The Role of Early Career Teachers - Essay Example

Early Career Teachers Name Institution Introduction Teachers are of great value and importance to every society out there in the world. If one would try to measure the value of teachers, one would never be able come up with a most appropriate value. They educate the young generation who are the pillars of the society in the future. The lessons that gathered from teachers when growing up, stays for the rest of ones live. Think of when you learnt the alphabet, your teacher made sure you understood every letter, the vowels, and consonants. This essay will consider the Professional and Personal impacts of certain themes to the early career of a Teacher. The themes we shall consider are Globalization, Ethics, and Professionalism. Globalization is the growth of an entity or field to a global scale. In this case, we will focus on the globalization of education and the impact it has on a teacher’s career. Ethics is the set of rules or principles used for governing and highlighting the acceptable conduct within an institution. Professionalism refers to the qualities and skills that one should have for them to be considered a professional in a certain field. Mission Statement A mission statement is highly necessary as far as defining why the institution exits, what it offers, its relevant customers, the services and products it gives and the location of the institution. For relevance, I shall consider the Mission Statement from Gray Haven High School. Gray Haven High School is a Multi-race institution, which aims at creating an academic, social, emotional, and safe environment conducive for learning and acquiring skills. We encourage innovation in learning to enhance lifelong skills. Aside from academics, teachers provide a good environment to nurture skills and talent. A Multi-talented Staff not only offers high quality education but also Sports skills, athletics, life techniques and counseling to the Young students. Expectations implied by the Mission Statement The mission Statement gives a lot of expectations and implication to the teachers starting their careers. Being a multi-race institution the teacher need not be biased along racial lines as this may lead to penalties from the administration, suspension, and even losing a job. “Hating people because of their color is wrong, and it does not matter which color does the hating. It is plain wrong.” (Muhammad Ali). Implications of the institution offering social and counseling services, make the teachers not only offer academic services to students, but they also have to offer counseling and guidance to the students. Since every Student is unique, diversity, patience, and understanding has to be observed when dealing with each of them. Some of the factors that influence early careers of teachers include Professionalism, Globalization, and Ethics. The first Theme to consider is Professionalism. Professionalism Teachers in their early careers should embrace professionalism by finding out what they do not know and improving on what they do. As a young teacher, one depends on the Teaching Practice that he/she went through when being evaluated in their course. They are expected to acquire many skills in an extremely short time. This puts pressure on their professional career. It may be viewed as good pressure, but at times, it may bring a negative influence on their output. According to National Professional Standards (2011), early career teachers in Australia have a high attrition rate. This is due to the lack of formal mentoring programs in many universities. According to Kate Ferguson, retaining teachers after they graduate has been a significant problem in many education systems. She further says that, Early career Teachers suffer a reality shock when they commence their profession. Once faced with complex and diverse demands from the students, reporting, assessment and the overall classroom management. There exists a big resemblance between teacher burnout and teacher self-efficacy, with diminished autonomy when new teachers have to organize teaching in ways that are in contrast with their personal beliefs (Australian Professional Standards, 2012). This affects their level of professionalism since how they prepared to teach is not how the institutions they got a job conducts its duty. This leads to a big number of teachers leaving the teaching profession within the first five years. In New South Wales Australia, new teachers’ quitting the profession in their first half decade of professional practice amount to 20%. Difference in Perception of what the actual teaching would be like and how it is, impacts negatively on output of the teacher, this is because observation skills have to be used to acquire information of the current emerging issues before embarking on the actual teaching. Theoretical studies never prepare teachers for what is on the ground, i.e. practical sessions of actual teaching. In other words, the difference acts as set back. Teaching practice is not enough to give experience and a good perception of what to expect; it only gives a taste of what is to come but not fully. As a way of maintaining professionalism, the teacher is expected to handle the pressure, acquire more teaching skills and deliver on the job. Professionalism dictates that a teacher treats all students as equal; the bright ones should not get better treatment. In the case of disciplinary action, teachers are compelled to comply with the provided rules and regulations and not to take matters personally. For instance, if a student insults a teacher they should report the case to the principle instead of handling it on their own. Such a case may result to suspension or expulsion of the student. The student is expected to do the same. Report any incidence of abuse or misconduct to the principal. That is a show of professionalism. The study is not complete without considering the implications on the Personal life of the teacher. Having pursued teaching as a career, it is quite discouraging to find that, most of the theoretical studies cannot be applied, and one has to adapt to the new environment. A good personal life brings positive output in the workplace and especially in the teaching profession. High level of stress from frustrations in teaching influences negatively on the personal life of a teacher. Negative impacts include reduced sleep; this happens when one is always doing late night presentations, and this goes on throughout the term. Students are not always interested in what one is saying, but you have to deliver the education and make it interesting even if they do not feel the same. The teacher’s role being to motivate and inspire cannot be achieved if he or she is surviving on four hours of sleep. Teaching is a tiresome task and needs strength and good health to be done correctly. A good night sleep would rejuvenate the teacher from a tiresome day (Runte, 1995). Four decades back, the view was that teachers and schools made minimal difference to student success and that what mattered was the socio-economic status of the family and ability of the