What does it mean to live a teacher's life? What does it mean to be a teacher, to become a teacher, to stay in teaching, or to leave the profession? Why are teachers doing what they are doing the way they are doing it? These questions have fascinated the author throughout his academic career as a researcher as well as in his teaching and his work…

Findings of a longitudinal multiple case-study on early career teachers (following-up, semi-structured interviews at four moments during the first year of teaching) are presented to substantiate and analytically unravel their professional development (encompassing a technical, a moral, a political and an emotional dimension) as resulting from the…

Multi-ethnic schools in Flanders are frequently portrayed--both in popular media and research--as highly problematic working environments for (beginning) teachers. This article reports on an exploratory study of beginning teachers' experiences in one secondary multi-ethnic school in Flanders. Based on data from questionnaires, document analysis…

Teachers are facing an increasing number of changes in their job context, many of which significantly affect their work lives. This study offers a theoretical understanding of the changes in teachers' working conditions, starting from the intensification thesis. The case study of a Flemish (Belgian) elementary school shows the existence of various…

This study used the narrative-biographical and micro-political perspectives as a theoretical framework to explore how beginning teachers experienced the induction phase, focusing on their experience with professional socialization and ways in which they were confronted with the micro-political realities of schools during induction. Participants…

Teachers' professional learning takes place in an organisational context, in which issues of power, influence, and control can play an important part. In this article, we argue that learning how to deal with these inevitable micropolitical aspects of their work lives, constitutes an important dimension in teachers' professional development and…

The main aim of this project was to understand teachers' professional development by reconstructing their career experiences. The study examined the ways in which 10 experienced primary school teachers from 4 different Flemish schools experienced their careers, focusing on the personal perception and the subjective meaning of these experiences.…