Data Analysis Procedure section.
After codes were formed from the interviews, I then looked for patterns to create themes. As
previously stated, I used the constant comparative technique using a qualitative data analysis
software, Atlas.ti (Lincoln & Guba, 1985; Corbin & Strauss, 2008). First, I identified significant
statements across all the interviews of participants’ experiences in relationship to the
phenomenon. From there, I recognized noteworthy statements and labeled them as one of the
open codes. Finally, I clustered the 15 open codes into three themes. Three themes emerged from
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this analysis: (a) understanding the experiences of beginning teacher’s development, (b) creating
a community for beginning teacher’s development, and (c) influencing the progression of
beginning teacher’s development. Table 2 presents the list of open-codes, number of times the
open-code appeared in the interviews, and three themes that emerged from synthesized data.
Table 2. List of Emerging Themes
Themes Code Concepts Codes Code Instances
Understanding the
experiences of
beginning teacher’s
development
Barriers Gaps in preservice training 4
Challenges of beginning
teachers
10
Beginning teacher’s
perspective
Experiences of beginning
teachers
21
Beginning teacher’s
perception of support given
by the leadership team
34
Creating a
community for
beginning teacher’s
development
Interaction Building trust and healthy
relationships
17
Making time to support
beginning teachers
27
Communication with
beginning teachers
21
Safe Place Work environment for
beginning teachers
17
Influencing the
progression of
beginning teacher’s
development
Support for beginning
teachers
Types of support given to
beginning teachers
19
Strategies and resources for
beginning teachers
45
Impact of support for
beginning teachers
50
Leadership team’s
perspective
Training to support
beginning teachers
10
Leadership team’s
perception of support given
to beginning teachers
61
Challenges of the leadership
team in supporting
beginning teachers
9
(table cont’d)
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Themes Code Concepts Codes Code Instances
Improvements Suggestions to improve the
support given to beginning
teachers
14
Understanding the experiences of beginning teacher’s development
When beginning teachers enter the classroom, they possess limited amount of
experiences, skills, and abilities. To become effective at their craft, novice teachers require
molding and encouragement to persist in their career and impact their professional development.
Four distinct sub-themes were identified within the main theme: (a) Gaps in preservice training,
(b) Challenges of beginning teachers, (c) Experiences of beginning teachers, and (d) Beginning
teacher’s perception of support given by leadership team.
Gaps in preservice training. This code represented the least occurrences of any code
yet findings were significant. Some beginning teachers entered the classroom with gaps in their
knowledge. After entering the classroom, all of the beginning teachers found they lacked
knowledge in classroom management and differentiated instruction. All of the beginning
teachers interviewed did not initially go to school to become a teacher and have alternative
teaching certifications. Brenton, a beginning teacher, completed his undergraduate degree in
kinesiology, which prevented him from taking a sufficient number of courses in education.
Brenton stated,
I initial did not go to undergrad to become a teacher. I was a sub for a couple of years
before I decided to take that path. I thought about it long and hard and believed this is
where I need to be. I was already finishing up my degree so taking additional classes in
education just wasn’t possible. I did have to go get an alternative certification with the
state. The process was intense I was teaching my first year and getting my credentials at
the same time. The training was limited because everything was done online but I guess it
was enough to put me in the classroom. I wish that I received more guidance from them
because I didn’t come into this professional with any official training. I mean I was a
sub, that is totally different than being a teacher, a huge difference. Trainings on lesson
plans and of course, classroom management would have been nice to get in the
beginning. I was able to get these skills by trial and error. This made my first-year very
difficult,
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especially since I was not placed into the program until my second-year teaching.
(Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Having gaps in preservice training is not a new phenomenon. The leadership team was
asked to describe their experiences as a beginning teacher and all of their responses mirrored the
fact that college did not prepare them for the actual classroom. For example, Faith, a mentor,
recalled her experience as a new teacher, she stated that although she went to school to become a
certified teacher, nothing prepared her for the challenges she endured in the classroom. Here is
her testimony,
As a beginning teacher, I was very insecure and every day was a new challenge for me
that I felt ill equipped to handle because, uh, the kind of challenges that I experienced in
my classroom, were not things that we talked about in the college classrooms, when we
were being prepared to go out into the field, none of the situations that I encountered
were in any of the textbooks that we used in class. So, um, it was challenging (Personal
communication with participant, July, 2020).
Preservice teacher education programs serve as the first form of professional
development that future teachers complete to enter into the profession. According to literature,
these certification programs consist of a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical experience
(Kane, Rockhoff, & Staiger, 2006). The overall aim is for the graduating teachers to support
students with diverse needs regarding their social, economic, academic and emotional well-
being. However, the beginning teachers shared that was not their experience when entering into
the teaching profession. During the interviews, the beginning teachers disclosed that they
obtained an alternative teaching certification and was not given sufficient training before
entering the classroom. This may be due to the fact that most schools that hire teachers with
alternative certifications are understaffed and quickly need to fill vacant positions. The teachers
agreed that most of their experience came after they accepted their teaching position. The
numerous of gaps in preservice training or the lack thereof can only be rectified with mentoring,
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professional development, and experience. Nonetheless, beginning teachers face a host of
challenges upon entering the classroom.
Challenges of beginning teachers. Beginning teachers face a multitude of challenges.
Thus, challenges of beginning teachers require a great deal of time and attention from the
leadership team. One of the challenges that many teachers face is receiving constructive criticism
from an observation. All teachers want to be recognized as being proficient in the classroom, so
receiving negative reports can be stressful and decrease their confidence in teaching. Brenton
alluded to this by stating,
I was informed and instructed. My mentor would tell me, you cannot take these things
here, personal, um, and for a young teacher, when you get a negative report, when you
get this, that, and the other, um, it’s hard not to take it personally. It’s hard to not to feel
like it’s a personal attack on you and your ability to do what you do (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
Another young teacher had to learn to be flexible when planning her lessons. As any
veteran educator may know that when you deal with children, lesson plans are often changed
due to unforeseen circumstances. Being flexible can present itself to new teachers as challenge
in the beginning of their career. Christina, a beginning teacher, related the following sentiment,
When you’re young and when you’re new, you’re like, okay, gotta stick to the plan, but it
doesn’t always stick to the plan. There’s always something coming up at school, whether
it’s an event or people are absent, you know, and sometimes you can’t do exactly what
you’ve planned. Like, you know, if I have something planned, that’s totally opposite of
the energy in the room, I might have to on the fly change it up a little bit, just to keep
student engagement high. And sometimes that’s easier said than done (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
During one of the interviews, Arianna, a beginning teacher, revealed that being an
elective teacher gave her freedom to teacher her students but it also left room for challenges.
Such challenges were discussed in the following manner,
I experienced a lot of challenges. I did not have a curriculum coming in. Um, so that was
hard trying to figure out what exactly I was going to teach. Cause, uh, the class was not,
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was a very new, the course I was teaching, one of the courses I was teaching was a brand-
new course that did not come with a curriculum. So, trying to figure that out was, um,
cool, but it was hard. I was able to create a curriculum with one of the administrators and
my mentor, it took some time. I remember googling a lot of resources which was new to
me. (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Although hiring new teachers with alternative certification may fill open positions in
understaffed schools, administrators must take into account that some new alternative certified
teachers may not come with certain experiences as new teachers who obtained a traditional
teaching license. The lack of theoretical and field experiences may field many challenges of
fresh teachers. All of the new staff members commented that being a teacher was a huge
adjustment, since their previous careers involved working with adults. Teaching adolescents is
unlike any other profession in the world. The teachers chimed that they were hired to be a
classroom teacher, but quickly realized that before they could teach, they had to transform into
other roles such as counselor, parental figure, and even a minister. In their other careers, the
mentees’ roles were set and rarely did they have to put on multiple personas in their work
life. Comprehensively, the support or the lack thereof played a huge role of their experience
of the teaching profession.
Experiences of beginning teachers. Teachers host a variety of experiences from their
first-year in the classroom. The interviews revealed that some of teachers were more prepared
physically, emotionally, and mentally than others. While others only had preconceived notions of
what life will be like when they enter the classroom based upon courses taken in college. When
asked to reflect on her experiences, Arianna summed up what she expected when she accepted
her position as a teacher,
I expected certain things such as the behaviors of the students, and it’s sad to say, like the
negative behaviors of students, I definitely expected that. I not expect the positive, cause
there’s been way more positivity than negative. Um, so I, wasn’t also expecting to have
the type of relationships I have with my students. They’re like my babies, you know, so,
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um, I was not expecting that. I also was expecting to come in with a lot more tools and
resources and that was not the case. But my first-year experience had its lows but I can
honestly say I had way more highs. I feel blessed because I know that this is not the case
for many other new teachers (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Some educators were hit hard with the harsh realities of teaching adolescents. Devin had
a different perspective that Arianna as he relived his experience as a beginning teacher,
It was difficult as a beginning teacher. I actually wanted to give up, I didn’t want to go
back my second year. I was contemplating becoming a truck driver becaause I just could
not go into the classrom again. I went in with this preconcieved notation that if I was their
friend, then they would like me and respect me, but that definitely was not the case. They
don’t need a friend they need structure. I knew my content, but I lacked classroom
management. It was hell my first year (Personal communication with participant, June,
2020).
The experiences shared by participants provided a more profound understanding of their
choice to enter the teaching profession. Their decision to become a teacher was connected to
their influences from family, friends, and professional ambitions. Although, none of the teachers
believed that they were prepared to teach initially, the teachers believed that they were
eventually prepared to teach based on support from their colleagues. Several topics poised as
challenges to the participants as they shared their experiences during their interviews. Student
behavioral problems, lack of materials and resources, workload, and parental involvement were
issues mentioned numerous times in the interviews. Additionally, the teachers identified the
impact of planning their curriculum and executing the instruction had on their classroom
practices. The participants agreed that they learned by a combination of trial and error and
strategies to use in their daily practices provided by their mentors. The stories of these
participants first-year experience can be viewed as a testimony lived by many other educators.
In spirit, this shared phenomenon can make forming communities of teamwork beneficial for
beginning educators.
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Beginning teacher’s perception of support given by the leadership team. Beginning
teacher were asked about the support they received from the leadership team. During the
interviews the teachers described their interactions with the leadership team. The beginning
teacher’s perception of the support they received was overall positive. They all agreed that time
sometimes got in the way of meeting all of their needs, but believed that the leadership genuinely
supported them. Arianna got help from many people and responded,
Being in the program actually helped me throughout the entire year. It made everything a
lot smoother. For the most part, our coordinator, she was available to give me support. If
she couldn’t answer my question, she did not give me the run around. She would, you
know, get me straight to the person that could answer my questions. Um, my mentor and
the coordinator checked on me and made sure I was good with everything in my classes.
Um, they were just very helpful (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Brenton described how it felt being a part of a community that teaches the future
generation of teachers. He believed he was slighted the opportunity to be in the program during
his first year as a teacher because he appeared to be older than the other beginning teachers.
Thus, making him look like had experience. He retorted,
Um, so as far as administration goes, I feel like I was noticed and wanted to be a part of
the team. I was glad to be invited in the program, because my first year threw me for a
loop. I feel like if I wasn’t overlooked in my first-year and was in the program I probably
would’ve been a better teacher than I am right now. I was glad when I was told I was
going to be in the program because I felt like I was going to get the help that I really
needed. I feel like I was a part of something. And that’s really the hardest thing as a
young teacher you don’t know anybody, um, you don’t know how things go. Um, but
with the program, it gives you somewhere to go and gives you those resources and people
that can help you. I am proud that I stuck it through and decided not to quit, I am making
a difference in world. So, a huge shot to my mentor, Ms. Grace, our coordinator, the
administration team, and all of my colleagues that helped me (Personal communication
with participant, June, 2020).
