2020 Volume 87 Issue 2 Pages 227-236
The purpose of this study is to clarify what reappointment teachers think about their roles in their schools, focusing on their relationships with colleagues.
Each local government has a different system of reappointment, while reappointment teachers have various working styles. Therefore, this study focused on reappointment teachers in elementary schools in βCity, αPrefecture, and interviewed 25 people about their job details and role consciousness.
The working styles of the reappointment teachers in elementary schools in βCity fell into five types; (1) full-time reappointment teachers with managerial experience, who instruct novice teachers; (2) part-time reappointment teachers with managerial experience who instruct novice teachers; (3) full-time reappointment teachers who do not instruct novice teachers but have managerial experience; (4) full-time reappointment teachers without managerial experience who do not instruct novice teachers; (5) part-time reappointment teachers without managerial experience who do not instruct novice teachers.
The study found three types of role consciousness among reappointment teachers in elementary schools.
First, the teachers felt that their role was to nurture novice and younger teachers. For reappointment teachers of types (1) and (2), instruction of novice teachers was positioned as their main task. Although the reappointment teachers of type (5) shared this role consciousness, they felt that, as part-time workers, they lacked the time to carry out the task.
Second, the reappointment teachers saw their role as supporting in-service teachers. The teachers of types (2) and (5) taught some classes and conducted individual teaching for children. The reappointment teachers of type (2) tried to engage with colleagues based on their awareness of having stepped down from managerial positions. Those of type (5) recognized their position as peripheral because they were part-time workers and “retired teachers.”
Third, some reappointment teachers said that they could not find their own role as reappointment teachers. Some of the type (4) teachers felt no change in their role after becoming reappointment teachers, because they did the same jobs as before retirement. The others had lost sight of their roles, because they were negatively aware of their roles as reappointment teachers.
According to the narratives of reappointment teachers, becoming a reappointment teacher means a loss of managerial status or membership in the organization of in-service teachers. This study suggests the consideration of how to utilize retired teachers. If the institution of reappointment teachers is to continue, it is necessary to consider systems in which they donʼt have to feel this loss, and where, even if feeling this loss, they can accept it and re-create a new role consciousness and teacher identity.
