What does it really mean to be classroom-ready? Professional agency, autonomy and confidence in beginner teachers

RACHELE NEWMAN, PRINCIPAL TEACHING FELLOW, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON, UK The profession There is no doubt that it is a tough time to be a teacher. It has been said that we are in the midst of a polycrisis (Mills, 2023), where seemingly unrelated crises in education – including challenging recruitment and retention, high workload, post-COVID recovery, socio-economic disadvantages and inequalities of outcomes, plus the degree of state-level intervention in initial teacher education (ITE) – are combining to create a perfect storm. Despite this, we still welcome many keen, enthusiastic new entrants into the profession each year. If new teachers are to thrive and not just survive in the turbulent waters of our schools, then it is important for them to be classroom-ready when they complete their pre-service year. Classroom readiness So what does this look like? What do teachers really need to know (and be able to do) to be classroom-ready? A technicist model of ITE in England is