Christiana expressed her feelings about the support she received from other teachers in
the program. She appreciated the transparency about their struggles as new teachers and advice
on how she can improve her craft,
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I mean, it helps when you have other educators to bounce ideas off of, and some of the
people in the program have more experience than me because it’s like if you have three
years of experience, that’s better than a week experience, you know? Um, so it’s nice to
share challenges with others and they may have a solution that I hadn’t thought of. Um,
sometimes it’s just good to share my frustrations with people who understand. Um, and
it’s good to have a mentor, and be involved in a program that you can go to with specific
questions and challenges. Yea, I feel like they were supportive (Personal communication
with participant, June, 2020).
Teacher induction programs have been used throughout the nation’s school districts to
aid starting teachers transition into their new roles as educators. During the interviews, the
participants were asked to reflect on how they were supported during their initial years of
teaching. Their experiences described what professional supports were provided, who provided
the support, and what support was needed from the school’s leadership team during their initial
years of teaching. According to the beginning teachers, the leadership was very supportive and
concerned with making sure the they felt comfortable teaching in the classroom. However, they
also believed that the leadership team responsibilities stretched them thin. Their beliefs are
evident in the fact some beginning teachers were overlooked and was not placed into the
program until after their first year. The new teachers also appreciated having a safe place to vent
out their concerns without feeling judged. Additionally, the teachers reported that having a
mentor was the major component of the induction program which allowed them to receive a
variety of professional development and resources to become proficient in teaching students. In
general, the beginning teacher’s perception of the induction program gave them a support system
to rely on their peers for array of support and tools. In the end, however, the teacher induction
program provided the beginning teachers with strategies to implement and a network of
colleagues to share ideas with and ask for support. Moreover, the program gave the novice
teachers a place to receive resources and advice about effective strategies to use when teaching
high school students. Some of the strategies supported beginning teachers in planning lessons,
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checking for understanding, establishing a rapport with students, and most importantly
maintaining a safe environment for learning.
Creating a community for beginning teacher’s development
Beginning teacher need to feel comfortable in trying new strategies in the classroom and
seeking guidance from other educators. Thus, creating safe working environment is mandatory
when building physical, emotional, and intellectual security for beginning teachers. Four distinct
sub-themes were identified within the main theme: (a) Building trust and healthy relationships,
(b) Making time to support beginning teachers, (c) Communication with beginning teachers, and
(d) Work environment for beginning teachers.
Building trust and healthy relationships. Team collaborations were an essential
component of building trust and healthy relationships. The mentees highlighted how their
mentors stressed the importance of building rapport with others, not just their students, but other
colleagues. Developing positive relationships with colleagues can be rewarding. Working
together with veteran teachers was key in resolving classroom related issues, but it also allowed
them to gain friends. Arianna believed her colleagues and administrators made time for her and
showed compassion towards her. This made forming positive relationships easy, Arianna
described her experience this way,
Majority of our leadership team, um, is very transparent. Um, I have relationships with
majority of leadership team and teachers, so if I need any help with anything, usually
they’re available or they try to make time where they can and they are not just stuck in
their offices or classrooms, they’re out and about, and, you know. It’s not uncommon to
see teachers working together on campus. You have to spend time with someone to get
to know them and understand them. I believe I have true friends at work because we took
the time to know each other. It’s funny because one of my colleagues seen that I was
having a bad and without me even telling him. I guess he has been around me long
enough to know when I’m not my best and he was able to cheer me up a little bit. So, yea
I’m grateful to have people at work who have my back (Personal communication with
participant, June, 2020).
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When forming a professional bond with her mentees, Faith used a collaborative approach.
She believed that developing a new teacher is a team effort that definitely involves the starting
teacher’s input. This allowed her to have a great relationship with all of her mentees. When
asked about the status of her mentee-mentor relationship, Faith shared the following statement,
I cannot think of any that wasn’t successful. Um, you know, I tend to be a rather laid-
back person and I think that helps, uh, when you’re not perceived as overly aggressive or
take control, everything you’re doing is wrong, you have to do it my way. That’s not the
technique that I use. So, I think that the first thing is to build a relationship with whoever
you’re mentoring and, and have them really understand that I’m here to help you, you
know, I’m here to, um, see what you’re doing, uh, help you with some strategies, uh,
nurture, uh, what you’re doing. And at the same time, if we have some weaknesses, let’s
work together to, uh, try to improve those things and, you know, a, a mentor, sometimes
it’s perceived as a person I’m here to get, you know, you’re not here to get the teacher,
you should be there to help the teacher, help the teacher evolve into a great educator. My
approach isn’t the only way, but it helped me build lasting relationships. I’m still in
contact with some of the teachers I have mentored in the past. (Personal communication
with participant, July, 2020).
Building trust and healthy relationships in the workplace is not something that can be
checked off on a to-do list, but should always have a place among work priorities because it
affects everything individuals do personally and professionally. The literature presented in this
study highlights the importance of building strong relationships within the work environment.
The education profession is social entity and thrives by building positive relationships. Elizabeth
found being transparent and vulnerable was essential to encourage beginning teachers to
professionally grow and collectively have the greatest impact on their student’s success. Overall,
the participants highlighted how they built lasting relationships with their colleagues by allotting
time to get to know one another.
Making time to support beginning teachers. In order for beginning teachers to flourish
time must be invested in them. The best time to support beginning teachers is when they need it
the most. This usually occurs in the classroom full of diverse students. The leadership team
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shared how they managed to make time for their mentees. Most stated that they had interactions
with the young teachers frequently, but not as much as they hoped. Devin urged all veteran
teachers to show support to beginning teachers and if you see them struggling help them. He
answered,
A lot of times she needed me when I was teaching my own class and that was interesting.
Her class was on the other side of the building, so my off period was last block and I
would go over to the East side and sit in the class and you know, I would talk to her. She
would explain what happened. I’m the type of person that is straight up, you gotta keep it
real with them, that’s the only way they are going to learn. So, I would say, well, you
know, this happened because you dropped the ball or this happened because of, you
know, this is what you need to do in this area. Every now and then I would go and
observe her teach and from there we would have conversations about what went well and
what did not (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Harrison stated that the administration understands the importance of making time to
support new employees. Although he admits the time given to the teacher induction coordinator
was not enough, Grace was allotted some time to plan and implement the program, Harrison
said,
Mmm. The school supports the program mostly by providing the planning, the time for
them to meet, um, ensuring that that professional development is provided. Mmm. And
kind of just following up with, Ms. Grace, um, to see basically the same thing we would
ask the new teachers, like, what do you need? How’s it going? Same way with
supporting teachers. Really. Yeah. We don’t, we don’t really do a lot besides just making
it a part of our professional development cycle, I don’t think we do a whole lot of extra. I
wish we did because new teachers need a whole lot of extra support (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
A concern expressed by the new teachers is their sense they were not well prepared to
provide effective instruction to all students in today’s increasingly diverse classrooms.
According to the literature, to combat this evident stressor the induction program must create
sufficient time for mentors and mentees to work together, this may increase beginning teacher’s
self-efficacy, satisfaction with teaching, retention in the profession, effectiveness in teaching,
and student success (Ingersoll, 2009). The shared time provides a support group for mentees with
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colleagues they could vent to and who would provide motivation during tough times. Making
time to support beginning was reported a challenge, but also a priority for the leadership team.
The time invested was seen as beneficial for both parties and was characterized as non-
judgmental, constructive, and compassionate. The best way to communicate with beginning
teachers is to show them that you have time to support their needs. In the end, starting teachers
need their peers to collaborate with them on the best path to success in the profession.
Communication with beginning teachers. The leadership team agreed that the program
helped them communicate with beginning teachers via text messages, phone calls, and time to
check on them. The communications between beginning teacher and veteran teachers covered a
variety of topics such as sharing resources and ideas, lesson planning, helping set up the
classrooms, and answering questions. When things were not going well, mentees reported that
their mentors communicated with them to resolve any problems. Arianna voiced how helpful it
was to receive contact information for all the participants in the program. She detailed it in this
fashion:
We gave our contact information to Ms. Grace, who was our coordinator. She asked us if
it was okay if she distribute the information to everyone in the program. We all were
cool with it. She then emailed the contact list to everyone. And um, well being able to
have that contact information for your mentor and others actually really helped out a lot.
I was able to text my mentor anytime (Personal communication with participant, June,
2020).
Grace, the program coordinator on her campus, was very hands-on with her mentees. She
stressed the importance of being present when mentors and mentees needed her. Most of the
concerns she dealt with were classroom management. She supported the beginning teachers in
the following way:
So, I not only meet with the mentee, I actually go and observe as well. What I’m trying
to do is make sure that whatever is not to the satisfaction of the administrator that I get to
that mentee before the administrator does. And we just kind of perfect what they’re doing
in the classroom, activities, the agenda, the whole nine. Um, I try to, um, make sure that
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the mentees and I meet individually at least once every two weeks and with the
administrators, it’s once a week, I’m just giving them the input that I’m getting from the
mentees and mentors. And so, I, talked to the mentees pretty much, as far as the
afterschool meetings are concerned, we meet at least once or twice a month, and I’m
going over important information with them (Personal communication with participant,
June, 2020).
In every school community, communication plays a crucial role in building effective
teachers. When educators communicate, how often, what educators talk about, and the methods
of communication both construct and form their realities (Breaux & Wong, 2003). This implies
that communication can be both a way to analyze and understand the process of effectively
mentoring new colleagues to influence their actions and understanding. The leadership reported
communicating with the beginning teacher daily. The interactions ranged from simply checking
in on the mentees to working together on instructional practices. The interactions were done in
person in classrooms or offices, by phone, and emails. Majority of the communication occurred
throughout the workday and sometimes transpired afterschool. The site coordinator, Grace,
recalled how she communicated to the new teachers and mentors that their time is valuable and
that their voices matter. The open line of communication allowed the participants to be reception
to feedback on the effectiveness of the induction program. Furthermore, the beginning teachers
welcomed honest feedback that suggests what they needed to improve upon, but also celebrate
their successes. Beginning teacher often need continuously reinsuring in an uplifting atmosphere.
All-encompassing, a supportive work environment may enhance teacher quality and improve
retention.
Work environment for beginning teachers. School environments are an important part
of the infrastructure of communities and play a critical role in supporting beginning teachers. As
administrators and other teachers interact with new employees while running a school or
providing instruction to students, they ensure that the working environment is inviting and
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supportive of developing new teachers. There are numerous ways faculty members can make
newcomers feel safe such as being encouraging and motivating, allowing the rooms of mentees
and mentors be near each other, and allowing the mentees and mentors to observe one another.
One participant shared how close proximity with his mentor helped him make his transition into
the classroom smoother. Brenton recalled his experience this way,
My mentor was right down the hall from me too. So, we had, we had conversations a lot
of times about things that, uh, I might, be having an issue with. Because our rooms were
next door to each other we seen each other every day, we grew a friendship and that
relationship made me feel like I wasn’t bothering him with petty stuff. It also helped that
he was a disciplinarian. And of course, a lot of issues you have as a young teacher are
with discipline because, you know, kids gonna try it until they know they can’t. But he
encouraged me to not give up and gave me strategies to implement in my classroom. His
availability made me comfortable to go to him. Like I said I felt like I um, the work
environment was good, I feel like I can go to Ms. Grace or my mentor and that means a
lot to me as a new teacher (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Christiana believes despite having a rough first-year experience having supportive
colleagues allowed her to feel comfortable to continue to teaching. She said transparently:
I think the school environment is great. I mean, I like working where I work. I’ve been
helped out a lot by other teachers. Um, it’s more just, you know, becoming, getting my
own footing as a teacher and just determining what works for me and what doesn’t work
for me in the classroom with the kids and developing a rapport with the kids. The people
around me helps with it (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Harrison, an assistant principal, mentioned how the administrators on campus provide a
safe environment for beginning teacher. He replied in this manner,
Well, we do our best to make sure that all of our teachers enjoy coming to work. It can be
a little difficult to do this, we have over 40 faculty members, but yea we do our best. One
thing we try to do for new teachers is making sure their workload is not overwhelming.
