In the present study, a qualitative case-study approach was adopted since it was helpful for the researcher to “gain entry into teaching initiates’ understanding of their workplaces, students, and jobs, the ways they interpret and negotiate specific
problems in their contexts, and their view of selves as teachers” (Hebert & Worthy, 2001, p. 898). It was believed that the use of case study would allow the researcher to deeply explore the problem-solving process of the Taiwanese high school novice English teachers in overcoming the difficulties they may face in the first year of teaching. In this chapter, the selection mechanism and background information of the sites and the participants were first addressed, followed by detailed elaboration on the data collection and data analysis procedure.
Participants and Sites Selection Mechanism
Familiarity between the researcher and the potential candidates was recognized as the priority in the participant selection since the present study required the
participants to confide the difficulties and negative emotions they faced to the researcher. If the participants were not of the researcher’s acquaintance, it would prevent the researcher from establishing a close bond to the participants and might negatively affect the quality of the collected data.
To increase the diversity of the findings, the present study took the following factors into consideration during the selection. Regarding the selection of the
participants, it was assumed that novice teachers’ teacher identity might have impact on the outcome of their first year of teaching experiences. In Taiwan, it has become a phenomenon that many qualified English teachers nowadays work as substitute
teachers since the job vacancies for English teachers with tenured positions (i.e., tenure track teachers) are few. The temporary nature of their identity as substitute teachers may lead them to problems that are distinct from the ones faced by tenure track teachers.
As indicated in the previous chapter, the school context would influence the types of problems that novice teachers encountered in their first year of teaching and the resources that are available to them in solving those problems. Hence, in the present study, the research sites were selected based on two contextual factors, the academic rankings of the school and the gender distribution of the students within the school. In Taiwan, every school has different academic ranking, which is determined by the scores that their students got in the senior high school entrance examination named Comprehensive Assessment Program for Junior High School Students (CAP).
In other words, the academic ranking of a school manifests its students’ general academic performance. It is a significant contextual factor since novice teachers who teach in a school where students had low academic performances may come across problems that are different from those who teach in a school composed of high achievers. Moreover, since males and females perceive things differently, it could be inferred that novice teachers who teach in a school where students are
gender-balanced may encounter different problems in contrast to those who teach in a single-gender school.
Based on the aforementioned selection mechanism, five research sites and five novice English teachers were identified and displayed in Table 2, including the names, gender, the teacher identity of the participants, the names of the schools, and the average CAP scores that the students needed to attain for school admission. Pseudo names were used on the participants and the schools in order to protect their personal information. All the participants were of the researcher’s acquaintance, and the
schools where they worked were located in Greater Taipei area, with three schools in Taipei City (Rose, Lion, and Cloud) and two schools (Mountain and Bridge) in New Taipei City. The students’ average CAP scores in each school was provided and organized by Linmath (2017), a well-known learning institute in Taipei City, and the full score of CAP is thirty six.
Table 2
Summary of the Participants and the Research Sites
Name Gender Identity Cites Average CAP Scores Merlin M Tenured Rose Girls High School 31.8
Lily F Substitute Lion Boys High School 31.8 Betty F Tenured Mountain High School 13.6 Ronda F Substitute Cloud High School 16.6 Angel F Substitute Bridge High School 28.6
Note. The full score of CAP is 36.
As Table 2 demonstrated, both Merlin and Lily taught in the single gender schools consisting of students with high academic performances in terms of the characteristics of the school contexts. The only difference between Merlin and Lily lay in their teacher identity, with the former being a tenure track teacher while the latter being a substitute teacher. Similar to Merlin and Lily, Betty and Ronda taught in the mixed gender schools in which students were academically low achievers. Hence, through the comparison between Merlin and Lily and the one between Betty and Ronda, the present study might be able to raise problems resulting from the
differences in the novice teachers’ identity. Moreover, since the students that Merlin and Lily taught were considered high achievers whereas the students that Betty and
Ronda taught were low achievers, the comparison between these two groups might help identify problems that derived from the English proficiency of the students.
Originally, only Merlin, Lily, Betty, and Ronda were recruited in the present study. However, due to the lack of sufficient time and being overwhelmed by the tremendous pressure from the teaching experiences, Betty could not help but ask for resignation after nearly a month of participating in the present study. Fortunately, after three weeks of searching, Angel, who was highly interested in the issues of reality shock, was recruited as the last participant of the present study. It could not be denied that Angel and Betty differed fundamentally in their teacher identity and the academic rankings of the schools where they worked. However, with the inclusion of Angel, the present study was capable of expanding the research scope and contrasting problems that derived from schools in different academic rankings.
Background of the Participants
For clear understanding of the participants in the present study, this section first began with a brief description of their prior teaching experiences. Then, as displayed in Table 3, the duties being assigned by their school were enlarged upon,
encompassing the number of the classes and the year of the students they taught, and the content of their administrative work and additional duties.
