An Inquiry into Induction Strategies for New Teachers to a School District's Institutional Culture

摘要

Research has shown that the lack of intentionally developed and purposely implemented induction strategies by the Human Resources Administration (HRA) of schools to support new teachers to make proper adjustment and transition in order to function effectively in their new school district's institutional culture is a critical issue. This study inquired into the effectiveness of induction strategies employed by a Chicago suburban school district's HRA to prepare and support the new teachers to adjust to and properly function in the district's institutional culture. The outcome of this research is significant for new teacher professional development programs and institutional school growth dynamics in the educational process.;Statistics support the claim that new teachers are often difficult to retain in school districts. These teachers experience different struggles as they attempt to make professional adjustments and transitions to become effective contributors to institutional growth and student achievement. One of the key areas of concern is how institutional cultures of school districts tremendously impact (positively or negatively) the adjustment and transition needs of teachers, particularly new teachers. Yet there is little systematic research that directly examines the effectiveness of institutional cultures of schools and effective induction strategies that are employed to support the adjustment and transition needs of these new teachers.;This study employed theoretical foundations from the disciplines of induction and mentoring, organizational structures and patterns, and social theory as basic theoretical perspectives to drive the basic concepts and frameworks undergirding this study, and how necessary it is to ground this inquiry in the literature. A qualitative methodology and a purposeful sampling approach were employed. A semi-structured interview approach, with in-depth interviews, was used to gather data from the HRAs and new teacher participants based on the research questions (RQs). Participants of the study were purposefully sampled from a population of the K-8 educational system from a public suburban school district in the Chicagoland in the United States of America.;The key conceptual frameworks employed for this inquiry were: Berger and Luckman's (1966) theory of social construction of reality; Wong's (2004) concept of induction and mentorship for new teachers; Rebore's (2007) administrative perspective on induction programs and placement needs for beginning teachers; Bandura's (1986) concept of social learning theory; Selznick's (1949) perspective on institutional adaptive structures and the needs of organizations; Dimaggio and Powell's (1991) perspective on institutional patterns and forms of organizational structures; and the Alliance for Excellent Education's (2004) conception of comprehensive induction, which is intentionally crafted for new teachers to become professionally developed, to work collaboratively, and to develop confidence in school systems.