You know we try not to give them duty so that they can focus on being better. If they do
go to duty it isn’t nearly as much as established teachers. We are a team. I, we also check
on them, we want them to know that even though we are administrators we were once
teachers too, so we know what it’s like to step foot in a new work environment (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
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The participants commented on their perception of the school culture for developing
early career teachers. The beginning teachers described how important is was for them to build a
relationship with not only the leadership team, but also their colleagues. The new hires explained
their relationship with the leadership team and colleagues and stated that they felt supported by
the entire faculty and staff. They reported that their relationship with their mentors to some
extent reduced feelings of isolation and anxiety. The beginning teachers also shared that they
loved the fact that the leadership team did personal “check-ups,” which demonstrated to that the
leadership team genuinely cared about them. The beginning teachers also voiced that they
appreciated the time and commitment the leadership team invested in mentoring them by hearing
their concerns about the program and making certain changes when possible to accommodate
their concerns. According to the beginning teachers, transparency was the key to building
positive relationships with their new colleagues. One of the beginning teachers stated that they
wanted the leadership team to make the teacher induction program a priority and focus all about
“checking off the boxes” in order to complete the required elements of the program. Overall,
early career teachers felt the actions of the leadership team assisted in creating a sense of self-
efficacy and job satisfaction by being visible throughout the building, being positive and
encouraging to them, and building trust through transparency and honesty.
The leadership team that participated in this present study recognized the fact that new
teachers were expected to perform the same tasks as veteran teachers, but often perform them
with less skills, because they have less on-the-job experience. The leadership team also noted
that for most first year teachers, their career lives are consumed with just surviving. Therefore,
the administrators and site coordinator seen the need to create an environment that helps
bridge the gap between the expectations of teaching and learning, and the actual realities of the
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profession. It seems from their responses, that this could be done by having clear expectations,
consistent communications, being open minded and receptive, respecting the new hires time,
building a great rapport with the novice teachers, and being understanding and compassionate of
beginning teacher’s needs, questions, and failures. Yet, not all of these strategies were
implemented in the program. The administrator participating in the study believed that the
leadership team was did the best that they could, but knew they could possibly do more. One of
the mentors revealed how spending time with their mentee allowed them to bond and understand
the best methods to support his mentee. Another mentor insisted that making time for their
mentee was a struggle, however, she had to make it a priority to effective support her new
colleague. Overall, the leadership team was able to create a safe learning and teaching
community for beginning teachers by spending time and communicating with the beginning
teachers regularly. This allowed both parties to get to know each in a way that the leadership
team is not seen as evaluators, but mentors. The participants retort also uncovered that there
many factors that influenced the growth and development of beginning teachers. At the very
minimum mentorship and flexibility should be provided to their journey towards mastery.
Influencing the progression of beginning teacher’s development
The leadership team which includes the administrators, the program coordinator, and
mentors set the tone at the top, which permeated the school culture for beginning teachers. These
internal and external factors influenced the perception of support given to beginning teachers.
Seven distinct sub-themes were identified within the main theme: (a) Types of support given to
beginning teachers, (b) Strategies and resources for beginning teachers, (c) Impact of support for
beginning teachers, (d) Training to support beginning teachers, (e) Leadership team’s perception
of support given to beginning teachers, (f) Challenges of Leadership Team in supporting
beginning teachers, and (g) Suggestions to improve the support given to beginning teachers.
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Types of support given to beginning teachers. Providing a variety of support is
necessary to ensure green teachers are competent in the classroom. Teachers need emotional,
social, and physical support from their colleagues and administrators. Understanding the needs
of beginning teachers and the students they serve is vital when determining the type of support
the teacher needs at the moment of interaction. Supporting beginning teachers emotionally is
crucial. The leadership team stated that providing emotional support were simple gestures like
greeting them in the morning or checking on them regularly. Devin talked about emotionally
supporting teachers and said,
I walk around doing lunch, talking to other teachers, you know. I’ve seen teachers that
were having bad days on my off period and say, oh, go and chill, go get a Coke or
something and I’ll watch your class. Sometimes you need that. You gotta step away
(Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Physical support involves helping new teachers with the practical or logistical aspects of
teaching, such as curriculum and instruction, organizing the classroom, gathering resources,
learning school policies, and navigating the school building. Elizabeth, remembers making time
for her mentees to provide physical support, she said,
I think at first, they were not classified as effective, but I, we looked at it, we analyzed
the observation reports, we saw where we need to improve, um, where the weaknesses
were and where we need to build upon. And so, we dug into really working on those
areas of weakness. So, if one area of weakness was classroom management, which one
was for a teacher, I really worked with him on some techniques, um, to help them with
classroom management. And one thing that I did with the teachers this year is that I
implemented peer walks. So, they got to see, master teachers in their classroom. So, if, I
know a teacher is having issues, with, uh, classroom management. I allowed them to go
to another teacher’s classroom during the class period, I had coverage for their class and
allowed them to sit in and observe the teacher so they can pick up something that they
could use in their classroom (Personal communication with participant, July, 2020).
Beginning teachers need to be surrounded by a network of educators. These communities
provide them with social support where teachers can collaborate and learn from each other.
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These groups can be formed in common planning periods were teachers are teaching the same
grade or content area. Faith refers to her own social support, she responded,
So, in each, uh, situation where I have a mentor, we had common planning periods. Uh,
we were always in the same department, so, you know, that facilitated a good opportunity
to interact there. And, you know, I’ve always been a kind of afterschool person. And so,
anybody that I’ve worked with, whether they were that or not, they kind of became that
because if they wanted to pull my coattail or get some information or get help, they knew
they could just come to my room and I’d be there after school. But formally we had
common planning. Okay. And informally, we were able to interact in the department
meetings and always afterschool. These interaction times allowed us to discuss what
happened in our classrooms and what’s next, what we need to in our next lesson. We
planned a lot in our planning meetings (Personal communication with participant, July,
2020).
As previously stated, the beginning teachers entered the profession with little to no
preservice training. Hence, the mentee teachers needed a team of supporter to help them navigate
the complexity of teaching adolescent students. The support from the leadership team and their
colleagues came in various forms, and the literature reviewed for this study discussed the
importance of school culture, climate, collaboration, and communication. The leadership
discussed how they were able to give emotional, physical, and social support to the starting
teachers. Essentially, the leadership team encouraged the teachers to continue teaching, provided
instructional resources to better their teaching ability, and collaborated with them on lesson
planning and refining teaching strategies, identify needs of students throughout the academic
year. Although, the new career teachers faced many challenges, they looked to the leadership
team to guide them through it. Inclusively, the strategies and resources given to the neophyte
teacher had an impact on their first-year experience as a teacher.
Strategies and resources for beginning teachers to overcome challenges.
Numerically, this sub-theme returned the third highest open code value and was found 45 times
in the data. At first glance, the challenges seem overwhelming for developing teachers, but with
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the assistance of the leadership team they were able to cope with difficult issues. Across the
board the beginning teachers agreed that seeking advice from their administrators, mentors, and
colleagues through observations and feedback and attending professional development trainings
were effective strategies to overcoming challenges they faced in their classrooms. To become
competent at their craft, beginning teachers were encouraged early in their career to build a
rapport with their colleagues and students. Regarding building positive relationships, Arianna
declared,
Building relationships with my students and other teachers was, is a must, it’s the only
way I could have survived. I’m the type of person that if I have a question, I’m not afraid
to go and ask for help. So, talking with other teachers and I guess picking their brain if
you want to call it that, um, allowed me to get to know my coworkers. (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
Effective professional development is important for new teacher’s learning and is a
continuous process that promote teachers’ mastering new knowledge, becoming a proficient
teacher, which in return, help improve students’ achievement. All this training gave the
developing teachers the greatest chance of success as they met new challenges in education
world. Although all novice teacher received professional development only some were given the
opportunity to participant in specialized training in their content area. During the one-on-one
interview, Christiana divulged her experience and said,
They encouraged me, they made me go to trainings. They encouraged trainings. I went to
a social studies training. I was in a writing workshop. Um, they’re investing in me and in
my education with them so that I can be a better teacher (Personal communication with
participant, June, 2020).
When classroom procedures are clear and productive, it makes everything run smoother
and allows more time for teaching and learning. Mentors discussed how they initially had to
model how to implement vital procedures in the classroom. The strategies about classroom
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management allowed their mentees to become better teachers. Elizabeth, a mentor,
acknowledged her contributions by affirming,
I would like to say that I impacted my mentees greatly because I have seen some
significant changes over the school year and they’ve grown to be some very good
teachers, you know, they have their classroom management down and I like to say that I
helped them with it. One thing I shared with my mentees is that that no matter what, you
have to be consistent, fair, but also show compassion. Those three things will take you a
long way when establishing classroom management. It definitely helped me (Personal
communication with participant, July, 2020).
Differentiated instruction is really not a new concept. It has been in the education sector
for a very long time in the disguise of ‘mixed-ability teaching’. All of the participants agreed
that teaching diverse students was a challenge. However, with the support of other veteran
teachers, they were able to address the needs of their students. Yet, this did not happen
overnight, one of the mentors also wished she had the skills she has now to effectively teach
her students when she first started. Faith said indefinitely,
My role impacted teacher effectiveness because I was able to provide them with strategy,
proven strategies, research-based strategies that will work in classrooms that they were
serving in. It’s hard to teach a class with different learning needs, but that is what we
have to do because this is what is required from us. What helped me was having small
groups, stations with different activities that helped students understand the same skills,
and peer tutors. And so, once they were exposed to the strategies and realize what
worked for them and what didn’t work for them, um, that helped them to achieve success
in their evaluations and in their performances. I can think back to when I was a new
teacher. And I think of all my first students, I was like, oh my God, they missed so much
because I was learning, you are learning. And so probably by year three or four, you
know, you finally have it almost together so much more so than you had when you first
started. And you
realize that those kids that came through during your first year, well, for me, and I’m
going to be honest, my first and second year students, you know, they didn’t get as much
as my kids got later, you know, as the years went on, when I was able to figure it out. I
guess when you know better, you do better (Personal communication with participant,
July, 2020).
Emotional and social wellness is essential to a beginning teacher’s survival in the early
years of teaching. Supporting the emotional and social well-being of beginning teachers is
critical for creating a positive school climate and retaining quality educators. When things were
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not going well, mentors reported that they had to continuously motivate their mentees and show
compassion. Devin, a mentor, was highly engaged in supporting his mentee, he gave her pep
talks like this,
Find something that you enjoy doing and do it when you are off work, it can be anything
like painting, walking, or just sleeping. Have fun, meet new people. As much as I love
teaching, I do not make it my everything. I have a life outside of this place. Sometimes
you have to turn it off to get peace. You gotta learn to leave the struggles of teaching at
the school. Like I said, at the end of the day, you can’t go home saying I’m so tired.
You’re gonna be tired from yelling at kids. If you’re tired, you’re going to be tired
from teaching. I think, no, I know this is how I was able to stay in the game for over
twenties years and enjoy it (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Observations are implanted to improve the quality of teaching. Evaluations can be seen as
trivial to beginners when trying to navigate what is expected of them. Brenton shared his concern
with being observed and was relieved when the coordinator provided assistance to the teacher
induction program cohort. He shared the following statement,
Ms. Grace went over class evaluations and what the administrator’s expectations were.
