초임 영어교사들의 ‘교사되기’: 그들이 겪는 어려움과 극복방안을 중심으로

‘Becoming a Teacher’ of Rookie English Teachers: Their Stressors and Coping Strategies.

This study aims to delve into the stressors and coping strategies of rookie teachers in their first year of teaching experience. Thirteen teachers were interviewed twice in-depthly, and the collected data was transcribed and analyzed using summative content analysis and critical incident analysis. The findings showed that the teachers’ stressors could be categorized into two types: teaching-related and non-teaching-related. As for the former, the teachers mentioned that they had a hard time teaching the students who have different English proficiency levels in the same classroom, adjusting themselves to grammar-translation-based teaching, and coming up with appropriate questions for tests. As for the latter, the teachers complained that it was difficult to position themselves in the pre-existing community of in-service teachers, to deal with an abundant of administrative work, and to discipline the students. Although they had various types of stressors as rookie teachers, it turned out that they did not have effective coping strategies to relieve their stress. The teachers used very passive methods such as “talking to their friends, family, or other rookie teachers,” “observing other teachers,” or “enduring the situation.