Is Quality Initial Teacher Education Where the Music Stops? Conceptualizing the Becoming of a Teacher: Lessons from the Field

The current global focus on quality teacher preparation and expectations for profession-ready pre-service teachers when entering the workforce turns attention to their first assignments. Complex employment conditions affect new teachers' preparedness and confidence. The challenge for education leaders who seek to improve the quality of initial teacher education (ITE) that prospective teachers currently receive is to understand, broadly, how ITE impacts graduate teachers' coping strategies during initial placements. The author explores the implications of graduate teachers' placements in complex teaching positions such as the out-of-field phenomenon, that is, teaching subjects or year levels for which they are not suitably qualified. Complex placements consequences for new teachers accentuate the impact and value of professional learning and development on the quality of teaching beyond ITE. The empirical data offered in this chapter are drawn from transnational studies showing the actual lived experiences of beginning teachers and their professional development beyond ITE. The findings provide relevant insights into the effect of ITE on graduate teachers' experiences when they are assigned to challenging positions in their first two years of teaching.