A Study on the Experiences of Beginning Classroom Teachers on Teacher Induction Practices in Rural Areas in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine how the teacher induction practices operate in Turkey on the basis of the experiences of beginning classroom teachers appointed to schools in rural areas. The study was designed as a case study from one of the qualitative research models. The study group is comprised of eight beginning classroom teachers working in rural settlements specified through criterion and snowball sampling methods. The research data were collected through a semi-structured interview form. Descriptive content analysis method was employed in data analysis. The main result of the study is that the teacher induction program for beginning teachers working in rural settlements is not effective and that the beginning teachers had problem-focused experiences regarding the induction practices. Inadequate mentoring support, procedural conduct of performance evaluations, procedural approaches to teacher induction requirements are among the prominent problem-oriented experiences of the teachers.

Keywords

• teacher induction
• teacher induction programs,
• teacher induction practices in rural schools,
• beginning classroom teachers

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