Towards a typology of secondary school subject departments

Subject departments are an increasingly important unit of analysis for research on schools and beginning teachers’ experiences. By analysing a practice-based typology of eight departmental types through an exploratory factor analysis of questionnaires completed by beginning teachers (n = 55), the authors refined the typology to four (hierarchical; open; self-promoting; divisive). Further exploration of this refined typology, through in-depth interviews with a purposive sample of six beginning teachers, allowed the authors to illustrate the departmental types in relation to their experiences. These findings highlight some of the ways in which new regimes of accountability and corporatisation are reshaping the ways in which departmental cultures are constructed and enacted. The beginning teachers in this study describe their responses and adaptations to their placement departments in ways that highlight opportunities for Initial Teacher Education partnerships to better anticipate and prepare beginning teachers for the departmentalised nature of their experiences.