Um, she literally broke it down and, explained to us with every, guideline, every criteria
that that was going to be on there. Um, and she went through it line by line and explain
what that meant or what that looked like and gave us examples, um, and gave us, you
know, her tips and tricks from her decades of servitude as a teacher (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
As the researcher, I found receiving strategies and resources from their mentors one of
the major factors the new educators perceived as essential to their progression as a teacher. These
supports came in many forms, and the literature reviewed for this study discussed the importance
of providing tools for teachers to expand and test their teaching abilities. According to the
literature, an effective leadership provides strategies and resources to developing teachers that
enhance their teaching practices to positively influence student achievement. To make a
difference in teacher performance, the support needs to be both individualized and on-going. The
participating leadership accounted their actions and how they contributed to supporting new
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teachers by sharing best teaching practices and resources. One of the biggest strategies both the
beginning teachers and leadership team found helpful were discussions on classroom
management. The skill to properly manage a classroom conducive to learning is mastered by
very few new teachers. The beginning teacher communicated in the interviews that observing
teachers with great classroom management allowed them to envision how they want their
classrooms to look. Developing a comprehensive induction program is critical for inexperienced
teachers. The types of support given to neophyte teachers can have a lasting impact of their
profession.
Impact of support for beginning teachers. This code had the second highest instance of
all codes with 50 instances coded throughout the data. The idea of teacher induction programs
was to provide new teachers assistance because their preservice training in college was
insufficient. Although the participants believe the program need some improvements, they
confirmed that the impact of the program was positive. Christiana expressed how participating in
the program enhanced her self-efficacy:
I think it helped my confidence because it made me realize that I wasn’t alone in a lot of
the problems that I was experiencing. I was not the only one experiencing them. So being
involved in the program allowed me to know that it was okay if things didn’t go
according to plan and that happened to other people as well. Um, so it was helpful to find
a community like that (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Brenton described the effect of participating in the teacher induction program on his
satisfaction in the teaching profession:
I’m very satisfied. Um, I know for a fact, if not for the program, I would be dissatisfied. I
probably have an unsatisfactory rating about teaching, my first year as a teacher was a
struggle that I try to forget. I was not a part of a community like this my first year. But
because of the program, like I said, it gave me a place to go, it gave me people to talk to,
it gave me, um, those resources that young teachers need. And because I had resources, I
did not get overwhelmed. I didn’t feel personally attacked. And being able to, move
through this thing more smoothly than I ever would by myself (Personal communication
with participant, June, 2020).
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Harrison believes that their work allows new employees to want to come back and teach
another year. He attributes some of it to their participation in the program, he cited,
Well, I think the impact so far has been very positive because right now basically we
have a hundred percent retention rate with our beginning teachers. So, not only are the
teachers satisfied and want to come back, but administrators have been satisfied with
their performance and want them to come back. So, it’s really a two-way street there.
They’re performing well enough to keep their jobs, but they also want to come back
(Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Arianna was most expressive when talking about her professional growth. She was very
pleased with her evaluation scores and thanked her mentor for helping her achieve her high
ratings. With enthusiasm exclaimed,
Knowing that I had that support, and that all the support that I received my first year
helped me with my evaluation and to be able to score so high on my very first evaluation
ever. I think, showed me that, hey, this is something I want to continue to be a part of,
you know. Um, but this is something that I think every new teacher should be a part of.
Um, they helped me with resources to be a better teacher and, you know, overall, I ended
up having a great result with my evaluation at the end of the school year (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
Faith is confident she made a difference in her mentees’ ability to teach their students,
saying,
I think that my role as a mentor, um, help them to achieve a great amount of success in
the classroom, because oftentimes I think that the person, you’re mentoring is looking for
a model. Well, whatever it is that I’m going to pour into them is going to impact what
they pour into the students. I was able to provide them with strategies, proven strategies,
research-based strategies that will work in classrooms, um, that they were serving in. Um,
because ultimately, you know, our goal is to have students achieve success and success is
students learning (Personal communication with participant, July, 2020).
The participants were asked to reflect how the induction program impacted beginning
teacher’s career. According to the literature review, induction programs provides
inexperienced teachers with the necessary models and tools for beginning their teaching careers,
as well as specific guidance aimed at helping them meet performance standards. The
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participating site had a comprehensive induction program for new teachers that included
mentoring from the leadership team, workshops and trainings, and continuous observations
followed by feedback for improvements. The participants believed that the induction program
needed some improvements but had a positive impact on not only the teachers, but the students
they served. The school environment allowed the beginning teachers to feel safe to ask for help,
which increased their self-efficacy and job satisfaction. A major finding was all of the beginning
teachers reportedly returned the following school. The administrator also noted that the
leadership works hard to provide the resources and skills to rookie teachers to enhance their
teaching competency. Although, the participants did not go into specific details about how the
program impacted their student’s academic performance, they believed because the teacher’s
craft improved it impacted their students in an affirmative way. An important aspect of
supporting beginning teachers is giving the leadership team a plan and tools to implement that
plan. Effective induction programs for beginning teachers require the leadership team to undergo
a formal training.
Training to support beginning teachers. Training to support beginning teachers is
necessary. Training can include how to adult learning theories, how to model lesson, how to
observe and give feedback. Yet, all of the mentors and the assistant principal agreed that they
did not receive any formal training to support beginning. They used their own personal
experience to lead them in the role of mentorship. Devin alluded to this by stating,
Every day you walk in the classroom is you’re training. No, nobody really can train you
to be a mentor. There’s no class that you go to because people that run classes don’t
teach at the schools we teach at, they will come in from Philadelphia and New York or
they’ll come from a predominantly white school and try to tell you how to deal with
black kids.
And it just doesn’t, it just don’t work. Every day. You walk in the classroom is your, is
the best education that you can get. Nobody, you can’t read no book about it. I mean, you
can try it. Uh, it was required when I was a mentor to read, uh, Steven Colby, uh, first
days of school, I think the name of it was, and it’s a really good book. You can apply that
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at any year that you’ve been teaching. It’s good for new teachers or if it’s good for
teachers as 30 years, if you haven’t read, it’s a really good book that helps out teachers
(Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Grace described succinctly the criteria used across the district to select teacher induction
program coordinators:
So, I went through a program, um, of about 10 plus hours maybe, and not to mention you
have to go through, uh, several professional developments that are geared toward helping
new teachers. Those are the kinds of experiences I’ve had and not to mention, um, just
my own experience. Um, you’ve surely number one have to be a highly qualified
teacher. You have to have some like successful years, five years or more of, of teaching
and, uh, of getting great scores on your evaluations. So, it’s not just like you’re pushed in
there to help new teachers and you yourself were not an effective teacher that would
defeat the purpose. But, um, those are the kinds of training. If, if you want to call it that,
uh, my own experience, professional developments and getting continued education on,
uh, trends that, that new teachers need to know about (Personal communication with
participant, June, 2020).
Harrison does not recall receiving any specific training on supporting new employees.
However, he believes that as an administrator it would benefit him to know best strategies to
support them. His support comes from his own experience as a teacher and what he expects
from them. Here is Harrison comment on the topic,
Oh, I haven’t received any training regarding the program. I know what the program is
because I’ve seen it at various schools, but I’ve never received any training on it, you
know, I how it works or what exactly the purpose is. Although I know what it is. I just, I
haven’t, they never made me go to a training. It would be helpful to training on best
strategies to mentor them and motivate them. I guess classes like how to teach students
but for beginning teachers (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
There is no doubt that the leadership team is knowledgeable in their specializations. Yet,
research insist that mentors, site coordinators, and administrators must undergo some form of
training to understand how to best mentor beginning teachers (Breaux & Wong, 2003).
Surprisingly, only the site coordinator went through formal training to prepare her for her job.
The other members on the leadership team indicated that their experience as a new teacher
allowed them to have compassion to help the newcomers alleviate any stress about their new
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work responsibilities. Additionally, the leadership team obtained their position on campus
because of their history of successfully having great instructional practices that led to student
learning advances. The participants also indicated that training in the future is needed because
there were times when they felt like they did not have the knowledge to assist teachers in certain
emergencies. There are many roles and responsibilities assigned to the leadership team to ensure
beginning teacher are adjusted into the teaching community. These factors also contribute to
their perception of how they believe they should support newcomers.
Leadership team’s perception of support given to beginning teachers. Numerically,
this sub-theme returned the highest open code value and was found 61 times in the data. The
leadership team’s support of beginning teachers sets the tone at the top and is the foundation of
the teacher induction program. As new hires, novice teachers were vulnerable and required
support. The leadership shared how their role contributed to supporting beginning teachers to
reach competency in teaching the students they serve. Devin believes being a mentor means
being there for his mentee in the way that she needed him, someone to vent, someone who can
model proven strategies in the classroom, and someone who is patient.
You know, somebody, like I said, when you have somebody who’s willing to help you
out, when you have somebody that’s willing to tell you, it’s going to be all right, you
know, that’s gonna model for you and it’s going to, uh, go in and sit with you and talk
with you. My mentee had a hard time in the beginning. She was coming in to take other
someone else’s classroom, So, you can imagine that it was a rough transition. I remember
when she called me one day and said she was done and she wasn’t coming back. I had to
give to her vent and then I gave her some tough love. I guess it paid off. Well she’s
definitely coming back. She’s looking forward to coming back. I knew I had to keep a
close eye on her because she was insecure in her ability to teach. So, I started to observe
her teaching to see what she did, uh, to see what she did that may need some
improvement on. Eventually she started to gain confidence, but it took some time to get
her adjusted with working with kids (Personal communication with participant, June,
2020).
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Elizabeth’s mentees taught different courses, but she was able to still help them develop
pedagogical skills. This is how she was able to mentor her mentees,
The teachers that are in the magnet program that were first year teachers, I took them
under my wing and just showed them, um, they know the content, but they don’t know
the, um, the classroom side of it. It would be like, okay, yeah. You know how to code or
you know how to make a broadcast, but how can you effectively teach students to do the
same thing? That’s where I would come (Personal communication with participant, July,
2020).
Faith used her experience as a teacher to provide resources for her mentees when they
lacked certain skills. It was important for her to show them how to obtain resources so they can
indulge in them whenever they needed to.
Okay, I would tell my mentees let’s look at this or you can look here for activities. This is
where you can find some help with this so that you can achieve mastery before you try to
give it to the kids, because there’s nothing worse than trying to reteach stuff, you know? I
teach my mentees that you have to know you content. If you don’t know your content
nothing else matters. Once the content knowledge is down, we can talk about how to
deliver it the students and classroom management is interconnected. But the content
knowledge must be present. I am here not to judge my mentees and I believe that they
know that by now. I want them to be honest with me, it’s ok to not know, however its not
okay to deliver wrong information to students when there are resources out there to help
you understand the content (Personal communication with participant, July, 2020).
The role of the teacher induction program coordinators is to link new teachers with
support. During her hall duty, the coordinator checked in with mentors and mentees and found
out how things were going. While circulating the building, she found out what else she could do
to support beginning teachers and mentors. Proudly, Grace stated what it means to be a teacher
induction program coordinator on her campus,
Oh, wow, being a coordinator means assisting teachers when they are new to teaching,
um, to give them the guidance, to show compassion, you know, to make sure that every
question they have is answered and make sure that they are given strategies when they’re
not really familiar with the school or not just with the school, but with teaching period to
give them good strategies that they could use in or out of the classroom. I am the liaison
for new teachers. I believe it is my job to bring people and resources together to guide
new teachers in being great educators (Personal communication with participant, June,
2020).
