TITLE:
Difficulties Experienced by the Arab Teacher during His First Year of Teaching as a Result of Personal and Organizational Variables
AUTHORS:
Salman Ilaiyan
KEYWORDS:
Support; Communication with Students and Parents; Didactic-Disciplinary Knowledge; Difficulties; Beginning Arab Teacher; Dissatisfaction; Organizational Climate
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.4 No.6,
June
4,
2013
ABSTRACT: This pioneer study deals with difficulties
faced by the beginning Arab teacher. The theoretical framework of the research
is based on Veenman’s (1984) analysis, which indicates 24 difficulties faced by
the beginning teacher. These
difficulties have been classified into eight categories ranked in order of
importance. The study seeks to identify the difficulties experienced by the
beginning Arab teacher during his first year of teaching and to predict his
future dissatisfaction with teaching based on those difficulties. The questionnaire drafted especially for this study
was completed by 130 participants (beginning teachers). The responses were
analyzed, yielding six factors of difficulty. The findings indicate
difficulties involving: 1)
the interpersonal communication between beginning Arab teachers on the one hand
and both students and parents on the other, 2) overload, 3) didactic and
disciplinary knowledge, 4) support and recognition, 5) organizational climate
(school culture), and 6) satisfaction. We examined the correlation between the
beginning Arab teacher’s difficulties and his
dissatisfaction with his work. The research findings reveal that the
organizational climate (school culture) and overload factors significantly
affect the satisfaction variable.
With regard to the relation between the beginning Arab teacher’s general
background characteristics and his difficulties in the first year, the
background variable, specialization, was found to affect the factors of
difficulty.