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Internship: interpreting micropolitical contexts

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Abstract

Many university faculties of education across Australia employ a model of internship for final semester pre-service teacher education students to help them make a smooth transition into the teaching profession. While a growing body of research has explored pre-service teachers’ experiences of their practicum, including the internship, which is the final professional experience within a course of study, very little work has considered micropolitics as a lens through which to interpret interns’ relationships with their school supervisors/mentors. This paper uses a micropolitical framework to interpret reflective reports written by 145 Bachelor of Education (primary) interns who recorded their perceptions of their professional learning experience within the context of a relationship with their school-based mentors. Several key themes are identified that highlight interns’ reports of a range of micropolitical strategies at play. The paper concludes by raising a number of implications for universities and schools regarding how better to facilitate interns’ transition into the profession.

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Correspondence to Lisa C. Ehrich.

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Ehrich, L.C., Millwater, J. Internship: interpreting micropolitical contexts. Aust. Educ. Res. 38, 467–481 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-011-0035-7

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