student. Though viewed as true, being less fortunate does not limit your potential. Research has shown that what students cover for themselves accounts for almost 50% in their grade achievement and a big contributor to this is the teacher input, which accounts for 30% of student achievement. This analysis led to increase in efforts of improving the personal life of the teacher in order to make sure he or she is motivated to do their job. The Australian Government has tried to intervene to help the life of teacher’s by increasing financial support to retain early career teachers in the profession. An improvement in Personal life of a teacher has vast significance in the quality of education. Ethics The Second theme to consider is Ethics. According to John Clark, Teachers’ work covers numerous things: ethics is one of them. For teachers, ethics surpasses just a code of ethics; it codifies a set of principles and rules, which serve aspiration and disciplinary purposes (Clark, 2004). As Professionals, teachers engage themselves in ethically demanding tasks, educating young people. Therefore, they always have to reflect on good ethics when doing their activities to ensure they act as a good example to the students they are morally educating. Good ethics is an essential element in society. The inclusion of ethical content in teaching programs would go a long way to instill ethics in the young generation. No one said it would be easy, according to Clark, addressing ethical issues in teaching is no straight-forward matter; disputes and disagreements are to the fore (Clark, 2004). Study shows that there are fields on ethics that beginner teachers have to know, for them to conduct themselves and perform their duties in the best ethical way possible. The fields include institutional ethics, exclusion of politics in teaching, understanding teacher to student relationship, respect for persons, trust equality amongst student (a teacher should not be biased amongst his students), and Pedagogical issues like grouping of students. The code of ethics mentioned above provides a lot of impact to the professional side of a teacher. The first code I will consider is the institutional ethics. For instance, the institution may have rules that limit how a teacher can dress, an example being a range of accepted types of clothing. Whereas students can wear almost anything, teachers have to look professional in their skirt suits, trouser suits and every once in a while a casual but still official look. Students have the freedom to put on suggestive, unprofessional, and misleading clothing. Though dressing in suits and clothing that is more official, may seem as the most appropriate form of dressing, it may influence negatively, when the teachers come to perform their teaching duties. A good example would be a basketball coach who also teaches a Math unit (Eduard, 1993). Being a Sportsman makes one more comfortable in clothing like Shorts and Track suits as compared to official clothing. The next code of ethics to consider is exclusion of politics in teaching. Politics affects everyone, but when it comes to education, politics should not be included (California Teachers Association, 1981). Inclusion may lead to poor delivery of academic content. One of my High school Teachers used to talk a lot about current affairs and politics until the students’ minds drift away to the outside world. When he came back to academics, it was extremely hard to bring the students’ mind back with him. After class, instead of students focusing on the new concept of physics, they had learnt. They speak of politics and current affairs. Exclusion of politics in his class would have lead to a better delivery of the concept, and instead of students talking about politics they would be speaking of the Newton’s law and other concepts in physics. Teacher to student relationship is another code of ethics. An early Career Teacher was previously a student and now has to act as a teacher; the transition is usually not smooth for all. As a student, one does a lot of listening, evaluating, and studying, but now roles are reversed (Markie, 1994). The ‘student’, who is now an early career teacher gives the evaluation, encourages the young ones to study, and talks a lot in class while the students listen. Going back to the code of ethics, teachers will have to understand and respect the students. This is because mutual respect goes a long way in helping the delivery of academic content. Most students who have a bad attitude towards their teachers end up failing in that unit since they hardly listen to what the teacher is saying (National Professional Standards, 2011). Being an early career teacher, one is under pressure to respect the students even if they do not give the respect back. It is another way of upholding professionalism. Teachers are not supposed to have affairs with students; it is against the code of ethics. A student who is romantically involved with a teacher may end up failing the subject since one hardly listens to the course being lectured, but fantasizes. The same will happen to the teacher, fantasizing on the job instead of delivering the subject (Stream Buddhist Meditation Society). This would affect the teacher’s delivery negatively. However, if the code of ethics were to be followed, the delivery of the subject would be most effective. Lastly, code of ethics is of great importance in ensuring equality amongst students, for instance; how to group them. As a teacher, one obviously comes across students who are brighter than the others. In order to follow the code ethics, the teacher ought not to be biased, and end up grouping bright kids together and the less bright ones together. This would be unethical and disadvantageous to the students. The Personal life of the teacher is also affected by the code of ethics, to be observed at school. As far as dressing up in official clothing is concerned, the teachers end up portraying a certain image. That image becomes a part of their personality. Hardly will one find teachers having a crazy lifestyle of partying and living life on the fast lane. Still in the aim of setting a good example, the usually have healthy and legal hobbies. Such hobbies include swimming, jogging, playing basketball. A statement such as “I saw Mr. Leonard yesterday staggering to his place” are not common, this is because having such ethics becomes a part of one's life. Following the code of ethics is both a professional duty and part of one's life. In the aspect of Teacher to student relationship, teachers are supposed to keep the relationship professional, in and outside the institution. There have been a minimal number of cases, where early career teachers become romantically involved with other students, in high school and college institutions. This happens because of the small difference in age between the early career teachers and the college students. Teachers usually observe such codes of ethics to maintain being an example to the society and especially students as a whole whether they teach them or not. The last Code of ethics to consider, concerns the