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One of the administrator’s responsibilities was to observe developing teachers formally
and informally, complete an evaluation report, and provide feedback in a timely manner. As one
of the administrators on campus, Harrison disclosed his role in supporting new teachers and how
he wants to be perceived,
The other side of being an administrator is needing to be a coach for teachers, especially
new teachers. And some people are better at that than others. So, I think probably the
coaching part of it is the most important part of being an assistant principal and being
supportive, being able to answer questions, not being looked at as an evaluator, but more
of as a mentor (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
The leadership team was asked to reflect on how they supported novice during the
interviews. Their experiences described what professional and personal supports were given to
new teachers. The mentors believed that their main purpose in the induction program was to
collaborate with their mentees on lesson planning, finding research-based instructional materials
and resources, model best teaching practices, provide informative feedback on their mentee’s
teaching, and listen to their mentee’s concerns and answer questions. The site coordinator,
Grace, was the glue that kept the program together. It was her responsibility to match the
mentees with a mentor, offer advice to both the mentors and mentees about their role in the
program, host meeting and professional development for mentees, and report the progress of the
beginning teachers to the administrators. The participating administrator reported he wanted to
be seen as a mentor not an evaluator that comes in and gives negative feedback. He believes his
role as an administrator allows him to give teachers autotomy to take risk and guide them as
they discover their teacher identity. Overall, the leadership team voiced that their role was to be
the newcomers bridge between inexperienced and positively impacting student achievement.
Beginning teachers come to the profession with many gaps and require a lot of support from the
leadership team. Like any given classroom, that support needs to be differentiated and unique to
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the rookie teacher. Hence, the leadership team experienced a variety of challenges when trying to
support beginning teachers.
Challenges of the leadership team in supporting beginning teachers. There are
challenges embedded in every job. During one-on-one interviews, the leadership team described
challenges while supporting new teachers. All the participants on the leadership team agreed that
making time for beginning teachers was a challenge because they still had other responsibilities
on campus. The leadership team echoed that it takes time to nurture a teacher into competency
and sometimes the time needed is not available to them, however, they did they best they could
with the time allotted. Devin recited his own challenges in supporting new teachers in a very
weary tone of voice,
A lot of times they just want to give up, you know, no matter what you say, they want to
give it. They say I can’t do it, like you do it. And I’m saying I got over two decades, back
then I didn’t do it, like I’m doing it. You know, if you take me back to 1999 and have me
look at the 2020 Guillory, I’ll be like, I could never be that person. I can’t be that person.
And now, you know, there are a lot of people that’s much greater than I am. I’m not
saying that I’m the best teacher, but I’m saying what I do works for me and it took time
and determination and for me not to give up. So, at times I struggled motivating my
mentees to stay in the game and don’t quit. Eventually it will get better (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
Grace challenge was giving feedback to mentees. She had to show compassion and give
constructive criticism at the same time and sometimes it did not always go so well. She
resounded,
If a beginning teacher, did not want to discuss certain topics or was very defensive, that
was a little challenging, but I realized that, um, everybody gets frustrated. So that’s
nothing new. Um, I would, you know, just being patient, I think that was the challenge,
just being patient and realizing that sometimes new teachers come with their own ideas,
being patient to see if what their idea is and if it’s going to work. And if it’s not working
coming up with ways to be sensitive about how to refine their craft. I always like to start
off with a glow that usually helps (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
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Harrison remembered how difficult it was to collaborate with beginning teachers on
creating a new curriculum. He suggested that the task was very different than working with
veteran teachers. He insisted veteran teachers have some experience with planning and he just
had to approve the final layout. However, with the beginning teachers it was a hands-on
assignment for him. He stated,
Well, for some elective teachers that taught new courses in the district, didn’t have a
curriculum. And some of the teachers were brand new teachers so that made it even more
challenging trying to piece together a curriculum and show them how to complete lesson
plan and how to implement the lessons in the classrooms. We found courses that were
very similar at local colleges. In other cases, we just made our own curriculum, um,
based on projects and skills, we thought that the students needed. In the beginning I had
to do a lot because let’s face these new teachers had no idea about creating a curriculum,
but we worked on them together. I wanted to include them in the process because I
wanted them to feel like they had a voice in what they were teaching, it was tough trying
to explain things but it eventually worked out. At least I think so (Personal
communication with participant, June, 2020).
The leadership team was presented with challenges while supporting novice teachers.
They disclose these obstacles during the ono-on-one interviews. One of the major challenges the
leadership team faced was finding the time to support new teachers. Being a mentor for new
teachers is not a light task. Beginning teachers came with no experience and heavily relied on
the leadership team for support. This presented itself as a challenge when new teachers had
emergencies or needed answers to questions when the leadership team was unavailable due to
other obligations. These challenges created tension in the work place and resulted in leadership
teams’ disappointment with not being able to give the type of service mentee teachers deserve.
There is no such thing as a perfect teacher induction program. Therefore, there is always room
for improvement to program beginning teachers the best support system possible. Induction
programs should have basic tenets but also, be structured so that individuals’ needs are
adequately addressed.
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Suggestions to improve the support given to beginning teachers. During the
interviews, the participants were asked how can the program improve to better serve beginning
teachers. These suggestions are drawn from the participants and what they felt was lacking in the
program. Elizabeth was not in an induction program, although there was one when she first
started teaching. She also indicated the value it could possibly have on new teachers and how
she felt she was left out. She voiced her opinion about allowing new hires go under the radar,
Um, the only thing that I can suggest for the program is to make sure that we get every
single teacher, new teacher that come on our campus get into this program with a good
mentor teacher, um, and not let anybody slip through the cracks like me and other
teachers. I know a couple of teachers that I believed that needed help but didn’t get
because they fell through the cracks. I tried my best trying to juggle my responsibilities,
mentoring my mentees, and helping those I see need help. But we definitely left some
people out. So, just making sure that every new teacher is in the program and getting
paired with great mentor teachers, just making sure that they do that with fidelity
(Personal communication with participant, July, 2020).
Faith endorsed the number one suggestion of improvement, time. She believed that most
of her support happened afterschool but noticed that sometimes her mentees needed her during
school hours. She was not able to give them full attention that they deserved because she also
had classes she taught. She spoke candidly and said,
I think the interaction time needs to be better. Um, there needs to be more time built in
for the mentor to be able to work with the mentee. Um, time is everything because it
takes time to grow a teacher. Uh, it takes time for a teacher to, uh, have the kind of
confidence necessary that the kids recognize, you know, when the kids recognize that
you’re confident and you know your material and you have a heart for them, I think that
that helps. Yeah. That’s something that they don’t have right away is reputation, you
know, and a good reputation solves a whole lot. This takes time, that mentors simply
don’t have (Personal communication with participant, July, 2020).
Arianna suggested that some on the leadership team had too many responsibilities on
campus. She stated that restructuring the program so that the leadership team were not
overwhelmed with other tasks will allow them to give more adequate support for beginning
teachers.
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Um, I can say this year, we kind of slipped a little with not having as much time and I
know that was because I felt like our in our coordinator was being pulled in too many
directions that she could not focus on us as much as she did the previous year. So, if she
is not being pulled in so many directions where she can actually continue to focus on the
program. I feel like it will be given more time, you know, to have those meetings and
things like that. Last year, I believe we did more because she didn’t have as much as she
does now (Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
Grace confirmed that her role was compromised by the additional task she took on this
school year. She recommended the following for the upcoming school year,
To really get everything together, um, that would help a new teacher, I think an assistant
leader, uh, would be great. I’m not sure how we could make the funding work, but having
fresh eyes to assist me would be helpful to not only me, um, but the new teachers. Yea,
because it just gives us, them more resources and more people they can confide in
(Personal communication with participant, June, 2020).
After establishing emerging themes, a description from different perspectives, roles, and
functions followed. The researcher developed a textural description, such as what was the
experiences of the participants in the teacher induction program. One important finding from this
single case study was that participants had a shared language. They used words and phrases
central to mentoring such as “supporting beginning teachers”, “support system,” “building a
relationship,” “teamwork,” “trust,” “compassion,” “time,” “modeling,” “transparent”,
“expectations”, and “strategies.” In collective, these words and phrases influenced participants’
perception of one of Louisiana’s teacher induction programs.
Surprisingly, all of the beginning teachers in this present study shared that they received
an alternative teaching certification. Alternative certification is not a different certification, but
an alternative route to the same certification that you receive in a traditional university teaching
program. Alternative certification is an option for aspiring teachers with a college degree to
become a solution for understaffed schools, especially in specific content areas such as math,
science, and foreign languages. The benefits for alternative certifications are two sided: it allows
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districts to find highly qualified teachers, and career changers to apply their job experience in
classroom teaching without having to take a pause for one to two years to go back to school. In
the state of Louisiana, alternatively certified teachers enter the classroom without preservice
training. The participants were required to pass the appropriate content area Praxis exam, a basic
skills test, and become employed in a school district in Louisiana. After receiving their teaching
certification, the novice teachers entered their high school classrooms with no prior course work
in the field of education.
The participants disclosed that the new hires participated in the same teacher induction
program in the same manner as traditional certified teachers. Although some of the beginning
teachers came in the profession with some content knowledge to meet the definition as a highly
effective teacher, they often lack the necessary pedagogical knowledge and training to be an
effective teacher (Torff & Sessions, 2009). Hence, the alternatively certified teachers at the
study site lacked field experiences. This lack is important because field experiences expose
preservice teachers to the classroom environment by providing observation and interactions with
professionally certified experienced teachers (Boyd, Grossman, Lankford, Loeb, & Wyckoff,
2009). Furthermore, field experiences expose preservice teachers to the diverse learners and
classroom management strategies. Lack of field experiences contributed to the challenges that
the beginning teachers faced. The trials of the beginning teachers demanded a different type of
support from the leadership team to accommodate for their inexperience in teaching.
The early career teachers described professional support in terms of the teacher induction
program. The participants had varying degrees of support given to the beginning teachers.
Arianna shared that she appreciated the in-class observations and immediate feedback, while
Brent became anxious when being observed by administrators. According to the literature,
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beginning teachers want a leadership team that will guide them not micromanage by being
involved in attending planning meetings, giving helpful advice about curriculum and instruction,
and supporting them with discipline issues so that they can teach effectively. The mentees
reported that their relationship with their mentors to some extent increased their teaching ability
by assisting them with understanding the responsibility of being a teacher. They also reported
that the sharing of teaching strategies and resources was important, but even more beneficial
was their mentors’ abilities to help them reflect critically on their own teaching. The neophyte
teachers made some suggestions to improve the induction program. One of recommendations
was allowing more time for their mentors to support them. Arianna also suggested that
decreasing some of the site coordinator’s, Grace, responsibilities so that she can have time to
focus on the program.
The participants on the leadership team discussed their perception of how to support new
colleagues. Interviewed leadership team members all stated that from their perspective, their
primary role relative to fresh teachers is to ensure a safe working environment in which they
have the materials, resources, and structure needed to do their jobs. According to the literature,
the leadership team should provide emotional, social, instructional, and physical support for
novice teachers by ascribing a shared commitment to establish a positive school culture of
professional and personal growth. Although literature recommends that the leadership team
needs training on how to best support beginning teachers, only the site coordinator received any
formal training. The other members on the leadership team used their experience as beginning
teachers and they understanding of what it means to mentor them to provide the best support to
the new hires. The participating administrator suggested that he would want training on
supporting the beginning teacher as he acknowledged the lack of formal training. Another
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recommendation was making sure that every beginning teacher on campus is not overlooked and
is inducted in the induction program.
Interpretation of the Findings
The collective participants revealed information that led to themes mirroring the content
of teacher development. All research questions were answered by one or more of the three
themes described in detail in the previous section. The three themes were (a) understanding the
experiences of beginning teacher’s development, (b) creating a community for beginning
teacher’s development, and (c) influencing the progression of beginning teacher’s development.
Research Question One
What are the perceptions of beginning teachers about the teacher induction program?
