Teachers' Career Trajectories and Work Lives (Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education Book 3)

The working and career lives of teachers have changed radically over the last two decades. Reforms have turned education into a commodity and pupils into ‘consumers’. Yet not since 1992 has there been a comprehensive overview of research findings on teachers’ working lives. This anthology plugs the gap by collecting various scholarly contributions and perspectives on teachers’ career trajectories and work lives. The material includes an introduction to previous research within the field, presents a range of contemporary research and offers suggestions as to what lies ahead. Among the contributors are leading educational academics who describe a variety of national contexts, illustrating how problems and challenges relating to the teaching profession manifest themselves and are tackled in different countries. The anthology also shows just how many aspects of teachers’ career trajectories and work lives transcend national boundaries. Common international themes include stronger ties between education and the economy, and a growing importance placed on how students’ skills relate to the perceived needs of the labour market. There is also a greater degree of political interference in curriculum goals and processes, and an expanding obsession with evaluation. In many countries, a whole generation of teachers are reaching retirement age, ‘changing the guard’ with a crop of new young recruits who are ever harder to attract. At a time when there is an increasing focus on issues such as teacher recruitment, retention and professional development, this anthology offers insight and inspiration to teacher educators and educational policy makers as well as to current and prospective teachers. It also aims at encouraging research into the field of teachers’ working lives. Front Matter....Pages i-vi Introduction to Teachers' Career Trajectories....Pages 1-8 Teachers' Career Trajectories: An Examination of Research....Pages 9-28 Career Stories as Gateway to Understanding Teacher Development....Pages 29-47 Committed for Life? Variations in Teachers' Work, Lives and Effectiveness....Pages 49-70 On the Unacknowledged Significance of Teachers' Habitus and Dispositions....Pages 71-91 Teachers' Professional Learning and the Workplace Curriculum....Pages 93-115 Careers Under Stress: Teacher Adaptations at a Time of Intensive Reform....Pages 117-135 Postscript to ‘Careers Under Stress: Teacher Adaptations at a Time of Intensive Reform’....Pages 137-142 The Careers of Urban Teachers: A Synthesis of Findings from UCLA's Longitudinal Study of Urban Educators....Pages 143-158 Teacher Gender and Career Patterns....Pages 159-178 Regenerating Teachers....Pages 179-202 Listening to Professional Life Stories: Some Cross-Professional Perspectives....Pages 203-210 Epilogue: Teaching Professions in Restructuring Contexts....Pages 211-223 Back Matter....Pages 225-230 Collects various scholarly contributions and perspectives on teachers' career trajectories and work lives. This work describes a variety of national contexts, illustrating how problems and challenges relating to the teaching profession manifest themselves and are tackled in different countries There hasn't been a comprehensive overview of research on the working lives of teachers since 1992. This anthology remedies that. It offers an introduction to previous research in the field, a range of contemporary research and suggestions of what lies ahead.