Meeting 1 Preparation

3 alternative representations of ECT

1. ECT = sense-making agent
Personal interpretative framework
Professional understanding
 Self-image (descriptive): How do I describe myself?

 Self-esteem (evaluative): How well do I think I am doing my job?

 Job motivation (conative): What is motivating me in the job, to choose it, to stay or
to quit?

 Task perception (normative): What do I consider to be my professional duties (tasks)

in order to feel like a proper teacher (my personal professional agenda)

 Future perspective (prospective): How do I look at the future in my job and how
does that make me feel?

Subjective educational theory

 How do I think I should handle this situation? (Knowledge, formal insights and
understandings, derived from teacher education or in-service training)

 Why do I think this approach would “work”? (Beliefs  more person-based,

idiosyncratic conviction, built up through different career experiences)
2. ECT = networker
 Network with high school  college admissions counseling, formally and informally
 Previous experience in English club  extracurricular activities for students, e.g., American
Center, sponsors for events
 Advisor of English club  facilitate
 Study + work in the same university  a bit limits networks
3. ECT = asset

Vulnerability:
- Not in full control of the situation
- Students’ results only partially determined by teaching
- Not having a firm ground for decisions to support students’ development

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Micropolitics in teacher induction
Micropolitical action  establish + safeguard + restore the desirable working condition, which act as
professional interests
1. Self-interests (cf. personal interpretative framework)
When one’s identity as a teacher, one’s professional self-esteem or one’s task perception are
threatened by the professional context, then self-interests emerge. They always concern the
protection of one’s professional integrity and the identity as a teacher.
Looking for self-affirmation
o Invest in the development of self-confidence as teachers

o Important: Judgment/ recognition by significant others

o Take up professional challenges; meaningful events in private lives that affect feelings of
professional competence
o E.g., acknowledgement from principal; organized book club

Coping with vulnerability

o Experience of own limits in competence  invest time + energy in work ( exhausted)

o External criticism  question one’s competencies

o Achieve a positive self-esteem

o E.g., training for school teachers – expertise vs. experience;

Coping with visibility

o Observations by colleagues, principals, parents…  actions are perceived, interpreted,
judged  determine the image others build about ECT
o Homework assignments, test reports, creative work…

o Teachers tend to blame themselves for pupils’ failures

o Micropolitics: ECT are well aware that publicly manifesting authority and management
skills contribute to their positive evaluation as a ‘proper teacher’ by significant others
o E.g., observations by mentor,

2. Material interests: availability of and access to time, teaching materials, funds, specific
infrastructure (sports facilities, computer room, library, copying facilities)
o Getting time to prepare for the job

o Micropolitics: please pupils, get their attention, becoming visible as competent, hard-
working, creative
o E.g., usually feel not enough time: warm-up activities, handouts (“professional”,
creative, friendly to learners); invest in lots of books for professional development and
teaching materials (at least 1/10 salary, school library limited  sometimes ordered by
myself);
3. Organizational interests: procedures, roles, positions, formal tasks in the school

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 o Finding and keeping a job

o The longer the waiting time, the more their self-esteem is threatened and doubt
professional competences
o Losing job = losing interpersonal relations, identity, social status…

Choosing among job offers

o Balancing costs – benefits, act strategically to safeguard job opportunities: take up extra
duties, look for jobs in school where they are not complete strangers
o

4. Cultural-ideological interests: explicit norms, values, ideals that get acknowledged in the school
as legitimate and binding elements of the school culture; processes and interaction of ‘defining’
that culture
o Competing ideals about goals

o E.g., giving students high marks  make university become more competitive;

 Process through which this legitimacy is acquired (power):

o Participation

o Voice

o Power

o …

5. Social-professional interests: quality of the relationships among members of the organization or

between them and others outside the organization
o Opportunities to share concerns with colleagues/ discuss didactical questions

o E.g., talking behind the back? Suspicion? >< own commitment

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Micropolitical literacy
 Read the situations through a micropolitical lens, understanding them in terms of
different interests,
 Learning to effectively deal with them (coping strategies), constitutes an important
agenda for teachers’ professional development
3 aspects:
Knowledge aspect: knowledge to see, interpret and understand the micropolitical
character of a situation; cf. subjective educational theory
Instrumental or operational aspect: strategies and tactics to establish, safeguard,
restore desirable working conditions; to what extent can ECT influence the situation
 context bound
Experiential aspect: degree of satisfaction ECT feels about own micropolitical literacy
– discomfort, uncertainty, powerlessness, anger, frustration, vulnerability >< joy,
experiencing success, satisfaction…

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Veenman text

Issues I can recognize in my case:

 Classroom discipline
o Punctuality: different teachers, myself always present before class time ><
some other teachers are not  students affected.
o Reward or punishment? Strict or lenient? Lesson learnt: always state
regulations/ expectations at the very beginning of the semester and stick to
them. E.g., teaching footballers  not concentrate, easily distracted 
collect their mobile phones into a bag and return after class
 Motivating students: students smart  easily bored if activities are not challenging/
diverse
 Dealing with differences between students:
o Ability
o Personality
o Types of students: students vs. adult learners (working students) – cannot be
too strict to them, cannot be too demanding, …