The dynamics of communities of practice during professional placement: Early-career teacher reflections

During professional placements, pre-service teachers draw on a variety of mechanisms to support their performance in schools as they develop their teacher identity, and explore ways to apply their theoretical and research-based knowledge acquired in their university studies. The pre-service teachers are supported in this endeavour by more-experienced teacher professionals who act as models, mentors, and advisors, and with whom the pre-service teachers work collaboratively. Using (Hadar & Brody in Teaching and Teacher Education 8:1641–1651, 2010) three-layer community of practice (CoP) model as the lens, this research explores the dynamics of this support and collaboration within professional placements and the placements’ effectiveness as preparation for a teaching career. The research used survey and interview data from primary and secondary early-career teachers to capture their reflections in the light of their teacher career experience. The research suggests that mentoring and support for pre-service teachers is variable, but that at its best it is a whole-school concern and that the inclusion of pre-service teachers into teacher CoPs has benefits for both pre-service and practising teachers.