Abstract
This chapter investigates the onset of a teaching career in terms of an intercultural experience, with all the attendant opportunities for and barriers to learning for the beginning teacher. The chapter draws on a parallel between encountering a new culture and encountering a new language. The ‘grammar’ of a culture being encountered for the first time is much more difficult to understand and master than that of a language, as the rules tend to be unwritten and subliminal to insiders. Following an investigation of related literature, four beginning teachers’ stories illustrate some of these dynamics and explore the beginning teachers’ propensity for fight or flight in response. From this, we draw some advice that we offer tentatively to beginning teachers, to schools and systems and to teacher educators.
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Schuck, S., Aubusson, P., Buchanan, J., Russell, T. (2012). The Way We Do Things Around Here: School Culture and Socialisation. In: Beginning Teaching. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3901-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3901-7_4
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