Research question one unpacked the effectiveness of a teacher induction program in Louisiana
from the beginning teachers’ point of view. Very early in their first year, beginning teachers,
(Arianna, Brenton, and Christiana), realized they had gaps in their preservice training, such as
lack of courses in classroom management and differentiated instruction, which made them great
candidates for the teacher induction program. Thus, the novice teachers requested help with
lesson planning, curriculum resources, school layout and procedures, and how to handle
classroom management. The daily operational tasks were new to the novice teachers and the
support of their peers and administrators relieved some of the stress endured in their teaching
career. As the beginning teachers sought guidance from seasoned teachers, the mentee-mentor
relationship grew. The developing teachers stated that the feedback received from their
observations was an invaluable tool used as sources of information regarding resolving problems
related to more effective teaching strategies and increasing rigor in the classroom. They
suggested the work environment was positive and made them feel comfortable to seek guidance
from majority of their coworkers.
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Although the beginning teachers felt that overall, the program was beneficial, they had
some suggestions of improvement. The biggest sense of frustration with the program came from
the lack of time available for participating in the program. All of the beginning teacher reiterated
that they needed an additional time during the school operating hours with their mentors. They
stated that their mentors were willing to help them anytime afterschool, however they needed
them the most during school. Another recommendation was making sure that all new teachers
were invited into the program. Brenton was inducted into the program during his second year
because he was overlooked. He indicated that the lack of support during his first year magnified
the challenges he faced his first year and being a part of a community that supported beginning
teacher would have been valuable.
Research Question Two
How do mentors, teacher induction program coordinators, and administrators support
beginning teachers? Research question two investigated how the leadership team perceived their
role in the induction program embraced the development of beginning teachers. Harrison, an
assistant principal, believe his purpose was to be seen as another mentor for beginning teachers
and not an evaluator that comes into their room and tell them what they are doing wrong.
Harrison also implied that the administrators held high expectations for the program and
implemented policies that formed accountability and provision. The administrators ensured both
the mentors and the novice teachers taught the same subject and have the same planning period
so they are able to lesson plan together and meet daily. The principal also noted that the novice
teacher’s classroom was in a close proximity to his or her mentor teacher.
During the interview, Grace, the program coordinator, described her role as the central
contact for the campus’s teacher induction program, that paired mentees and mentors, hosted
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meetings, provided feedback from observations, and answered questions. She also specified her
role has taught her that she must show compassion and be patient with learning educators.
Additionally, Grace reported weekly to the administrators to provide an update of the program.
The mentors, (Devin, Elizabeth, and Faith), believed that their role was to give their mentees
proven strategies to become effective teachers. This was accomplished by providing emotional,
social, and physical support such as listening to their mentees vent about their frustrations,
motivating to keep going, checking on them regularly, and providing resources and feedback
from random classroom observations. They also indicated that they modeled classroom
procedures and lessons.
The leadership team, (administrators, program coordinator, and mentors), had some
recommendations for the teacher induction program as well. Some of the suggestions were
similar to the beginning teacher such as building more time during school hour to support
beginning teachers. The mentors felt it was important to have the same planning period as their
mentees, but did not like having to use all of their personal planning time to meet with their
mentor teacher. Also, the team agreed completing a survey or inventory of the faculty members
on campus would make sure that all beginning teachers are inducted into the program. Another
suggestion was giving the program coordinator an assistant to help with the daily demands of
operating the program. Grace implied the program’s effectiveness was compromised because she
had other obligations on campus. She believed the induction program could be more impactful
with additional support.
Research Question Three
How does the teacher induction program impact professional development for beginning
teachers? Research question three examined the impact of participating in an induction program
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in Louisiana on beginning teachers. The researcher was looking at how the teacher induction
program specifically impacted beginning teacher’s self-efficacy, job satisfaction, retention,
teacher effectiveness, and student achievement.
During the interviews the mentors stated that they engaged fresh teachers in activities that
built their self-efficacy. The responses indicated that the most common way mentors built new
teacher self-efficacy was through comments that impacted the physiological and affective state
mind of the new teachers. The beginning teachers recalled how observing their mentors model
strategies made them comfortable to try them in their own classrooms. As the teachers began to
enhance their teaching skills their confidence in teaching their students increased.
The responses from the interviews revealed that the beginning teachers endured some
challenges that initially effected their job satisfaction. All the beginning teachers reported that
they believe that they are satisfied with teaching students because of the support they received in
the induction program. Additionally, being involved in a community that allowed them to shared
their frustrations and receive advice made them feel secure.
According to the participants all of the beginning teachers will be returning to teaching
the following school year. The participants believed this was a result of providing sufficient
guidance to new employees and making the work environment inviting. Furthermore, the
beginning teachers highlighted the fact that their colleagues were very knowledgeable and
willing to share resources. One novice teacher reported he was returning because she felt like he
was a part of a family.
Data revealed that mentors were the most influential component of the teacher induction
program. It is evident that mentors had prior teaching experience within the same subject as their
mentees because many of the questions that beginning teachers had was related to curriculum
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and instruction. Additionally, the availability of these mentors was crucial for beginning
teachers. All mentees testified gaining new skills from the conversations and feedback their
mentors provided which was then transferable to their classroom.
Some new teachers recalled how the program impacted their student’s learning. It was
suggested that the professional development the beginning teachers received helped increase
their student achievement. It was not stated what evidence they had for student growth or how
beginning teacher’s student growth compared to seasoned teacher’s student growth. Nonetheless,
the leadership team stated that as the beginning teacher continue to grow, in tandem, their
students’ success will grow as well.
Summary
Chapter Four reported the findings of this single case study. The findings of the data
collection and analysis addressed the research questions: What are the perceptions of beginning
teachers about the teacher induction program? How do mentors, teacher induction program
coordinators, and administrators support beginning teachers? How does the teacher induction
program impact professional development for beginning teachers? After the educators were
referred, they were contacted to request their participation. One-on-one interviews via zoom
were arranged, and interviews were conducted, video/audio-taped, and transcribed. Stories were
written from the transcriptions, and interviews were coded to determine themes of the ways in
which the teacher induction program supported the development of beginning teachers.
Three significant themes emerged from this analysis: (a) understanding the experiences
of beginning teacher’s development, (b) creating a community for beginning teacher’s
development, and (c) influencing the progression of beginning teacher’s development. From the
themes, the research questions were answered. Based on the data, educators participating in the
teacher induction program concluded the program is one of quality, but participants offered
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specific areas for improvements. The results of the study provided critical new information to
district stakeholders, researchers, and practitioners in the area of teacher development.
In Chapter Five, I offered a discussion of the single case study. Specifically, limitations
and delimitations of the study, the discussion included the study’s findings, implications for
practice, as well as potential future research ideas in the area of induction. Finally, I summarized
the scope of the qualitative single case study.
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CHAPTER 5. DISCUSSION
Introduction
The purpose of Chapter Five was to provide a discussion that connect the literature
review with the study’s findings. Thus, through data collection and analysis the findings
highlighted the viewpoints of educators participating in a teacher induction program in
Louisiana and determined the impact of the induction program on teacher development. First,
this chapter began with the description of the study’s’ limitations and delimitations. Second, the
researcher provided a discussion of the findings reported in Chapter Four. Third, a discourse on
implications for practice based on this study’s findings is included. Fourth, a written dialogue on
possible future research was presented. Finally, the chapter concluded with a summary of the
research study.
Limitations
There were several limitations of this study since the aim was focused specifically on the
understanding of educators’ perception of a teacher induction program in Louisiana and the
impact of the program on beginning teachers. Regardless of how much the researcher attempted
to remove herself from the study, the representation of the data probably cognitively included
biases. Another limitation of this study, was the lack of time to conduct this study. Case studies
generally require an extended stay in the field (Creswell, 2018). However, being on the inside as
an educator, as a moderate participant observer as per Spradley (2016) provided the researcher
the opportunity to gain an extensive understanding of the participant’s discernment of
participating in the teacher induction program. Another limitation was the impact of COVID-19
on collecting data from participants. Face-to-face interviews were preferred but due to health
restrictions the interviews were conducted on Zoom.
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Delimitations
There were several choices that the researcher made in the design of the research that
impacted the findings of the study. Participation in the study will limited to the group of high
school educators that are currently participating in the teacher induction program. Despite the
fact that other educators in the school district have been through the program, the focus of this
study was on the most recent participants in the program. The reason that the researcher decided
to limit the study in this fashion was that the researcher wanted to evaluate the program that
most represents the current trend of the program. Past participants in the program had specific
components that were different in their program since the program has evolved over time.
Another choice the researcher made was limiting the study to one school. The choice was
made to focus on a single school in a populous school district in Louisiana. Also, limiting the
setting allowed the researcher to collect, analyze, and answer the research questions in a timely
manner. It was also convenient for the researcher to gather information in the selected school
and school district. No observations of classrooms were used and no student performance data
were a part of the research. Due to time constraints, conducting the study over the summer break,
and COVID-19 health restrictions observations were not obtained. Additionally, the researcher
wanted to avoid educators feeling threatened by the research findings to be connected back to
them. However, the researcher was able to obtain additional sources of data through artifacts and
documents from the participants and a reflective notebook kept by the researcher.
Discussion of Findings
Training beginning teachers is multi-dimensional. State and district policies, challenges
of beginning teachers, role of administrators, role of program coordinators, role of mentors,
and other colleagues affected this school’s teacher induction program. As the data only pertains
to a select number of educators in a single school, it is critical to realize this research was not
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intended to generalize all teacher induction programs from this study to solving numerous
problems, rather, this study will allow an in-depth investigation of one setting and context (Guba
and Lincoln, 2005). And while results may not be generalizable to similar situations and
environments, results are still timely and germane to induction. According to Lincoln, Lynham,
& Guba (2008), constructivist inquiry is not intended for immediate change as much it is meant
to lead to “intellectual digestion” (p. 112). Instead, the aim of this research was to improve
teacher education, especially for beginning teachers, through personal reflections by examining a
single setting. A constructivist point of view was ideally suited to address this issue because it is
intended to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
The present single case study emerged common patterns during the coding process that
led to the formation of three major themes: (a) understanding the experiences of beginning
teacher’s development, (b) creating a community for beginning teacher’s development, and (c)
influencing the progression of beginning teacher’s development. While intellectual attributes
were recognized, sentimental attributes and professional dispositions appeared to be more
abundant from the perspectives of the participants. The themes reflected in the findings
demonstrated a relationship between participants perspectives on what attributes influence the
teaching and learning process, and also how the district’s induction program influenced
beginning teachers’ attributes and dispositions. Although the participants agreed that the teacher
induction program positively impacted beginning teacher’s professional growth, they also shared
recommendations for the program in order to effectively support future inductees. Each
dimension of the district’s induction program was discussed and the findings were aligned with
the literature.
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This school district’s mentoring program was aligned with state policy and have the
following goals: (a) to integrate new teachers into the culture and climate of our schools and our
school district; (b) to assist beginning teachers in managing the challenges that are common to
all teachers; (c) to enhance our teachers through professional learning and reflection on their
practice and on student learning; (d) to increase and improve the recruitment, retention, &
success of beginning teachers; (e) to encourage teacher leadership in the district; (f) to
successfully meet the qualities of the Louisiana Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric
(COMPASS) and improve teaching performance and enhance student achievement. Research
suggests that some novice teachers might not be assigned mentors due to lack of a match by
subject area and grade level (Billingsley, Griffin, Smith, Kamman, & Israel, 2009). That was not
the circumstance for this particular school. In view of this school district’s teacher induction
program policy, participants confirmed that the school site had a two-year induction program,
whereby new teachers were matched with mentors based on subject area. The study also
revealed that the some of the administrators and mentors were not provided training before
participating in the induction program and used their own experiences as a neophyte teacher to
support their mentees. The participants suggested that although their experiences were beneficial
to supporting mentee teachers, they wished they had some form of training prior to participating
in the program. This suggest that the district’s induction program must allocate funding and time
to provide effective training to personnel responsible for training green teachers.
