Encounters of newly qualified teachers with micro-politics in primary schools in Zimbabwe

This article demonstrates, through the example of Zimbabwe, the complexities of micro-political learning during induction. reports on the experiences of ten newly qualified teachers with micro-politics or power relations in their schools during and locates these experiences within the broader context of their professional development. Data was collected semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion, and analysed using an abridged version of Hycner’s (1985) for phenomenological explication of interview data proposed by Groenewald (2004). The findings revealed that beginners’ micro-political experiences mainly revolved around themes such as exploitation and marginalisation, lack of and recognition, lack of access to information about the scheme-cum-plan and dealing with the micro-political . Furthermore, the findings suggest that although the newly qualified teachers (NQTs) displayed some micro political literacy, the strategies they adopted to counter adverse micro-political actions were limited. Findings reflect an by schools to contain micro-political activity, which in some instances might have been so rabid that it distracted attention of the beginners from the process of learning to teach. We conclude the article by suggesting areas for further on micro-politics and new teachers