33 feelings, awareness, beliefs, problems, challenges, and thought could be
elucidated.
B. FRAMEWORK OF PRE-UNDERSTANDING
Constructing a framework for research is important since it serves as the main guidance for a research Creswell, 2003. Since this study, is a
phenomenological research in which “the essence of human experiences concerning a phenomenon” Creswell, 2003:15 is identified, the framework is
also formed as the pre-figured themes. The theoretical framework or pre- understanding of the lived experience of novice English teachers at primary level
is formulated as follows. Novice English teachers are teachers who have just graduated from
English Teacher Education study program and in their initial years of teaching which is still less than three years. When they first enter their in-service teaching,
novice teachers bring the ideals that they formed during their pre-service education. The ideal that they have formed during their pre-service education
could be a set of beliefs about teaching English to young learners. However, when they start teaching in the real language classroom they might experience the
“reality shock” in which they face reality which is far different from the ideal that they formed duting their pre-service education and then they start to realize that
there is a gap between what they learnt in the pre-service education program and the reality of classroom language or their in-service teaching Farrel, 2012.
34
Therefore initial belief becomes the first theme and reality shock becomes the
second theme. Novice English teachers might feel sad, depressed, and stressful during
their initial years of teaching since the reality is far different from what they have envisaged during their pre-service education. Many problems might arise during
their initial years, such as: adaptation with the new school environment, classroom management, workload, learning and teaching process, evaluation and grading,
relationship with students, parents, colleagues, and supervisors, and any other
problems Calderhead, 1991; McCann Johannessen, 2004. Hence, feeling or what novice teachers fell
in their initial years is the third theme, while problem
is the fourth theme. When novice teachers are being left alone with their problems, they would
feel that they are not suitable for the job and start thinking to leave the job Crookes, 1997; Peacock, 2009; Farrel, 2012. The institution where they work
might realize this and then provide support for them. The support provided by the environment or the school where they work can be sharing and mentoring
Karatas Karaman, 2013. Through sharing and mentoring, novice teachers receive support from their mentor and coworkers. If the school where they work
does not provide any support for them, they might get support from their family Karatas Karaman, 2013
. Moreover, novice teachers‟ perceived efficacy also
might boost them to survive Brannan and Bleisten, 2012. Thus, support
becomes the fifth theme.
35 Besides that, novice teachers‟ might also employ their personal strategies
to cope with problems during their initial years of teaching Richards Farrel, 2005. They might have self reflection and self-directed learning as their personal
strategies. They could see and reflect from what they have done and then take the lesson from it to improve themselves. In other words novice teachers also have
their own strategies to struggle and to adapt in their new school. It makes struggle and adaptation
becomes the sixth theme then. Novice teachers‟ experience in their initial years of teaching might
determine their philosophy and attitude for the rest of their career Kuzmic, 1993. Furtherm
ore, the first year of teching in teachers‟ career played significant role in shaping their future practice Karatas and Karaman, 2013. The up and down of
novice teachers‟ experience during their initial years might make them either abandon their job or make them keep teaching Farrel, 2012. Hence, when they
survive, what novice teachers have experienced might shape and change their
initial beliefs about teaching English at primary level. Because of that, current belief
becomes the last theme.
36
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
This chapter discusses the methodology and the procedures that would be employed in this research. It was essential to this research since it elaborated the
appropriate steps of how to answer the research question systematically. Hence the elaboration in this chapter covers four major parts, namely 1 research
method, 2 data and data gathering techniques, 3 research procedures, and 4 text composition and interpretation.
A. RESEARCH METHOD
This research was a qualitative research, particularly empirical phenomenological research which aimed to describe and interpret novice teachers‟
experience during their initial years of teaching. This study was a qualitative research because it took place in natural setting, was fundamentally interpretive,
and put the researcher to view the social phenomenon holistically Creswell, 2003:181-
183. It was a phenomenological since it described the participants‟ lived experience and described the meaning of the experience without “offering
casual explanations or interpr etive generalization” Van Manen, 1990:54. It was
also empirical because it “involved a return to experience in order to obtain
comprehensive description that provided the basis for a reflective structural analysis that portrayed the essence of the experi
ence” Moustakas, 1994:13. In this study, the lived experience of interest was the participants‟ up and down