The rookie teachers realized they had gaps in their preservice training due to receiving an
alternative teaching certification. Billingsley et al. (2009) found that novice teachers battled with
assimilating in a new work environment, finding instructional materials, lesson planning,
teaching diverse students, and classroom management, which left them feeling isolated and
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anxious. The findings of the present study agreed with recent research to a certain degree. The
fresh teachers agreed that they found certain teaching responsibilities challenging and left some
participants feeling anxious and insecure of their teaching ability. These participants believed
that the caseload, lack of teaching experience, and insufficient time to complete daily task
contributed to feeling overwhelmed. However, participants knew whom to contact when issues
arose. Furthermore, they did not seem reluctant to ask for assistance from their new colleagues.
To the induction program credit, the mentee teachers were assigned a mentor during school and
after hours to address these issues. Additionally, the leadership team played a strategic role in
the support of beginning teachers.
The administrators played a strategic role in the support of new teachers. Henley et al.
(2010) suggested that as teachers interact with their colleagues, a deeper sense of community
and purpose evolves. Administrators supported novice teachers by treating them like family and
encouraging teamwork. According to the participants, the administrators often led afterschool
faculty functions (e.g. holiday parties and birthday celebrations) where the staff was able to
mingle with each other and bond not just on a collegiate level, but as a work family. Leko and
Smith (2010) insisted that administrators, who possess a high degree of emotional intelligence,
will implement an inclusive work environment. Likewise, the participants agreed that the
administrators established a school wide culture of teamwork. The findings suggested that on-
the-job training was provided to some inexperienced teachers such that they were given the
opportunity to attend workshops and observe effective teachers. The administrators believed that
beginning teachers should be exposed to a variety of methods of delivery, however time and
other factors made this extremely hard to accomplish. Nonetheless, the role of an administrator
was filled with additional challenges in supporting new hires. As stated previously, novice
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teachers were overwhelmed with caseload and paperwork which prevented the participants from
co-planning during school hours. Due to lack of faculty members and funding, the
administrators found it difficult to lessen the workload of mentee teachers. Another challenge
that was mentioned was the ability to provide specific professional development for new
teachers. On professional development days, novice teachers were receiving the same
information in the same manner as veteran teachers. The administrators noted that this often
resulted in new teachers becoming overwhelmed with new information. However, due to time
constraints and needing to deliver important information to all faculty and staff, whole group
meetings were convenient and expeditious. This suggest that the administrators should follow up
with beginning teachers after each professional development to ensure that beginning teachers
were receptive to the new information. Additionally, administration needs to carve out time for
individual meetings and feedback when needed.
The program coordinator was the key player who kept the induction program running.
The most prominent task was selecting veteran teachers to mentor beginning teachers. The
administrators gave the coordinator autonomy to assign partnerships as she sees fit. The
coordinator outlined her rationale for each collaboration by evaluating each participant’s
personality, but most importantly the content area they are certified to teach. According, to the
coordinator it was important that the mentor and mentee worked well together and that their
personalities did not clash. It was also noted that mismatched pairing rarely occurred, but in the
event that it did, she quickly resolved the issue. Resolution was done by meeting with the pair to
determine if they could amend the fractured relationship. If the amendment did not occur then
the coordinator would terminate the mentoring relationship and pair the mentee with a new
mentor. The coordinator emphasized that the purpose of mentoring was to nurture beginning
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teachers and reproduce the inclusive work environment culture. Moreover, the coordinator
fielded questions, facilitated the monthly meetings for neophyte teachers and mentors,
maintained the district’s induction program handbook. Time was the biggest encounter the
coordinator had to overcome. She disclosed that being a coordinator was not her only role on
campus and often times she could not fully implement the program due to time constraints. She
suggested having additional support such as an assist would alleviate some of the burden of
having multiple roles on campus. This suggest that the school is lean on staff and may need to
evaluate how roles are distributed. This would allow faculty members not to feel overloaded by
sharing major responsibilities throughout the school.
Gallagher, Abbott-Shim, and VandeWiele (2011) described mentors as veteran teachers
who formed partnerships with mentees to acquire and apply newly acquired knowledge. Mentors
are personnel that have a history of displaying best teaching practices with lead to greater student
achievement. The findings revealed that the mentors reflected on their experiences as first couple
of years as teachers and wanted better experiences for their mentees. The mentors were in close
proximity and met with them frequently to provide emotional, social, and physical support.
When time permitted, mentors divulged that they observed their mentees. Observations were key
for mentors to determine what skills their mentees excelled at and what skills they needed to
enhanced. Additionally, mentors allowed their mentees to observe them to model best teaching
practices. Afterwards the mentors and mentees would meet up, usually afterschool, to reflect on
the classroom observations. The reflection was not only insightful to the beginning teachers but
to the veteran teachers. The informal meetings allowed the mentors to reflect on ways of how
they can become better teachers for their students. Mentors also mentioned ways they reduced a
stressful work environment by being available, giving resources and advice, and providing
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affirmation to their mentees. These supportive strategies improved the new teacher’s self-
efficacy and commitment to profession. Like the other participants, the mentors declared that
lack of time prevented them to support their mentees in the manner that they envisioned. Often
times their mentees needed them when they were engaged with their own students. This made it
difficult to answer questions and burn out fires when the learning teachers needed it the most.
The mentors and mentees were given a common planning period, however, the mentors
indicated that they needed time to handle their own professional responsibilities. This suggest
that the mentors had imbalanced prep time for their mentees and themselves and additional
planning period is necessary to accomplish daily task. The findings also publicized that some of
the colleagues informally mentored beginning teachers and assumed some of the responsibility
of mentors. This was done intentionally to ensure an inclusive work environment where teachers
felt comfortable working together.
Study Impact
This study contributed to the literature by providing a direct comparison of the
experiences of participants in using a single case study design. The major findings were that
educators had a shared language as they described their experiences in the district’s teacher
induction program. Not all teacher induction programs are of the same quality. This school
district’s teacher induction program was compared to the literature. Comprehensive teacher
induction programs (a) train and develop mentors and mentees, (b) pair mentors and mentees
with the same certification and school, (c) allow for common planning time, (d) provide time for
mentors and mentees to observe each other, (e) reduce workload of mentors and mentees, (f)
engage a broad network of teachers, (g) assess mentees using formal standards, and (h) provide
mentoring beyond three years (Andrews, Gilbert, & Martin, 2007; Barrera, Braley, & Slate,
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2010; Washburn-Moses, 2010). The aforementioned attributes were evident in the school
district’s induction program for beginning teachers except for training mentors and
administrators, reduced workload for both mentors and mentees, and mentoring support
beyond three years. This suggests that the school district may have a shortage of staff and lack
of funds to fully implement all of the major component of a teacher induction program. In view
of the
literature, the school district’s teacher induction program has the potential to improve, which
will likely have a positive effect on beginning teachers’ self-efficacy, job satisfaction,
commitment to the profession, teaching competency, and student achievement.
Implications for Practice
Implications form this study were especially germane to the site (school) where
participants worked, however, similar schools and /or new teachers, inductions coordinators,
veteran teachers, and school-level administrators in other settings may glean much from this
study. The implications for practice within a teacher induction program presented a variety of
issues that can affect a school district. This study provided insight for the professional needs of
beginning teachers. The data – interviews, site document, and researcher’s reflective notebook in
this study – and subsequent analysis, provided support for positive social and professional
change in high schools, as well as school districts, as increasing numbers of new teacher,
individuals enter high schools with no preservice training (EG alternative certification programs
such as Teach for America). Additionally, the study provided a framework for leadership
capacity that will assist high school principals, district administrators, college professors, and
state department of education specialists to improve the transitions of alternatively certified
beginning teachers. The research findings guided the study’s implications for high school
leadership teams and school districts in the local setting charged with the responsibility of
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improving beginning teachers’ self-efficacy, job satisfaction, retention, teaching competency,
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and student achievement. Based on the data, an effective teacher induction program should
consist of several components of support based on the perceptions of this single case study’s
participants. These components translate into teachers believing they can be successful in the
profession; consequently, they are more likely to remain in profession. Some of those have
already been discussed in Chapter Four under the Themes section and the Interpretation of the
Findings section. A fuller discussion follows.
This single case study also served as evidence that there is a need for additional state
funds to support a mandated teacher induction program. School districts cannot rely solely on
Title II funds or local funds to meet the needs of novice teachers. There must be support
provided from the state level to assist school districts that are not able to employ a
comprehensive teacher induction program. A financial collaboration among the state department
of education, school districts, and high schools, may allow the stakeholder responsible for
designing and implementing a teacher induction program to enhance beginning teacher’s
professional development needs. The allocation funds may contribute to implementing training
for the leadership team, preparation time for the leadership team to support new teachers,
stipends for mentors, orientation for beginning teachers, and substitutes teachers for novice
teachers to attend workshops or conferences. These expenses could prove to be a valuable asset
to the schools if the funds are appropriately allocated for a front-end approach to teacher
induction programs.
Teacher induction programs should be comprised of a leadership team that includes
administrators, program coordinator, instructional coaches, and mentors. These personnel have
had proven success in the classroom and are committed to mentoring beginning teachers. The
leadership team must be able to show high emotional intelligence to provide the social and
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emotional support beginning teachers need. This may help green teachers feel welcomed to teach
in the new work environment and also feel comfortable to ask for assistance. It is also important
to note that the leadership team should plan ahead, a calendar with events related to the induction
program should be available to all faculty members. The calendar should also leave room for
flexibility to account for unexpected concerns or opportunities for new hires. A flexible calendar
may ensure that as the school year unfolds, the teacher induction program tailor its actions to
meet the individual needs of new teachers. Administrators should try to utilize as many faculty
members as possible to share responsibilities in the program to ensure that the leadership team
are not overwhelmed with multiple obligations. Before the leadership team interacts with
beginning teachers, they need to undergo a formal training. During this training, all expectations
need to be addressed in addition to plans on how to best support mentee teachers. The site
coordinators should strive to employ all of the components of a comprehensive teacher induction
program and discuss the how the components will be implemented during the trainings.
Trainings may also occur throughout the school year, as specific novice teacher’s professional
development needs emerge.
As an important consideration, there is limited knowledge of how induction program
supports the needs of alternatively certified secondary education teachers. Typically, secondary
school alternatively certified teachers do not participate in research studies as a special subgroup
of the education population. The professional development needs of this unique group of
teachers are significant to the education society to ensure the quality of their instruction as well
as the quality of the professional support they receive (Greenlee & Brown, 2009). Contingent on
the alternative certification program, many new teachers lack the field experience or college
coursework typically completed in traditional university education program to prepare teacher
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(Steadman & Simmons, 2007). Simmons (2005) contends that because new alternatively
certified teachers assume dual roles as teachers and students, they tend focus on daily survival of
their needs instead of the needs of the students. Therefore, school districts and school
administrators should provide supplemental professional support and development to this
specialty class of secondary education teachers as they assimilate into their new careers as
classroom teachers. The differentiated professional support mediates the effects of a beginning
teacher’s lack of student teaching experience, which will surely help the teacher’s self-efficacy,
job satisfaction, intent to remain in education, teacher effectiveness, and student achievement
(Connelly & Graham, 2009; Tickle, Chang, & Kim, 2011).
