Tailor-made: Towards a pedagogy for educating second-career teachers

Abstract

Many countries suffer from teacher shortages. One possible solution to this problem is to recruit second-career teachers. These second-career teachers form an intriguing group. They bring an abundance of previous experiences into a new, professional domain. The purpose of this study is to identify pedagogical principles that support the training of second-career teachers. Special attention is given to the transfer of previous experiences obtained in different professional contexts. The literature on alternative certification programmes is reviewed from a pedagogical perspective. The results indicate that second-career teachers differ from first-career teachers in several respects. These differences appear to be related to their previous experiences. The differences also appear to influence their professional development. The study suggests that a tailor-made pedagogy for second-career teachers is needed, along with certain programme features, which take into account the specific needs of this group of students. Four design principles were identified, i.e.: addressing expectations, addressing challenges related to the transition to teaching, addressing transfer and developing a theory of practice.