Abstract:

Induction is a key stage in the professional development of teachers (Imbernón, 2020; Mauri et al., 2011; Vaillant y Marcelo, 2015). During this period, the novice teachers must face various challenges with the same demands as experienced teachers (Jensen et al., 2012). This coping is done with limited tools (Vaillant, 2021) and with little experience of what happens in the classroom (Moscoso et al., 2018).

Consequently, novice teachers require aids that go beyond their initial training. Evidence shows that the supports that novice teachers receive are key in their professional development (Chaney et al., 2020), improving the quality of their pedagogical practice (Jáspez y Sánchez 2019) and helping them to be part of the community. Nevertheless, research in the area has mainly inquired into the presence or absence of supports, and not in their nature or quality (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011), nor in how they respond to specific needs recognized by novice teachers themselves.

Based on the foregoing, it has been sought to delve deeper into the nature of the supports provided to novice teachers considering their particularities. Still, within these investigations, the homeroom teacher has not been considered, a professional who, in addition to the tasks of their own disciplinary area, is responsible for a course group (Acuña y Guzmán 2018). Therefore, it is necessary to inquire into the specificity of the support received by NHT (novice homeroom teachers). Thus, the objective of this communication is to characterize the support received by NHT who assume this position in their first year of work.

The study carried out is part of the qualitative approach and used a strategy of multiple case studies (Stake, 2006). The participants were 15 novice teachers who held the position of NHT during their first year of work. The number of participants responds to the objective of the study to have different types of cases, to study them in their complexity in their real context. Moreover, this number of interviews is recognized as ideal to reach theoretical saturation (Kvale, 2011). For its part, the data collection method was the semi-structured interview and the data were subjected to a thematic analysis (Willig, 2013) with an inductive-deductive coding protocol (Braun & Clarke, 2006).

The results indicate that the supports provided to NHT possess different degrees of formality and, according to this criterion, can be characterized as formal and informal. Formal support is organized by the educational institution and informal support is based on the collaborative relationships that the NHT have with colleagues and other professionals. These aids are distributed within the educational community and allow access to varied social capital, addressing various needs of NHT, among which the tasks of the position of homeroom teacher and pedagogical aspects of teaching stand out. At the same time, there is a series of aids that are located outside the educational community.

Therefore, the support received by NHT address a variety of needs and the different members of the community are key in their delivery, with the role of colleagues standing out. Consequently, it is important that the induction process not only provides institutionalized support, but also fosters a culture of collaboration among colleagues. In this way, the NHT will be able to establish links in the community that will allow them to access a more diverse and enriched social capital.

Keywords:

Induction, novice, homeroom teachers, supports.