After novice teachers have been hired, they need to become acquainted with the way
their new school does things. Administrators and site coordinators can help meet this need by
sponsoring an orientation at the opening of the school year to review key policies and
procedures. The leadership team can also help the new teachers obtain needed resources and
supplies. Due to the fact that the beginning of the school year may be overwhelming for many
starting teachers, they should be given additional contract days before school starts to prepare for
the upcoming school year. The additional days would be utilized to prepare classrooms, plan for
the first day of school, and additional job-shadowing activities. This extra contracted
employment time allows greenhorn teachers to focus only on effectively teaching students at the
beginning of school rather than feeling divided between how to plan lessons and prepare the
classroom in a very short amount of time. Likewise, mentees and mentors should meet during
the summer prior to the school year to form a positive mentor-mentee relationship. According to
Kram (1985) mentor-mentee relationships takes time and effort from both parties. As stated
previously, time is a challenge for all participants in the teacher induction program, throughout
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the school year, both mentor and mentee may be too busy with daily task to establish a
mentoring relationship. Therefore, getting an early start to build trust, will ensure that the bond
will beneficial to both educators.
District leaders and administrators could evaluate and redesign the use of time and school
schedules to reduce the course load for the site coordinators, mentors, and beginning teachers.
This transition may increase opportunities for professional learning and collaboration, including
participation in professional learning communities, peer coaching and observations across
classrooms, and collaborative planning. Additionally, most mentors are teachers and are
teaching a full course load. Therefore, mentors need time to work with their mentees and work
on other responsibilities. This suggest that, trainee teachers and mentors also need two common
planning periods, whereby one is dedicated solely to the teacher induction program. The shared
time allows neophyte teachers to meet with more experienced teachers to learn the art of
teaching.
Common planning time enables teachers to meet and collaborate on important work and decision
making about students, curriculum, and instruction. For many schools, this occurs through
professional learning communities (PLCs) when groups of educators collaborate to plan,
implement, reflect on, and modify instruction as they strive to help students learn. Productive
collaborative planning may be when educators sit down to map out unit plans together, pulling
the best resources from each other’s files and talking through what worked or did not work
previously. Such collaborations can be quite useful to beginning teachers as they do not have
any past teaching experience to rely on to predict what their students may excel or struggle with.
Hence, apprentice teachers and their mentors need to be matched carefully so that they teach the
same subject, and if possible, the same specific course, such as Algebra I, Civics, English III,
Physics, etc. This matching method involves front-end planning by the administrators ensuring
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that greenhorn teachers can have an effective relationship with their mentors. Thus, mentors need
to be able to relate with their rookie teachers about the exact same course as well as about
students’ demographics. This is a parallel finding in much of the teacher mentoring literature as
well. Referred to as matching and selection (Ambrosetti, 2014; DePaul, 2000; Huling-Austin,
1992; Kilburg, 2002; Newton et al., 1994), this consideration is paramount.
Likewise, administrators need to ensure that learning teachers’ and mentors’ classrooms
are in close proximity to each other. Arranging the classrooms to be in the same building or area
can enable the novice teacher to quickly get help if a situation arises. However, mentors would
have to ensure that they do not become crutches to novice teachers as needing to build their
teaching skills.
An effective teacher induction program does not just rely on the program coordinator and
mentors to guide new employees. One of the administrator’s task is to create a school culture
where it is everyone is encouraged to support beginning teacher the best way they can. Effective
administrators understand that teams of people who share the same goals will be more successful
than the leadership team working alone. Therefore, administrators share leadership roles with
staff at all levels of the organization. To accomplish an inclusive work environment,
administrators must be intentional and strategically implement the following. The principal must
clearly and explicitly state the vision and rationale for an inclusive work environment in a formal
meeting to all faculty and staff. The vison from the principal will allow all teachers to understand
what is expected of them. Beyond the vision of an inclusive school environment, school
personnel need the skills to do things differently. The administrators should create time for teams
to determine how to work collaboratively to draw upon the specialized knowledge and strategies
that different members of the educational team bring to the learning environment. Once special
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skills and PLCs agendas have been developed teachers can regularly meet to plan and teach
together. Incentives may be utilized to support all stakeholders in this process through the change
process. For educators, incentives may be resources (e.g., access to people who have skill in
inclusive practices to provide on-site support), material (e.g., curricular materials that allow for
differentiation in skills and interests) or organizational (e.g., shared planning time for grade level
or content area teams) (Boyd, et al., 2009) The work environment needs to be inviting and
collaborative where the administrators are routinely visible and involved at the ground level with
students, teachers, parents, and community members to address issues confronting their school. It
is also wise for the administrators to initiate group activities frequently such as team building
exercises and social gatherings. These work environment norms may make newcomers to feel
more comfortable as they assimilate into the work place.
In the beginning of novice teachers’ careers, most of their challenges are related to
curriculum and instruction and along with classroom management. Content knowledge are the
facts, concepts, theories, and principles that teachers need to know to effective in their content
area. Teachers’ knowledge of content and students (and lack thereof) greatly influenced how
they broke down facts, concepts, theories, and principles for student understanding. The
leadership team must voice to beginning teachers that knowing the content is critical to the
advancement of their students. The inexperienced teachers should be given resources such as
websites, teacher manuals, shared lesson plans, opportunities to collaborate with other teachers
teaching the same course, and ability to attend workshops designated for their content area.
Content knowledge must be balanced with a solid foundation in effective teaching strategies.
Pedagogical content knowledge is when the teacher selects strategies to match their students’
needs. Effective teachers exhibit a wide range of skills and abilities that lead to producing a
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conducive learning environment. Mentee teachers often need support from their mentors to find
resources to meet their students’ needs. The leadership team should host professional
development trainings specifically for new hires. The trainings can be a combination of on-the-
job trainings and after-school meetings that allowed the beginning teachers to learn about the
wide variety of instructional methods, experiences, assignments, and materials to ensure that
learners are achieving all sorts of cognitive objectives.
As discussed earlier, classroom management, however, is a common concern expressed
by most fresh teachers. Effective teaching and learning cannot happen if classrooms are poorly
managed (Marzano & Marzano, 2003). Classroom disruptions may be caused by power
struggles between the new educator and students. As educators whom experienced the trials of
being beginning teachers, the leadership team should share strategies on how to build and
maintain a positive learning environment. One strategy may be establishing trust, which can be
difficult for such students, but can lead to major benefits. Second, taking the time to talk to
students, which might be unsuccessful at times, but each attempt is a worthy opportunity at
relationship building. Third, being close proximity sends the message that teachers are not
intimidated and are available to students. Fourth, celebrating successes to build positive energy
in the classroom setting. Fifth, building a positive rapport with parents. Sixth, making positive
phone calls throughout the year. Lastly, when dealing with difficult students, educators need to
be flexible and able to differentiate instruction to fit the students’ specific needs.
The state, school districts, and schools could regularly conduct needs assessments using
data from staff surveys to identify areas of professional learning most needed and desired by
beginning educators. Findings from these sources can aid in ensuring that professional learning
is not disconnected from practice and supports the areas of knowledge and skills new educators
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want to develop. Knowing what specific attributes are seen as effective from the perspectives of
greenhorn teachers also provides the leadership team with the necessary information to improve
the teacher induction program. When all stakeholders possess the same vision of what constitutes
as an effective teacher induction program, it may be easier for teachers to stay in the profession,
meet high expectations, and positively impact student achievement. More studies on teacher
induction programs in Louisiana will continue to deepen the understanding of what is needed in
beginning teacher’s professional growth to make the largest impact on the teaching and learning
process. Future research is essential to provide more insight to this finding.
Recommendations for Future Research
Recommendations for future research were harvested from the study’s findings,
limitations, and delimitations. The research conducted for this study contributes to the body of
research on the impact of teacher induction programs. It is the researcher’s hope that this study
will initiate ideas for future research to improve the professional development of new teachers.
First, this study could also be replicated with different means of data collection. The
researcher can follow greenhorn teachers, mentors, coordinators, and administrators throughout
the year. The study will allow the researcher to learn through observation about the positive and
negative attributes of an induction program from within.
Second, a study could be conducted with additional schools. In this study the researcher
will measure the differences between the perspectives of beginning teachers from schools with a
high-performance score versus schools with a low-performance score. Likewise, a study that
compares beginning teachers from rural, suburban, and urban school districts will be a great
addition to this present study. Another study could be looking at the differences and similarities
between public schools, private schools, and public charter schools, especially in the setting of
South Louisiana where charter school and private (parochial) school proliferate. Comparing
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teacher induction programs based on the types of funding awarding and the amount is also
worthy to explore. It very possible for the researcher to find discrepancies in beginning teachers’
efficacy, job satisfaction, retention, effective, and student achievement.
Third, involves a study with various demographics of novice teachers. This study will
lead to comparing the preparedness between novice teachers from traditional college teacher
preparation programs and alternative certification programs. The researcher will likely discover
that novice teachers from alternative certification program have different needs than novice
teachers from traditional college programs during the first year of teaching.
Fourth, explores a longitudinal study of beginning teachers with an alternative teacher
certification and a traditional teacher certification. The study may span over a 10-year period.
The purpose of this study will be to explore the effects of teacher certification programs on a
teacher’s self-efficacy, job satisfaction, retention, effective, and student achievement. The
findings may yield mixed results, there might be a significant difference between the two types
of certification programs for certain aspects of teaching and little to none for other aspects of
teaching. The nature of the study will be critical for ensuring high quality teacher preparation
programs.
Fifth, the school might want to utilize information from this study to develop a future
program evaluation study. A program evaluation study could be implemented within 10 years.
Based on the evaluation findings, the researcher can lay out exactly what is benefiting the new
teachers and what is not benefiting the new teachers. Longitudinally, studying such a program
would likely be beneficial to any district.
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Summary
The theory behind induction programs for new teachers rest on that effective teaching is
complex, teacher preparation programs are rarely sufficient in providing all the knowledge and
skill necessary to successfully teach, and a significant portion of this knowledge can be acquired
only on the job (Van Zandt Allen, 2013). This notion holds that schools must provide an
environment where novice teachers can learn how to teach, feel satisfied in the profession, stay
in the profession, and positively impact student’s learning. Although these programs aim to
improve the performance of new hires, some school districts have yet to create a program to
provide such support (Martin & Mulvihill, 2017). Therefore, this study was conducted on the
basis of understanding the positions of educators participating in a teacher induction program in
Louisiana and determined the impact of the induction program on teacher development.
The primary focus of this literature review was to explore the phenomenon of education
and development of new teachers. After a thorough review of the literature and the results of this
study, it is clear that there are induction programs that contribute to the success of new teachers.
It is also evident that teachers who do not receive guidance, encouragement, and motivation in
the first years are more likely to leave the profession. While a “one-size-fits-all” mindset towards
induction programs would not be sufficient, there are certain aspects that every program could
and should share. The best induction programs “allow teachers to observe others, to be observed
by others, and to be part of groups in which teachers share together, grow together, and learn to
respect one another’s work” (Wong, 2002, p. 53). The literature review also revealed that more
studies are necessary to determine the current impact of teacher induction programs.
To provide additional information on the impact of teacher induction programs the
researcher followed a detailed plan. The addressed three research questions: What are the
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perceptions of beginning teachers about the teacher induction program? How do mentors, teacher
induction program coordinators, and administrators support beginning teachers? How does the
teacher induction program impact professional development for beginning teachers? To best
answer these questions a single case study was employed. Each of the research questions was
answered through the themes obtained following the qualitative content analysis. There were
three significant findings that emerged from the study: (a) understanding the experiences of
beginning teacher’s development, (b) creating a community for beginning teacher’s
development, and (c) influencing the progression of beginning teacher’s development. The
findings were based on the data and were meant to inform the district leaders and school
administrators of current perceptions from a single site. Furthermore, the single case study
provided insight for future improvements of this dynamic program. Thus, if new teachers are to
become skilled professionals, stakeholders need to take action to expand and improve the
creation, implementation, and evaluation of teacher induction programs.