Code of ensuring equality amongst students. We look at how it affects the personal life of an early career teacher. Being a respectful and just individual is not tied to a certain code of ethics in your work place. However, such a code of ethics may influence positively the personal life of a teacher. Hence, He or she becomes just and respectful towards all individuals, the students, and colleagues. Globalization We now consider Globalization and the effect it has on early career teachers. Globalization not only affects business activities; it has adverse effects to education in the current time. Globalization is not well defined; it means different to different groups (Madeleine and Michael, 2000). In our context, we consider how education is at a worldwide scale and not specific to a certain region. The advent of globalization and advancement of information technology have brought vast changes to education and skill development in Australia (Bagnall et al. 2010). For instance, the presence of international students on campus gives an impression of a global campus. The Changes in the education sector brought about by Globalization are the introduction of international courses, the use of more advanced technology in teaching, and increase in diversity of teachers. We focus at the impacts it has on the professional and personal life of an early career teacher. The introduction of international courses gives the implication that, after completing such a course, one can work anywhere in the world (Elena, 2006). It also brings the aspect of international students. This may influence negatively on the early career of a teacher. One impact may be Language barrier. This is where; the teacher is not able to communicate effectively with a student given the student does not speak good English. This affects the professional aspect of the teacher since it lowers the quality of education he or she can give to such a student. The other significant consideration is the use of advanced technology to teach. Lectures are becoming digital, in that, there is minimal if any, use of papers, black boards or other writing materials that were used in the past (Hardy and Boyle, 2011). Lecture slides in computers are used to explain the concepts for the day, eradicating the use of mark pens, black and white boards. The impact cause from a professional perspective would be increased time in preparing such slides, with little time to consider the content being put in the slides. This may seem to impact negatively on the quality of education being offered but most of the time it is not the case. In fact, improvement is seen when technology is embraced in explaining certain concepts (Carrington, 2001). The last aspect to consider is the diversity it brings to the teachers. Working in a Global institution would need the early career teacher to be diverse in the way they teach and deliver concepts. Speaking more than one language, having more computer skills could also be diversity. This is due to increase in pressure, to offer high standards in education, and give a more global experience (Sahlberg, 2004). The implications of Globalization to the personal life of an early career teacher are close to the ones affecting the professional career. Since, the early career teacher becomes more diverse in terms of, number of languages spoken, Information technology skills, and an improvement in the overall view of the World as one (Sahlberg, 2004). Conclusion The importance of a teacher cannot be underestimated. In Kindergarten, the teacher plays a highly essential role in making sure the children acquire the basics in education. The transition from old teachers to new teachers has been under evaluation due to the high attrition rate in Australia. Research showed that 20% of early career Teachers hardly makes it through five years of their professional career. This is attributed to the reality shock that Early career Teacher suffer when they start their Careers. This essay evaluates Globalization, Professionalism, and Ethics while highlighting the effect they have on early careers. Ethics is the acceptable code of conduct within an institution or a group. Ethics can be categorized as institutional ethics, exclusion of politics in teaching, understanding teacher to student relationship, respect for persons, trust, equality amongst student (a teacher should not be biased amongst his students), and Pedagogical issues like grouping of students. Expounding on topics of concern, institutional ethics refers to the code of conduct within the institution it varies from dressing code to language (formal language). Exclusion of politics in teaching emphasizes on the use of time to impart knowledge as compared to conversing current affairs. Student-teacher relationship should be kept professional. Observing equality amongst students should be a main role of the teacher. The teacher should avoid grouping students according to their performance. Such codes of Ethics bring about positive impacts to the professional side of the teacher since if not observed severe penalties are given. The personal life of a teacher is influenced positively as observing such ethics in the work place makes him a better individual to the society and a good example to the students. Professionalism is another theme we had to consider, and the impacts it has on the professional and personal life of a teacher. Professionalism is viewed as the art of being an expert in certain filed. Being a professional exerts pressure on early career teachers. Such pressure plus a reality shock when commencing the actual career is not handled well by all. This leads to a high attrition rate. Cases of indiscipline have to be handled professionally, meaning students should be reported to the principal when they commit offences not for teachers to take matters to their own hands. Professionalism influences negatively on the personal life of an early career teacher. This is because it leads to a reduced number of sleeping hours, and these impacts negatively on the health of the early career teacher. Globalization is the growth of an entity or field to a global scale. In this case, we consider a school since we are evaluating an early career teacher. The professional effects Globalization causes are the introduction of international courses, the use of more advanced technology in teaching, and increase in diversity of teachers. This leads to a diverse Working staff. However, many early career teachers are not able to withstand such pressure, and end up giving low quality education or even losing their jobs. The personal effects of globalization include an increase in diversity of the early career teachers, increase in information technology skills and a wider perspective of the world since they work in a global facility. References Association of American Educators. (2013). Code of Ethics for Educators. Code of Ethics for Educators. Retrieved From http://www.aaeteachers.org/index.php/about-us/aae-code-of-ethics Australian Professional Standards (2012). Professional Standards. 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