Every year, new teachers embark on their teaching careers with high hopes. Many of them develop into skilled teachers and remain in education. However, the dropout rate among new teachers is (too) high. The figures vary by region, sector and study, but The State of Education 2022 shows that the dropout rate is highest in secondary education and vocational education, with 11 and 8 per cent respectively no longer working in education after two years (Education Inspectorate, 2022). We are also familiar with this phenomenon in Zeeland.
The importance of a soft landing and good guidance for new teachers in order to retain them in the teaching profession is widely recognised (VO Council, 2023). Nevertheless, there is a noticeable search throughout the sector to set up good guidance for new teachers. Although we know (in part) what is important in guiding new teachers, less is known about how this guidance is actually implemented in practice and how it is experienced by new teachers. We also know more and more about which school organisational conditions have a positive influence on a “soft landing” in education, but it appears to be difficult to meet these conditions during the induction of new teachers.
We generally consider the induction phase to be the first three years after new teachers have completed their initial training. During the induction phase, they receive (additional) support from experienced colleagues/school trainers and are introduced to the school, its vision on education, how that vision is reflected in daily school practice, etc. A well-designed and implemented induction programme contributes to teacher retention (Runhaar et al., 2022). More and more is known about what a successful induction programme can look like. Central to this is that the induction phase should be consistent in character and design with the initial teacher training at the front end and the ongoing professional development at the back end.
How induction programmes are implemented in everyday reality, how they are experienced and to what extent they play a role in the decision to remain in education or not is less clear. This leads to the following question and underlying questions in this study into an induction phase in Zeeland:
To what extent do the induction programmes as implemented in Zeeland's primary, secondary and vocational schools contribute to retaining new teachers, and what can we possibly do to strengthen the induction of new teachers?
Underlying questions that need to be answered are:
- What does an ideal induction phase look like?
- What does the induction phase look like in schools in Zeeland? On paper and in reality.
- How is it experienced?
- What are the (school organisational) bottlenecks in the induction of new teachers?
Based on a literature review, figures on teacher dropout rates during the induction phase and an analysis of existing documentation on policy and approach to the induction phase of new teachers in primary, secondary and vocational education in Zeeland, two research instruments will be designed: the starters' café and an interview guide or questionnaire. We then engage in creative and structured discussions with new teachers and their mentors in so-called starter cafés, organised by educational sector and region. We also want to talk to people who have left education in Zeeland within the last three years. Based on the information gathered from these discussions, principles will be developed for a joint induction approach per sector and across sectors, which will then form the basis for a co-creation day with supervisors, trainers (OSZW/ZAOS), managers and the project team, working towards a joint approach and/or design for the induction phase in Zeeland education.
This research is made possible by the Zeeland Education Region. Would you like to know more? Please contact Patrick van Schaik: p.w.van.schaik@hz.nl.
