Teaching from the heart: exploring beginner teachers’ attitudinal knowledge

Abstract

This article provides insight into the knowledge held by Zimbabwean Ordinary Level beginner teachers who teach Literature in English. An extant of research output on ESL focuses on curriculum, subject, learner, and pedagogical content knowledge of linguistic content, with limited, if any, focus on knowledge of Literature in English. To address this gap, this study employed a qualitative single case study design to gather data on the knowledge held by four purposively selected beginner teachers. In the context of this study, beginner teachers were college trained English teachers who had been in the profession for less than four years. The study was underpinned by social constructivism and current literature on experiential teacher knowledge. The study established as a novel finding that beginner teachers held attitudinal knowledge. Additionally, the findings affirmed that beginner teachers’ knowledge was a multiple-sourced construct that was fluid, idiosyncratic, attitudinal, pragmatic, and contextual. The study recommends that teacher preparation institutions consider the findings as basis for student teacher training programmes that foster connections between personal and experiential sources of knowledge construction.