Beginner teachers and classroom communities: a thematic analysis of UK beginner teachers' experiences in initial teacher education and beyond

Abstract

This research explores the perspectives of beginner teachers in England, both on their Initial Teacher Education courses and their first year of teaching, to see if and how teacher educators might support them better. We carried out semi-structured interviews with 11 beginner teachers. They highlighted the joy they experienced in their daily work, the overwhelming workload and the significance of self-reliance in the classroom. The findings suggest that the circumstances for fruitful support by colleagues are severely hampered in the first year of teaching, where teachers' learning is largely driven by their classroom communities.