For a long time, there has been a tradition in China of experienced teachers helping beginning teachers. This empirical school study investigates the kinds of support that are provided by eight dyads of mentoring teacher and first-year secondary school teachers in Guangzhou of southern China and the major factors affecting mentoring support. In…

Alternative certification programs were designed to recruit individuals with work experiences into the teaching profession. This article synthesizes two studies of teachers and teacher candidates who circumvented the alternative certification process. The teachers who participated in the quantitative portion of the study were neither mature in…

Induction support for new teachers is widespread, particularly in the form of mentoring, but research evidence of effectiveness is limited. The majority of existing research has focused on the impact of induction on teacher retention. Of greater interest is the potential impact on student achievement, and on which forms of support are the most…

Teachers are significant curriculum decision makers in their classrooms. How does teachers' thinking about curriculum develop in the context of teacher education coursework, and how might an analysis of a novice teacher's learning to think more complexly inform teacher education pedagogy? This article presents a case study of a 2nd-year teacher…

The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (2004) made significant changes in the roles of general and special educators, especially related to inclusion and collaboration. This pilot study examined the perceptions of beginning elementary and secondary school special and general education teachers in a midwestern state in the…

The first years of teaching can be demanding, as the novice works to gain familiarity with many aspects of professional work. Often, what they have been prepared to do in teacher education programs is not aligned with what is expected at them in schools. As a consequence, many teachers leave the profession or move away from the reform-minded…

This paper reports on a Talking Circle of six beginning Aboriginal teachers who discussed their roles as teachers. Participants criticized teacher education programs for not preparing them to teach in ways that are respectful of Aboriginal languages and culture. They discussed the importance of coming to know themselves and their culture. The…

This article is located within the wider European context of teacher development and is specifically concerned with the needs of those supporting novice teachers during the early stages in their professional career. Currently, induction systems across Europe are largely fragmented, locally based and with little transference of best practice. There…

Drawing on my experiences as a former classroom teacher making the transition to teacher education, this study examines how my vision of teacher education developed over the course of my first three years as a graduate teaching assistant in a social studies education program in the United States. A qualitative self-study methodology was used to…

Traditionally, mentoring in higher education institutions has either occurred informally or as a planned program where junior staff members are matched with experienced staff members in a formal one-to-one program. While such programs have reported benefits to participants, many miss out on the opportunity. Further, mentoring dyads do little to…

We don't have a lot of evidence of what people see and think about communities after the fact. What are their worldviews when they look at experiences in blended learning communities in retrospect? Which elements do they find most meaningful? This study explores the character, meaning, and impact of community using the lived experiences of…

Despite high staff turnover and a predominance of part-time positions in the field of adult education some adult education teachers create careers for themselves that span many years--even decades. According to the U.S. Department of Education (2007), teachers are the most important factor in improving student achievement. Knapp (2003) points out…

This article investigates the hidden curriculum of Ontario's New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP). The study involved interviews with 47 teacher educators from eight faculties of education. Responses revealed concerns about (a) who chooses the mentors, (b) the probationary status of new teachers, and (c) the evaluation of new teachers' competence.…

For this study the researchers used data from the 2006 North Carolina Teacher Working Conditions survey to investigate the possible relationship between mentoring and intentionality with respect to beginning teachers' intentions to remain in the profession. The sample consists of 8838 teachers who were mentored during their first two years of…

In this article we suggest that online environments can function as alternate "organizations" for pre-service and beginning teachers who may find themselves struggling in schools. Building on prior work on framing and reframing in organizations and schools, the authors present a new frame of analysis specifically geared for web-based…