This text supports pre-service teachers in developing mindfulness strategies as they undertake professional experience.

Professional experience in initial teacher education programs can be both a challenging and rewarding experience. As student teachers take their first steps in the classroom, they often encounter stresses that compromise their teaching and learning. Within this context, well-being, resilience and self-efficacy are critical to their success. Building and sustaining a teaching career introduces the coping strategies, informal and formal practices, time management and organisational skills, and positive psychology critical to self-care for professional experience. The text uses case studies, 'fill your bucket' strategy building solutions, reflection activities and discussion and journaling questions designed to build capacity and develop reader knowledge, while pre-service teacher voices highlight key elements through real-world perspectives and experiences. Drawing upon a combination of teaching experience and education research, Narelle Lemon and Sharon McDonough present thoughtful, practical approaches that equip pre-service teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge for embarking on a successful teaching career.

Featuring a group of expert contributors, this book details the complexities of not only preparing teachers for the classroom but also helping them to succeed in the profession itself. Addressing topics of vital importance to new and veteran teachers, this authoritative volume: Explains how to build a strong sense of self to help teachers weather the inevitable storms they face in the field, such as state mandates, district directives, and parental pressures. Investigates highly regarded programs for new teachers, analyzing orientations, seminars, and mentorship programs. Discusses how to bring together stakeholders to renew teacher preparation, induction, and professional development.Addresses the crucial role of teacher unions and how they are helping to make teaching a more attractive career. And much, much more. Contributors: Richard E. Barnes, Sheldon Berman, Sharon Feiman-Nemser,Thomas Gillett, John I. Goodlad, Paul E. Heckman, Daniel Katz, Corinne Mantle-Bromley, Nancy Jean Sahling, Roger Soder, Adam Urbanski, Patricia A. Wasley, Betty Lou Whitford, Richard Wisniewski “These thoughtful and provocative essays contribute to our understanding of ways to renew and sustain good teaching. Anyone interested in matters of teacher induction, professional development, college–school partnerships, and the role of higher education in teacher development will find these essays a necessary read.” —David G. Imig, President and CEO, American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education “John Goodlad and Timothy McMannon have captured many of the issues state board members are grappling with as they pursue the goal to have a highly qualified teacher in every classroom, every day. As states track and modify policies on program approval, licensure, recruitment, and retention, this work will help to inform their deliberations.” —Brenda Welburn, Executive Director, National Association of State Boards of Education

Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers’ careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers’ voices are essential for understanding teachers’ lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers’ lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers’ lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.

Teacher professionalism in changing times -- Professional identities : teaching as emotional work -- Commitment as a key to quality : variations in teachers' work and lives -- A capacity for resilience -- Teachers' professional learning and development : combining the functional and attitudinal -- Learning as a school-led social endeavour -- The importance of high quality leadership -- Understanding complexity, building quality

This book unpicks the complex, dynamic blend of individuals’ psychological and professional assets, workplace conditions and leadership support which enable teachers who stay in teaching to continue to make a difference in their careers, regardless of shifts in policy, workplace, professional and personal circumstances. Whilst much has been written over the years about teacher stress and burnout, there is very little research which reports on the conditions which are essential for teachers to sustain their commitment and effectiveness over their professional lives, in contexts of challenge and change. Drawing upon a range of educational, psychological, socio-cultural and neuro-scientific research, together with vivid accounts from teachers in a variety of primary and secondary schools internationally, and from their own research on teachers’ work and identities, the authors discuss the dynamic nature, forms and practices of teacher resilience. They argue that resilience in teachers is not only their ability to bounce back in extremely adverse circumstances but that it is the capacity of teachers for everyday resilience which enables them to sustain their commitment and effectiveness in responding positively to the unavoidable uncertainties inherent of their professional lives. The authors conclude that resilience in teachers can be nurtured by the intellectual, social and organisational environments in which teachers work and live, rather than being simply a personal attribute or trait, determined by nature. Resilient Teachers, Resilient Schools will be of key interest to policy makers, head teachers, teachers and training and development organisations who wish to improve quality and standards in schools.

Based on a three-year study, the authors describe how comprehensive teacher induction systems can both provide teacher support and promote learning more about how to teach. This book calls for re-thinking what teacher induction is about, whom it should serve, what the ‘curriculum’ of induction should be, and the policies, programs, and practices needed to deliver it.