As part of reform in initial teacher education (ITE), the Bachelor of Education degree (B.Ed.) was reconfigured to include a fourth year of training (DES, 2012). Revised programmes of study were required to put “a greater focus on the development of teachers’ research skills so that, once qualified, they can use educational research to inform their day-to-day work” (Harford, 2016).
Church of Ireland College of Education (CICE), students have always had the option to engage in an additional year of study in order to qualify for an honours degree with the completion of a research project being a compulsory component. Contrary to perceived expectations that students would struggle with this additional workload on top of working full time and studying part-time, research indicated that the process of being engaged in inquiry, sustained early career teachers and supported efficacy and resilience (Halpin et al, 2015).
We will share sound bites from three newly qualified teachers (NQTs) on their experience of having the “opportunity for rigorous, systematic practice-oriented inquiry” to help them understand their own professional development “through critical reflection on their emerging thinking and practice” with regards to teaching mathematics in the primary school classroom and involving parents in their child’s mathematical learning (Harford, 2016).