THE ROLE OF OCCUPATIONAL CONCERNS ON THE REALITY SHOCK EXPECTATION

Abstract

Though initial teacher training policies differ among countries, the challenges that preservice teachers face in the process of transition to teaching profession are similar. Studies conducted in several countries revealed that pre-service teachers transitioning into the profession commonly experience problems with school principals and inspectors, have heavy workloads, feel incompetent in classroom management, and have social status problems (Korkmaz, Saban, & Akbacli, 2004; Ozturk & Yildirim, 2013; Senom, Zakaria, & Shah, 2013; Veenman, 1984). Furthermore, research in several countries also found that the participants experience occupational concerns, perception of incompetence, and reality shock in the early years of their career (Beck, 1993; Dyess & Sherman, 2009).One of the reasons that teachers in transition to profession experience these kinds of problems may be attributed to insufficient initial teacher education (Farrell, 2006). Previous studies paradoxically implied that preservice teachers have a high sense of teaching self-efficacy (Al-Awidi & Alghazo, 2012; Kulekci, 2011). However, pre-service teachers' self-efficacy level tends to decrease after entering the profession (Pendergast, Garvis, & Keogh, 2011). Weinstein (1988) analyzes the situation based upon the conceptualization of 'unrealistic optimism, ' and claims that optimistic expectation is largely superseded by a 'reality shock' during the transition from pre-service education to actual teaching experience.The main reason described by teachers as to why they leave the profession is arising from the reality shock that they experience in the early years of teaching (Ingersoll & Smith, 2004). Further, it is also demonstrated that the reality shock that novice teachers experience results in diminishing levels of professional commitment (Dean & Wanous, 1983; Dean, Ferris, & Konstants, 1988). Recent studies conducted in numerous countries have revealed that the proportion of teachers who leave the profession as a result of having experienced reality shock has reached an outrageous level (Goddard & Goddard, 2006; Mafora, 2013; Trent, 2012). For instance, it was reported that 25% of the teachers in Australia resign in the early years of their teaching career (Department of Education, Science and Training, 2003). In developed Western countries, 25% to 40% of newly recruited teachers resign due to suffering from job burnout (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Ewing & Smith, 2003; Macdonald, 1999). A considerable number of schools, particularly in rural areas facing a shortage of teachers on account of this downward tendency, have been examined (Harmon, 2001). Results of such studies showed that this situation ultimately and primarily influences the students in these schools, as the most efficacious human resource for their academic development is their teachers (Rowan, Correnti, & Miller, 2002; Wright, Horn, & Sanders, 1997).The upward trends in the number of teachers feeling less committed toward their profession, experiencing burnout, or even leaving the profession due to reality shock threaten the sustainability of the educational services on local, regional, and global scales. Addressing these matters, a substantial number of research were conducted on the multidirectional problems caused by reality shock over the past several decades (e.g., Betts, 2006; Caires, Almeida, & Martins, 2010; Chubbuck, 2008; Haggarty & Postlethwaite, 2009; Hagger, Mutton, & Burn, 2011; Hobson & Ashby, 2012; Horn, 1966). In recent years, studies on reality shock have increasingly been focused on pre-service teachers (Chong, Low, & Goh, 2011; Gibbs, 2002). In one of these studies, pre-service teachers' reality shock expectation was investigated in terms of the relationship between their motivation and sense of teaching efficacy (Kim & Cho, 2014).It has been realized that there is a gap in the literature between studies concerning pre-service teachers' reality shock expectation, and their occupational concerns associated with it. …