This book focuses on sustaining communities of practice in primary and secondary schools in Australia and internationally for the professional learning of all teachers, and particularly, early career teachers. Informed by the communities of practice research of Wenger-Trayner, it shows what factors are conductive to the sustainability of communities of practice, drawing particularly on a case study of an Australian regional secondary school, and explores how it has sustained support particularly for early career teachers over a three-year period. The first chapters of the book provide longitudinal perspectives using qualitative data and include perspectives from a variety of stakeholders, including the principal, the professional learning coordinator and the early career teachers who have experienced the school’s Communities of practice over three or more years. It offers practical suggestions on how to implement and improve communities of practice in schools and highlights the increasing importance of online communities to support early career teachers. Policy-makers, school principals, teacher educators and teaching practitioners find the book useful for implementing and sustaining communities of practice in schools. Subsequent chapters explore the value of online communities, such as Twitter communities; the role of collegial support networks in supporting early career teachers in Flemish primary education; and professional learning in Northern Ireland pre- and in-service teacher networked communities.

This edited book brings together teachers and education academics who are committed to education about, for and through democracy. It presents a diverse range of viewpoints about the challenges facing educators working across different sectors and discusses ways to challenge issues like neoliberalism, excessive managerialism and accountability and privatisation. It also engages with the times that education has, and continues, to fail students. This book outlines both logistical and ideological challenges which educators committed to democracy face and describes innovative approaches they have adopted, including networking, the use of social media and digital tools and extending their reach beyond their local communities to international audiences. It encourages conversations about how educators and academics might re-commit to education for democracy and generate further avenues for discussion and action by educators and academics.

Recent evolutions, such as pervasive networking and other enabling technologies, have been increasingly changing human life, knowledge acquisition, and the way works are performed and students learn. In this societal change, educational institutions must maintain their leading role. They have therefore embraced digitally enhanced learning to provide increased flexibility and access for their students. The Handbook of Research on Redesigning Teaching, Learning, and Assessment in the Digital Era provides insights into the transformation of education in the digital era and responds to the needs of learners of any context and background through relevant studies that include sound pedagogical and content knowledge. Covering key topics such as hybrid learning, media, remote learning, and social media, this major reference work is ideal for administrators, policymakers, academicians, researchers, scholars, practitioners, librarians, instructors, and students.

Based on research and consultations with influential school middle leaders, Middle Leadership in Schools presents ideas and actions designed specifically to stimulate and enhance educators leading from the middle, as a catalyst to enable them to do what they do with greater influence and impact.

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.

This book addresses one of the most persistent issues confronting governments, educations systems and schools today: the attraction, preparation, and retention of early career teachers. It draws on the stories of sixty graduate teachers from Australia to identify the key barriers, interferences and obstacles to teacher resilience and what might be done about it. Based on these stories, five interrelated themes - policies and practices, school culture, teacher identity, teachers’ work, and relationships – provide a framework for dialogue around what kinds of conditions need to be created and sustained in order to promote early career teacher resilience. The book provides a set of resources – stories, discussion, comments, reflective questions and insights from the literature – to promote conversations among stakeholders rather than providing yet another ‘how to do’ list for improving the daily lives of early career teachers. Teaching is a complex, fragile and uncertain profession. It operates in an environment of unprecedented educational reforms designed to control, manage and manipulate pedagogical judgements. Teacher resilience must take account of both the context and circumstances of individual schools (especially those in economically disadvantaged communities) and the diversity of backgrounds and talents of early career teachers themselves. The book acknowledges that the substantial level of change required– cultural, structural, pedagogical and relational – to improve early career teacher resilience demands a great deal of cooperation and support from governments, education systems, schools, universities and communities: teachers cannot do it alone. This book is written to generate conversations amongst early career teachers, teacher colleagues, school leaders, education administrators, academics and community leaders about the kinds of pedagogical and relational conditions required to promote early career teacher resilience and wellbeing.

What are the challenges, and how has your program dealt with them?"--BOOK JACKET.