IF YOU CAN HEAR MY VOICE: A NARRATIVE INQUIRY INTO THE PROFESSIONAL JOURNEY OF EIGHT FIRST-YEAR TEACHERS

Abstract

The first year of teaching is a time of excitement, wonder and exploration. It can also be a time of uncertainty, doubt and survival. This qualitative study explores the questions, “What are the experiences of first-year elementary school teachers teaching in Hawaiʻi public schools” and “What can be learned from these experiences?” The participants were eight first-year teachers who graduated from a teacher preparation program that followed a cohort model. The purpose of this study was to understand the participants’ experiences as told through their stories. They shared their stories through semi-structured individual and focus-group interviews held throughout the academic year. This study employed a narrative inquiry approach to gain insight into their experiences and applied thematic analysis to identify themes and patterns across their stories. The theoretical framework of Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, and Cain’s (1998) Figured Worlds provided a lens for analyzing these stories. Findings suggest the experiences of these first-year teachers are impacted by their social and cultural interactions with their colleagues, mentors, students and parents which in turn played upon their self-efficacy and confidence. New teachers also are challenged by their workloads both in and out of the classroom, leading them to develop procedures and systems to manage their time and tasks. Based on these insights into the experiences of first-year teachers, this study calls for reimagining how we prepare teachers and how we support them during their early career years.