Perspectives of preservice teachers on the roles of secondary school teachers in Queensland: an interpretivist study

Abstract

This thesis examines the perspectives of one cohort of secondary school preservice teachers regarding the roles of secondary school teachers as they explained their professional world both before and following a school based supervised professional experience. A total of thirty-five participants (twenty-nine females and six males), aged between 21 and 48 years old, were involved in the study. All participants were enrolled in nationally accredited Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programs which led to qualifications to teach into secondary schooling curriculum areas. The participants were variously enrolled in the following programs: the Combined Degree Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Science, the Combined Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Arts, and the Combined Bachelor of Education/Bachelor of Business or the Graduate Diploma in Education (Secondary). This qualitative study adopted an approach that focussed on the perspectives of the research participants, and how their social reality regarding the roles of teachers in Queensland secondary schools’ is constructed. Through the interpretivist paradigm of symbolic interactionism, and reflecting the key principles of grounded theory methodology, the data collection drew on research frameworks and methods proposed by Crotty (1998), O’Donoghue (2007), Punch (2000) and Seidman (2006), and involved undertaking semi-structured interviews with participants. Additionally, the project was positioned within an historical socio-political perspective of both schooling and teacher education in Queensland. This approach, drawing heavily on the works of Britzman (1986), Furlong (2012), Lortie (1975), Weber & Mitchell (1995) and Zemke (2007) and provided a longitudinal examination of the precursor influences that collaboratively contributed to the formation of contemporary perspectives of preservice teachers in Queensland. The various qualitative analysis processes proposed by Strauss and Corbin (1990) underpinned the interpretation of the data. These coding processes are foundational to the grounded theory aligned methodology that informs this study. Following a process of open coding and line-by-line coding of the data, four main themes emerged from the data. From these themes, three core propositions were derived. These propositions are: ● It was the perspective of preservice teachers that the role of the secondary school teacher incorporates a fundamental capacity to develop and maintain positive professional relationships with young people both inside and outside of the classroom context. ● It was the perspective of preservice teachers that the role of the secondary school teacher incorporates a fundamental capacity to possess subject area knowledge and a capacity to teach effectively and with enthusiasm. ● It was the perspective of preservice teachers that the role of the secondary school teacher incorporates a fundamental capacity to possess altruistic motivations for working with young people. Referencing earlier work undertaken by Cross & Ndofirepi (2015), Sumara & Luce-Kaplar (1996) and Wright & Tuska (1968), in conjunction with the three core propositions identified within the data, a model was developed and referred to as the Preservice Teacher Role Identity Framework. This framework highlights the changing perspectives that preservice teachers report as they progress through their initial teacher education.