This qualitative study explores the holistic approaches that seven mentors use to attend to the well-being of new professionals as they transition into the classroom. We define holistic mentoring as practices that intertwine the professional with the personal, and bring together the aesthetic, intellectual, and moral in supporting beginning…

Our study examined novice urban teachers' abilities to impact student learning and development. We interviewed 19 graduates, collecting narratives of critical teaching incidents. Analysis revealed the importance of (a) connecting with learners and of (b) receiving support. Teacher education programs were helpful in preparing graduates to set high…

This applied dissertation was designed to determine the effect of new teacher inductions programs on new teacher retention in urban school districts. Teachers are leaving urban school districts at alarming rates. The expectation that every student will receive a quality educational experience is becoming increasingly less common for the neediest…

In light of Chinese language diversity, it is important for Mandarin teachers to demonstrate an accurate understanding of language variation and critical pedagogy, empowering and embracing all emergent bilingual students and incorporating recognition of those learners whose heritage languages are alternative Chinese varieties. While Standard…

This research explores the cognitive dissonance experienced by novice teachers when entering the teaching profession, specifically around cultural competence while teaching in the urban core. The study builds upon previous research by Adam Eckard, who investigated the impact of teacher preparation programs on teacher identity development in urban…

This article describes a research-enriched, action-oriented plan for supporting educators in PreK-12 district-wide mentoring through online professional development inspired by Kram's model.

This case study follows an early-career teacher from an undergraduate educator preparation program into her first teaching position in an urban high-stakes charter school organization. At the beginning, the cognitive dissonance between her emergent educational philosophy and the extreme features of the charter school environment, such as the…

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the experiences of two recent graduates from an undergraduate initial certification educator preparation program (EPP) who began their first year working for a charter school in a large urban city. Their background in the constructivist-oriented EPP contrasts sharply with the philosophy and instructional…

This article describes findings from a qualitative, practically-focused study of how novice teachers perceive the relevance and effectiveness of their teacher preparation coursework. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with fourteen teachers at two highly diverse elementary schools in an urban area. Participating teachers were in their…

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the work of one tripartite partnership with stakeholders to improve and strengthen novice teachers' pedagogical designs using design based professional learning guided by the principles of knowledge building/knowledge creation. The tripartite partnership involved 450 novice teachers from an urban school…

In response to increasing demand for the need for highly effective teachers, numerous pathways to teacher certification have emerged. Consequently, teacher residencies as an alternative route to certification have grown in number and scale across the country. Due to the recent growth and expansion of teacher residencies, there is limited research…

Teacher preparation is at the forefront of educational policy. All over the country, teachers continue to protest because of the feeling of being overworked and underpaid (Ravitch, 2020). The country's lowest-performing schools tend to gain the most underprepared and alternatively certified teachers (Hussar et al., 2020). Teachers often experience…

Debates about charter schools center on their immediate effects on students who attend them and how charter schools affect nearby traditional public schools. However, as the charter sector has continued to grow, a broader range of possibly unintended effects become relevant. This study is one of the first to examine the possibility that charter…

Research on charter schools tends to focus on direct and immediate effects on student outcomes. However, there may be unintended indirect effects on, for example, the teacher labor market. Charter schools tend to hire younger, less experienced teachers with fewer traditional teaching credentials, which may reduce the equilibrium quantity of…

An abundant and longstanding body of scholarship has underscored the White femininity of the U.S. K-12 teaching workforce and the need to diversify its ranks. Black males, in particular, potentially struggle with the notion of becoming teachers given their often highly negative lived experiences with schools and schooling including low…