The brave and the bold: researching the professional lives of early career teachers: Imagine if ... the impact of quality teaching on the socialisation of early career teachers

This paper discusses theoretical and empirical foundations for a focus on pedagogy during teacher induction. Our research project for exploring this possibility, with the working title of ‘the impact of quality teaching on the socialisation of early career teachers’ is outlined. This study follows a group of teachers who received strong grounding in 'productive pedagogy' during their teacher education program. During this first year of employment as teachers, NSW public schools have adopted a version of productive pedagogy, ‘Quality teaching’, as a long term strategic priority. Through observations and semi-structured interviews, the study will explore the potential impact of Quality teaching, as a framework both in teacher education and in schools, particularly during the process of induction to professional practice. Our research reveals that while there is a neglect of pedagogy during their induction period, a substantive understanding of quality teaching has assisted a small group of early career teachers to sustain what they have learnt about ‘teaching better’ as they begin their teaching practice in schools.