Teaching and Teacher Education· 2026Q1
How dilemmatic spaces are constructed: Assuming, assigning, and justifying positions in early career teachers’ literacy teaching in low socio-economic status schools
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Early career teachers (ECTs) in low socio-economic status (LSES) schools navigate literacy teaching through five key 'dilemmatic spaces'—curriculum narrowing, student capability, leadership data demands, parent-teacher responsibility, and coordinator support—shaped by their assumed and assigned positions and the justifications they provide for competing obligations.
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Key points
- ECTs in LSES schools face five key dilemmatic spaces in literacy teaching: curriculum narrowing, student capability, leadership data demands, parent-teacher responsibility, and coordinator support.
- These dilemmatic spaces are constructed through teachers' self-assumed and externally assigned positions.
- Teachers' justificatory accounts reveal how they navigate competing obligations within these spaces.
- The study extends dilemmatic space theory by showing how systemic tensions are mediated by teacher positioning in LSES contexts.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Early career teachers (ECTs) in low socio-economic status (LSES) primary schools often teach literacy under strong accountability and benchmark pressures. Prior research has commonly treated these challenges as discrete problems solvable through better instructional decisions. Drawing on dilemmatic space theory and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), this study reconceptualises ECTs' literacy teaching as shaped by intensified contradictions within and across activity systems. Semi-structured interviews with twelve Australian ECTs identified five recurrent dilemmatic spaces concerning curriculum narrowing, student capability, leadership data demands, parent–teacher responsibility, and year coordinator support and monitoring. The findings show that these spaces were constituted through ECTs' self-assumed and other-assigned positions and made visible through the justificatory accounts by which teachers explained competing obligations. The study extends dilemmatic space theory by showing how systemic tensions are mediated through ECTs’ positioning in LSES literacy contexts.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Teaching and Teacher Education, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Human Factors and Ergonomics
Human Factors and ErgonomicsSocial Sciences