BEING A TEACHER: AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHERS NEWLY APPOINTED TO SMALL, ISOLATED SCHOOLS

Year: 1989

Author: CROWTHER, FRANK, CRONK, PETER, KING, SHEILA

Type of paper: Abstract refereed

Abstract:
The topic of the beginning teacher in isolated educational contexts has been accorded extensive research and analysis in Europe, North America and Australia. Almost without exception, researchers and theorists have concluded their studies by questioning the appropriateness of placing inexperienced teachers in isolated schools and by raising serious doubts about the quality of schooling provided when such placements do in fact occur. In this study, the research team undertook to examine the attitudes and perceptions of beginning teachers after they had served for a period of four months, on average, in small, isolated schools in Western Queensland, Australia - the region known to many as the Australian outback. We probed the teachers' perceptions of what "isolation" meant to them, how it affected the teaching process and how it is coped with professionally and in non-school life. The members of the research sample were typecast in terms of their personal value orientations. The variable of personal values was then linked to perceived job success. Conclusions from the study suggest that some traditional stereotypes about teaching and teachers in isolated contexts may be in need of review - that "service in the outback" is viewed positively by many who undertake it, and represents an influence on teachers' thinking of such significance that it extends well beyond the actual period of isolation deployment.

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