Novice teachers' stories of lived educational experiences: negotiating dilemmas in classroom practice during covid-19.

Abstract

This study on “Novice Teachers’ stories of lived educational experiences: Negotiating the dilemmas of classroom practice during a pandemic” explores the everyday lives of three South African novice teachers teaching in different schooling contexts (rural, urban, and deep rural) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It zooms in and out of their everyday personal-professional experiences to make meaning of the dilemmas they encountered in their practice during the pandemic. Framed by Rodgers and Scott (2008) conceptual framing and the dilemmatic space framework, this study brings to the surface the voices of novice teachers as they transition from university to the complex educational experience of school, which was further complicated in 2020 and 2021 by a pandemic. Drawing on a narrative inquiry approach within the interpretive paradigm, stories of their everyday practice during the pandemic opened up opportunities to explore and understand the perspectives which shaped their decisions and choices inside and outside the classroom. The stories generated from various creative methods, including artefact inquiry, memory drawings, photovoice, collage inquiry, and unstructured interviews, provided the openings for teachers to remember their past and freely share the rich and complex stories of their experiences. The data analysis foregrounds a range of emotions and feelings and significant relationships that shaped the telling of the stories of their experiences during the pandemic. During the pandemic, the novice teachers found themselves in a new environment that required different kinds of personal and professional support to navigate their way and strengthen their everyday practice. This study has heightened my awareness of novice teachers’ lived experiences and what they are and do to negotiate a complex educational terrain in their everyday lives. This research highlights that novice teachers confronted various situations during the pandemic in their unique schooling contexts. The study found that the novice teachers’ experiences were linked to their past experiences, and their childhood and schooling years were pivotal in shaping the perspectives and choices they made during the COVID-19 pandemic.