Speaking Up and Speaking Freely: Beginning Teachers' Critical Perceptions of Their Professional Induction.

The induction of beginning teachers has assumed a burgeoning priority given existing North American preoccupations with teacher retention, state educational standards, and large-scale assessment. In Canada, and especially Ontario, school boards are following the lead of many American institutions in establishing key partnerships with university faculties of education and provincial governing bodies to best prepare and induct beginning teachers into the profession. The objective of this qualitative research study was to examine the perceptions of 173 beginning teachers in Ontario participating in purposely selected exemplary induction programs. Four core categories emerged that showed conceptual differences in how teacher cohorts over a 2-year period understood their induction; namely, induction as exceeding beginning teachers’ expectations, their appreciation of meaningful support, their recognition of teacher leadership, and the disconnect between in-services and practice. This study draws attention to the professional enculturation of beginning teachers, but more notably, compels a practical reconsideration of how induction is defined in light of beginning teacher growth and sustainability. Introduction The induction of beginning teachers has assumed a burgeoning priority given existing North American preoccupations with teacher retention, state educational standards, and large-scale assessment. In Canada, and especially Ontario, school boards are following the lead of many American institutions in establishing key partnerships with university faculties of education and provincial governing bodies to best prepare and induct beginning teachers into the profession. California, New York, and Ohio to name only three states, have partnered induction services at the local school board level with university faculties of education to develop, refine, and deliver teacher induction support services for beginning teachers. Interest in teacher induction, considered as an extension of the learning from the preservice year, surfaced in Ontario in approximately 1988 (Cole & Watson, 1991; Huling-Austin, Odell, Ishler, Kay, & Edelfelt, 1989; Varah, Theune, & Parker, 1986). By 1991, however, only 19% of the province’s 110 publicly funded school boards offered an orientation session and mentoring component to their induction programs (Cole & Watson). Given the fact that orientation and mentoring support services contribute to beginning teacher efficacy and pedagogical practice (Darling-Hammond, 2000; DarlingHammond & Sykes, 2003; Olebe, 2005; Tickle, 2000), the relatively low rate of participation by the province’s school boards was problematic. To compound the issue, research substantiated the fact that beginning teachers receive equally difficult or more strenuous teaching assignments than their experienced colleagues (McIntyre, 2002a), and as a result attrition is highest within the first 5 years (Moskowitz & Stephens, 1997). Interestingly, a Canadian Teachers’ Federation (2000) survey reported that in excess of 60% of Ontario school boards still considered teacher retention as problematic. The Ontario College of Teachers (2003), as the governing body for the province’s 200,000 teachers, reported that of 6,800 Ontario teacher graduates, 51% indicated that they were satisfied with their school board orientation, while 21% rated their experience to be somewhat unsatisfactory,