This thesis is based on a case study of the predicament of new primary teachers
in a time of rapid and multiple change. It examines the proposal that
emerging teachers should be supported as intellectuals in responding to the
inherited collision of education policy and practice within postmodernity.
Action research methodology was employed to investigate a small scale
attempt to support student teachers as intellectuals in their final period of the
BEd. Some participants were followed into the first year of teaching, using an
ethnographic and autoethnographic methodology to evaluate and elaborate
the initial proposal. The study shows that emerging teachers could function as
intellectuals but there was little political or professional support for this. In
particular there were neglected elements in both preparation and induction
periods concerning professional purpose, vocation and orientation. The study
contributes to our understanding of the dilemmas of tutoring emerging
teachers as intellectuals. It also contributes to our understanding of the
predicament of new teachers, which is typified as caught between the rock of
the state and the increasingly hard place of the school. In this situation clarity
of ideals and beliefs are required, and personal and social strategies are needed
to carry these through in the problematic contexts of both policy and practice. It
is recommended that the imbalance of preparation and induction programmes
is reconsidered in order to allow for these neglected elements. Finall y the
study offers a cultural rationale for professional purpose and vocation based on
principles of equality, quality, diversity and democracy.
Date of Award | 1997 |
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Original language | English |
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Awarding Institution | |
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Supervisor | Andrew Hannan (Other Supervisor) |
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- Primary education
- Education policy
- Teacher education
Predicament of the new primary teacher : educating teachers as intellectuals in changing times
Mackenzie, R. (Author). 1997
Student thesis: PhD