Supporting Early Career Research Articles

Promoting early career teacher resilience: a framework for understanding and acting

In this paper, we undertake a brief review of the ‘conventional’ research into the problems of early career teachers to create a juxtaposed position from which to launch an alternative approach based on resilience theory. We outline four reasons why a new contextualised, social theory of resilience has the potential to open up the field of research into the professional lives of teachers and to produce new insights into the social, cultural and political dynamics at work within and beyond schools. We then move from these theoretical considerations to explain how we used them in a recent Australian research project that examined the experiences of 60 graduate teachers during their first year of teaching. This work led to the development of a Framework of Conditions Supporting Early Career Teacher Resilience which we outline, promote and advocate as the basis for action to better sustain our graduate teachers in their first few years of teaching. Finally, we reflect on the value of our work so far and outline our practical plans to ‘mobilise’ this knowledge in ways that will make it available to a variety of audiences concerned with the welfare of this group of teachers.

The Impact of Preservice Preparation and Early Career Support on Novice Teachers’ Career Intentions and Decisions

A rationale for providing high-quality support during teachers’ early years is to develop further the skills teachers acquire during preparation and to help overcome weaknesses that might lead them to abandon the profession. Yet, almost no consideration has been given to potential interactions between preservice preparation and induction support received. This study utilizes survey and administrative data to examine the effects, including interactions, of preservice preparation and early career support on new teachers’ career intentions and decisions. Consistent with previous research, we find a direct association between perceived preparation quality and leaving teaching. Moreover, we find the quality and comprehensiveness of mentoring and induction to be related to teachers’ intentions and decisions. Our results also suggest that comprehensive support moderates the relationship between preservice preparation and intentions to leave. The findings point to the importance of considering preservice preparation in combination with induction support in efforts to address teacher attrition.

Perspective

Significant increases in National Institutes of Health (NIH) spending on medical research have not produced corresponding increases in new treatments and cures. Instead, laboratory discoveries remain in what has been termed the "valley of death," the gap between bench research and clinical application. Recently, there has been considerable discussion in the literature and scientific community about the causes of this phenomenon and how to bridge the abyss. In this article, the authors examine one possible explanation: Clinician-scientists' declining role in the medical research enterprise has had a dilatory effect on the successful translation of laboratory breakthroughs into new clinical applications. In recent decades, the percentage of MDs receiving NIH funding has drastically decreased compared with PhDs. The growing gap between the research and clinical enterprises has resulted in fewer scientists with a true understanding of clinical problems as well as scientists who are unable to or uninterested in gleaning new basic research hypotheses from failed clinical trials. The NIH and many U.S. medical schools have recognized the decline of the clinician-scientist as a major problem and adopted innovative programs to reverse the trend. However, more radical action may be required, including major changes to the NIH peer-review process, greater funding for translational research, and significantly more resources for the training, debt relief, and early career support of potential clinician-scientists. Such improvements are required for clinician-scientists to conduct translational research that bridges the valley of death and transforms biomedical research discoveries into tangible clinical treatments and technologies.

Issues in the Mentor–Mentee Relationship in Academic Medicine: A Qualitative Study

To explore the phenomenon of the mentor-mentee relationship and to characterize this relationship among people who have obtained early career support from a government funding agency, in order to facilitate the development of future mentorship programs. A qualitative study was completed involving clinician scientists who were awarded early career support from a provincial funding agency (Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and their mentors. Individual, semistructured interviews were completed, and transcripts of interviews were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. Interviews with 21 population health or clinician investigators (mentees) and seven mentors were completed from October to December 2006. Several themes were identified including the experience with mentorship, experience of being assigned a mentor versus self-identification, roles of a mentor, characteristics of good mentoring, barriers to mentorship, and possible mentorship strategies. Participants believed mentorship to be important, but several experienced significant difficulty with finding mentors and establishing productive relationships. Challenges exist within academic medicine around ensuring that clinician scientists receive appropriate mentorship. Strategies to enhance the mentorship process were identified, including the development of formal mentorship initiatives, the creation of workshops organized by funding agencies in partnership with universities, and the development and evaluation of a mentorship training initiative for mentors and mentees. These findings can be applied to any academic health sciences institution.

Relational instability at the network core: Support dynamics in developmental networks

We present a descriptive model of developmental networks – interpersonal ties who take an active interest in and concerted action to advance one's career – and argue that both network structure and relational content are necessary for understanding how individuals receive early career support. By following 77 MBA graduates over three time periods ( N = 977 ties), we find evidence for an inner–outer core network structure in which ties providing high psychosocial support and low career support populate the inner core.

Early Career Support Program: Telecommunication Mentoring for Rural Teachers

Early Career Support Program: Telecommunication Mentoring for Rural Teachers