The micropolitics of teacher induction. A narrative-biographical study on teacher socialisation (original) (raw)

The 'praxis shock' of beginning teachers not only has to do with issues at the classroom level, but also with teacher socialisation in the school as an organisation. This thesis was studied with beginning primary school teachers in Belgium. Combining a narrative-biographical and a micropolitical approach, the idea that teachers' actions as members of an organisation are guided by professional interests had a central place in the study. Interpretive analysis of questionnaire and interview data revealed five categories of professional interests: material, organisational, socialprofessional, cultural-ideological and self-interests. Finally, it is argued that understanding beginning teachers' micropolitical experiences is important not only for the theory development on teachers' career-long learning, but also for improving the quality of teacher education and induction programmes. r