Merlin. Before becoming a tenure track teacher in Rose Girls High School, Merlin already had had abundant experiences in English teaching since being a high school English teacher was his lifelong goal. He completed his practicum in the high school where he graduated, Bear Boys High School, which was ranked the top senior high school in Southern Taiwan. During his practice teaching, Merlin was given the opportunity to be fully in charge of a class of seniors and the chances to work in different administrative offices. In addition to practicum experiences, he had once
been working as an English tutor for four years and at the same time working as a cram school teacher for two years since his college graduation.
In Rose Girls High School, Merlin was assigned three classes of 10th graders. In addition to regular teaching, Merlin had to do administrative work as a member under the Curriculum Section in the Office of Academic Affairs. The content of his
administrative work included helping design and adjust class schedules of all faculty members and processing official documents associated with curriculum. Furthermore, Merlin was assigned the instructor of an English Debate Club and a National English competition named the Teen Diplomatic Envoys.
Table 3
Assigned Duties of the Participants
Name Assigned classes Administrative position Other duties Merlin 3 classes of 10th graders Member of Curriculum
Section
Note. 7th graders = first year junior high school students; 10th graders = first year senior high school students; 11th graders = second year senior high school students.
Lily. Instead of having strong passion about becoming a high school English teacher as Merlin did, Lily decided to be a teacher simply because she believed that her personalities suited the job very well and interacting with high school students was interesting. Lily received teacher training when she was studying in her MA program, and completed her practicum in Lion Boys High School where she got admitted to work as a substitute teacher. During the practicum, Lily was assigned to teach three classes of 10th graders and do administrative work in the Student Activity Section under the Office of Student Affairs. However, in her first year of teaching, she was assigned to different groups of students: three classes of 11th graders in the science tracks. In respect of administrative duties, Lily was appointed to work in the Experiment and Research Section. She was in charge of holding different kinds of language contests for students in the school, and was also responsible to check students’ attendance in their extracurricular activities.
Betty. Similar to Lily, Betty’ passion for becoming an English teacher was not strong as well. During the undergraduate years, Betty was forced by her parents to take teacher education courses and receive training to become an English teacher. She completed her practicum in Grass Boys High School, a top ranking boys’ high school back in her hometown in Central Taiwan. During the practicum, she had the chance to teach 11th graders and was assigned administrative duty in the Office of Academic Affairs. It was the practicum experience that inspired Betty to become an English teacher since she enjoyed the feelings of teaching and the interaction with the students.
Betty continued to stay in Grass Boys High School and worked as a part-time English teacher for two months after accomplishing her practicum and then successfully got employed by Mountain High School as a qualified English teacher.
However, in Mountain High School, Betty worked more as an administrator than an English teacher since she was the Chief of the Equipment Section in the Office of
Academic Affairs. In the Equipment Section, it was Betty’s responsibility to help track, maintain, and organize all the property of the school. She was also in charge of buying textbooks of all subjects. Due to her heavy administrative duties, she was only assigned one class of 11th graders in the science track.
Ronda. Ronda was inspired to become a high school English teacher during her practice teaching in Hill High school, a top ranking high school in Northern Taiwan, which was also the school where she graduated. During her practicum, she had opportunities to teach three classes of 12th graders, including a language-gifted class and two science classes. In regard to administrative duties, she was assigned to work in the Office of Academic Affairs, helping to hold various competitions and
examinations.
Originally, Ronda was employed as a substitute senior high school English teacher in Cloud High School, and was assigned two classes of 11th graders in the science tracks. However, since Cloud High School was a complete school composed of senior and junior high branches and there was no assignment of administrative work, Ronda was imposed by the school to take two classes of seventh graders in the junior high branch in order to meet the required teaching hours.
Angel. Angel had thought about becoming a high school English teacher since freshman. At that time, she was not sure if teaching was her ultimate goal. In her junior year, inspired by a professor who taught English teaching pedagogies and material design, Angel realized how interesting teaching was and finally made up her mind to accomplish her goal. After graduation, she did her practicum in the high school where she graduated in Northern Taiwan. She was given an opportunity to teach three different classes of 12th graders: a music class, a science class, and a language gifted class. Angel also accumulated abundant experiences in doing
administrative work because she had been assigned to different administrative offices during the practice teaching.
Angel was employed as a substitute teacher in Bridge High School and was assigned to teach three classes of 10th graders. In addition to regular teaching job, Angel was the instructor of a movie club, and had to work in the Office of Project and Research, in which she helped collect and organize research projects that were carried out by the faculty members, and executed projects related to curriculum and school development. Since Bridge High School was a complete school as Cloud High School, Angel was assigned to teach two classes of seventh graders in junior high branch only once a week and was not restricted by the content of the lesson.
