An Exploration of Dispositions for Success among First-Year Teachers

Abstract

Universities and colleges are charged with the broad task of providing their students with the skills that will allow them to be successful in their chosen fields. The perception that teacher preparation programs hold the key to the knowledge and skills necessary to have a successful career is being unclear from the consumer’s perspective. While investing in education will always be beneficial, it does not come with any guarantees of success in the workplace. The research provides the first year teachers’ perceptions of success. The content knowledge, pedagogical development and field experiences are traditionally aligned for all pre-service teachers. Their success in the classroom is not always a given in spite of all pre-service teachers having been exposed to the edTPA process, state teacher licenses assessments, and in-service evaluation that is aligned to the Danielson framework. Neither the edTPA nor the Danielson framework evaluate disposition directly. An educator needs to be reflective in his/her practice in order to develop his/her disposition along with content knowledge and instructional strategies. This study provides insight to pre-service training, first year in-service experiences, the evaluation processes (edTPA and Danielson framework), and their dispositional perspective. Major themes pertaining to classroom management, time commitment, reflective practices, emotional connection to students, and being self-driven were explored through a dispositional lens. Dispositional characteristics are present throughout the pre-service training and become increasing prevalent in first year teachers. This phenomenological study follows a contextual framework of disconnect between teacher preparation programs and in-service realities resulting in a deeper understanding of first year teachers’ perceptions of success