From the campus to the classroom: a narrative theory of novice teachers’ transition processes

Abstract

This study describes 14 novice teachers' transition from the final year of college to their first teaching post as documented in their reflective journals, short biographies and interviews. Narrative analysis of the data revealed two types – a ‘dominant-voice’ transition pattern and an ‘integrated-voice’ transition pattern. The findings suggest that teacher-training students in the postmodern era make use of a whole variety of approaches, old and new. Rather than dismissing earlier theories as ‘out-of-date’ and ‘anachronistic’, they choose those which best suit their needs, temperaments, styles and goals as they make the transition from the campus to the classroom.