Understanding a Novice Teacher's Learning to Teach in a Private School in Karachi, Pakistan
This paper reports the findings of a qualitative study conducted in order to understand the learning experiences of a novice teacher, Sajda, who taught at a private community-based English-medium school in Karachi. She had Intermediate-level academic qualification and no exposure to any professional training courses. The research question for the study was: "How does a novice teacher experience her learning to teach in a private sector school in Karachi, Pakistan?" The data for the study was collected through semi-structured interviews, field notes and document analysis. Data analysis was done through NVivo, a systematic software which is used to analyze qualitative data using computers. The research participant was selected after visiting two private schools in the city. The selection was based on the criterion that the participant needed to be in the first year of his/her teaching and who could volunteer for the study.
Findings of the study show that when Sajda entered the teaching profession she faced different types of experiences in the process of learning to teach. She felt pride and happiness at the time of her appointment as a teacher. The shift of her position from a student to a teacher made her feel happy and honoured. Prior to her experiences in the classroom, she assumed that anybody with minimum content or pedagogical knowledge could teach in a primary classroom. She also thought that the daily classroom routines would proceed according to her plans and intentions. She expected the students to be naturally disciplined and capable of following her instructions in an unquestioning manner. In this way she thought of teaching to be an easy job that everyone could do. As soon as she entered her classroom, she came across a very different situation. She experienced both frustration and distress. She came across certain situations in her classroom which she had never imagined. She faced problems in classroom control, classroom management and content knowledge. Some of the challenges she faced were: dealing with students with individual needs, responding to their questions, and maintaining classroom routines. All this lead her apprehension about her survival in the school. These experiences proved to be very different from what she was expecting initially. On the basis of her experiences in the classroom, she believed that preparations for her classroom teaching gave her confidence and encouraged her to face the challenges in the classroom.
Similarly, supportive school management, friendly attitudes of peers and senior teachers, availability of resources and short-term professional development courses helped Sajda in easing the frustration and distress. After taking all of this into account, the paper concludes with recommendations and implications for supporting novice teachers in the primary schools.