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Enacting policy: the capacity of school leaders to support early career teachers through policy work

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Abstract

Early career teachers often feel overwhelmed by the complex, intense and unpredictable nature of their work. Recently, policy initiatives have been introduced to provide new teachers with extra release-time from face-to-face classroom teaching duties to assist them in their transition to the workforce. This paper reports on a critical policy study that investigated the enactment of this policy initiative. A data set was created from a larger qualitative study which investigated early career teacher resilience. Drawing on a policy enactment theoretical ‘toolbox’, the findings indicate that school leaders can empower early career teachers to move beyond being ‘receivers’ of policy to assume a more active policy role. This paper argues that school leaders are very powerful in their capacity to enact policy to ensure strategic access to appropriate on-going learning opportunities to support early career teachers.

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Notes

  1. Please note: Pseudonyms have been used in this paper to protect the identity of the participants.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is an outcome of a collaborative research project, funded by the Australian Research Council, between the University of South Australia, Murdoch University, Edith Cowan University, and eight education sector organisations in South Australia and Western Australia. The research team also includes Professor Bruce Johnson, Associate Professor Rosie Le Cornu, Dr Judith Peters, Professor Barry Down, Dr Jane Pearce and Ms Janet Hunter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of South Australia, GO Box 2471, Adelaide, SA, 5001, Australia

    Anna M. Sullivan & Chad Morrison

Authors
  1. Anna M. Sullivan
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  2. Chad Morrison
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anna M. Sullivan.

Appendices

Appendix 1: ‘Mind map’ used during the first semi-structured interviews

Appendix 2: Example of a ‘line drawing’ used during the second semi-structured interview

Appendix 3: Interview schedule for school leaders

  1. 1.

    What is your understanding of resilience as it relates to early career teachers?

  2. 2.

    What are your expectations of early career teachers?

  3. 3.

    What do you consider to be the characteristics of resilient early career teachers?

  4. 4.

    How do you support early career teachers?

  5. 5.

    What other conditions support resilience in early career teachers?

  6. 6.

    What conditions hinder resilience in early career teachers?

  7. 7.

    Reflecting back, what have you learnt about teacher resilience?

  8. 8.

    What insights would you want to share with early career teachers?

  9. 9.

    What insights would you want to share with other school leaders?

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Sullivan, A.M., Morrison, C. Enacting policy: the capacity of school leaders to support early career teachers through policy work. Aust. Educ. Res. 41, 603–620 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-014-0155-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-014-0155-y

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