Exploring the nature of support that is provided to early career teachers by education officials in schools.

Abstract

The study sought to solicit the nature of support that is provided to Early Career Teachers (ECTs) by the Education Officials in schools. Current scholars unearth that during ECTs first years at work, they are very energetic and ambitious but are daunted by the challenges that they face in schools. Scholars further reveal that these challenges are lack of training and development, lack of resources allocated to ECTs along with poor working conditions. They are known to hinder ECT from being able to work to their best capacity. Moreover, scholars divulged academic decisions are imposed on ECTs. The study scrutinised various forms of support that are provided to ECTs by Education officials. Utilising the qualitative research design within the interpretive paradigm, the study sought to explore the factors that facilitate and hinder support that is provided to ECTs in schools. The study adopted Case Study methodology. Two underpinning theoretical frameworks which are the Adult Learning Theory and the Instructional Leadership Theory were used to steer the study. 17 participants were selected using snowball sampling which allowed more participants to be sampled as I commenced with data generation. Participants range from School Management Team to ECTs and Subject Advisors (3 Principals, 3 Deputy Principals, 3 Departmental Heads, 3 Senior Teachers, 3 ECTs and 2 Subject Advisors). The 3 selected schools that are part of the study form a cohort of the Thabo Mofutsanyana district. Semi-structured interviews and documents review were used to generate data. Using Thematic Analysis, the findings of the study have provided the insights of the participant’s experiences such as negligence they endured due to not receiving support and factors that discouraged the Education officials from providing support to ECTs. Four major themes and sub-themes emerged from the generated data. The major themes are as follows: The perspectives of ECTs and Education Officials regarding Educator support, The experiences of ECTs in being provided with support by Education Officials, The forms of support that are provided to ECTs by Education officials, The rationale why the ECTs need support from the Education Officials. Lesson learnt deepen our understanding of the importance of supporting ECTs in schools such as finding strategies to enhance the development and training of the ECTs.