Many early-career teachers (ECTs) begin their teaching careers in rural and remote schools in Australia, and do not stay long, with consequences for their own lives, and for their students, schools and communities. By understanding how first-year ECTs navigate personal (subjective) and contextual (objective) conditions, opportunities to disrupt patterns of ECT attrition may be found. This paper explores the online longitudinal reflections from two rural ECTs. Margaret Archer’s three dimensions of reflexivity were used to analyse what personal, structural and cultural resources were activated by ECTs as they discerned and deliberated the costs of being a rural ECT. The potential for school leaders and mentors to support rural ECTs through dialogic reflexivity, that is the opportunity to discern and deliberate priorities with others, is identified as a role that is significant for ECT support but not straightforward. Prompts for dialogic reflexivity are proposed.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	early-career teaching, rural teaching, teacher identity, dialogic reflexivity
Research Division:	Education
Research Group:	Specialist studies in education
Research Field:	Specialist studies in education not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Education and Training
Objective Group:	Teaching and curriculum
Objective Field:	Teacher and instructor development
UTAS Author:	Morrison, C (Dr Chad Morrison)
ID Code:	115967
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	1
Deposited By:	Education
Deposited On:	2017-04-24
Last Modified:	2018-05-31
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