Critical incidents of novice english teachers: scaffolding and their sense of being

Abstract

Reflective practice is a way of achieving a high level of professional self-knowledge in novice teachers. Considering the need to accompany these teachers in Chile, it is imperative to incorporate mechanisms that provide them with support in their first years of work. This article presents a longitudinal qualitative case study that explored how two Chilean novice English teachers used reflective practice as a teacher professional development strategy. This became effective when narrating the critical incidents that emerged in his classes, an instance that became a scaffolding for his sense of Being. By using the narrative inquiry method, participants were able to recall critical incidents from their teaching practice and recall emotions and learnings from those experiences. Consequently, this process mainly triggered aspects of their professional identity and their beliefs about their teaching practice and, at the same time, it was observed how some of these aspects varied or remained the same over the course of four years. The main implication of this study arises from its potential benefits in allowing new teachers to better manage pedagogical challenges, collaborative work, and reflective practice.