Data Collection Procedure
The present study conducted a one-year case study to investigate the problems that the participants faced in their first year of teaching and the coping strategies they employed to manage these problems. Research data was collected during the 2017 academic year, stating from the beginning of July in 2016 to mid July in 2017, mainly through interviews and classroom observations. The participants’ class schedule, handouts, test sheets, and the posts they made on their social networking sites and apps were also collected with an attempt to keep track of what they had been through in this year. Originally, the participants were asked to keep a reflection journal to record the problems they encountered, significant events that influenced their emotions and behaviors, the methods they used to solve the problems, and their comments about their own teaching. However, due to insufficient time and busy teaching schedule, all the participants decided to stop keeping reflection journals after nearly a month of attempt.
During the data collection process, the researcher went studying abroad from January to May, which overlapped with the end of the first semester (i.e., fall semester) and a major part of the second semester (i.e., spring semester) in the 2017 academic year. Hence, large amount of the research data was obtained in the fall semester. Detailed data collection schedule and the ways interviews and classroom observations were conducted were elaborated thoroughly in the following
subsections.
Interview
In the data collection process, the researcher conducted twenty-four
semi-structured interviews in a year, composed of six interviews with Merlin, Lily, and Ronda respectively, four interviews with Angel, and two interviews with Betty.
Each interview lasted around a hundred minutes, depending on the density of the information provided by the participants. The majority of the interviews were
conducted face to face in order to capture the facial expressions and genuine emotions of the participants. Besides, a consent form was signed by every participant to ensure the confidentiality of the data (please refer to Appendix for complete information).
The content of the interviews were voice-recorded and transcribed later for further analysis.
To ensure the quality of the recordings, the interviews were all conducted in isolated, non-disturbing places, such as an empty classroom or a quiet café. Some of the issues being raised in the previous interviews were reiterated in the following interviews so as to help the participants recall the comments they had made and some significant events they had experienced. This approach, according to DiPardo (1994), is called stimulated recalls, which was considered to be effective in clarifying the attitudes and opinions held by the participants towards certain events. Detailed
information about the interview schedule was demonstrated in Table 4 and would be elucidated carefully in the following paragraphs.
Before the fall semester began, the first semi-structured interviews were
conducted between July and August with a view to having a general understanding of the participants’ backgrounds, including their teaching beliefs, teaching experiences, and expectations and comprehension of their future career. In September, as the semester started, the second semi-structured interviews were conducted in an attempt
Table 4
Data Collection Schedule: Interview
Semester Description of time Duration
Fall semester Before the fall semester began From July to August After the semester began In September
After the first monthly exam In October
After the midterm exam From December to January (2017)
Spring semester Before the spring semester began
In February
After the spring semester ended In July
to capture their feelings of reality shock since it was the first time for the participants to be officially recognized as real teachers, to meet their students, and interact with their colleagues. Questions of the second semi-structured interviews mainly involved the participants’ perceptions of their job and the problems they faced regarding administrative work, English teaching, and affections. The first two interviews were conducted with Merlin, Lily, Betty, and Ronda, and were all completed before the middle of September. Closer to the end of September when the first monthly exam was held, Betty decided to leave the research team.
As the semester proceeded, two semi-structured interviews were conducted to look deeper into the problems that the participants faced and the assistance they sought to solve the problems. The first interview was carried out in October before the midterm exam while the second interview was conducted in between the end of December and the beginning of January before the final exam. Since Angel became the participant of the present study at the end of October, questions regarding personal background and her reactions to the initial entrance to the teaching sites were
incorporated in the first interview.
In the spring semester, two semi-structured interviews were carried out: One was done before the semester began and the other was completed in July after the semester ended. Since the researcher was not in Taiwan from January to May, the participants were interviewed through LINE, a telecommunication mobile phone app that helps make free online voice calls before the spring semester started. The content of the interview was recorded via a voice recording website named Vocaroo. Aside from continuingly investigating the participant’s difficulties derived from the reality shock and the coping strategies they adopted, the purpose of the interview held during the winter vacation was to guide the participants to reflect on their teaching experiences in the fall semester as a whole to revisit and clarify certain significant events that might affect their professional development. Inquiries such as how they had managed the winter vacation and what their expectations were for the spring semester were made to grasp their transition and overall plans for the following semester. During the spring semester, several informal interviews were conducted in the form of voice calls, emails, and on-line messages through social networking sites and apps to monitor the participants’ working process.
Finally, the last semi-structured interview was conducted in a face-to-face form after the end of the spring semester. In this interview, the participants were first asked
to give a brief report on the problems they met and the strategies they used to manage
to give a brief report on the problems they met and the strategies they used to manage