ABSTRACT
For new teachers, the time of identity formation, of ‘becoming’, is strange and uneven, moments of liminality interspersed with breakdowns and breakthroughs. School time may be metronomic, marked by bells, periods and timetables, but new-teacher time is mercurial:
‘days going in a blur’ ‘It feels like I have been here forever’ ‘time is actually flying by’ ‘can’t believe it’s October’ ‘it feels like I have been here for months and in other ways it feels like I have been here a long time’ ‘I can’t believe it’s November already’ ‘I just thought, it was a matter of getting through this 35 minutes’ ‘the last five minutes of the lesson I was so excited thinking any minute now the bell is going to ring, but it is nothing like that now’ ‘Another 148 days to go, then I can go.’
