Special education teachers leave the field at a rate that outpaces their general education teacher counterparts, with special education teaching positions unfilled at a rate 5.5 times greater than general education positions (Boe, 2006). This study identified perceptions of risk and resilience in nine first year special education teachers in order…

A new teacher's mindset may have more to do with her success than her natural teaching talent. When she feels overwhelmed, her mindset will determine whether she gives up or sticks with it. This article includes insights from a new teacher about how her mindset helped her through the tough days of her first year.

Previous research indicates that beginning teachers are not fully prepared for what awaits them in the workforce. This study highlights the value of partnerships among higher education providers, schools and employers and links the experiences of beginning teachers to initial teacher education (ITE). Real-life experiences from the field provide…

Teacher experience has long been a central pillar of teacher workforce policies in U.S. school systems. The underlying assumption behind many of these policies is that experience promotes effectiveness, but is this really the case? What does existing evidence tell us about how, why, and for whom teacher experience matters? This policy brief…

Although teachers' first years in the profession are a widely studied field, the factors that would help to understand the difficulty or the ease with which individuals enter full time teaching and construct their professional identity are still little studied. This narrative study approaches the topic by comparing two newly qualified teachers'…

This article focuses on how recent graduates perceive the rigour of the Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) initial teacher education (ITE) programme. The article is based on qualitative data collected from a purposely selected sample of 19 beginner teachers who graduated from two higher education institutions that offer PGCE programmes…

Evidence linking teacher quality and the "performance" of education systems has led to a widespread emphasis on improving the quality of entrants to teaching. In the USA and UK particularly, policymakers have encouraged entrants who have been highly successful in other careers to switch to teaching, on the assumption that they bring…

This study focuses on the lived experiences of five novice teachers during their first academic year of teaching. This article analyzes the experiences of new teachers based on long-term data collection throughout a school year as one means of bridging the gap between teacher preparation and actual teaching practice. The findings indicate that…

Like a majority of other states, Oklahoma has provided for alternative methods to teacher certification. This study examines the perceptions of principals and teachers regarding the level of preparedness and ability to develop effectiveness qualities of novice teachers from the Alternative Placement Program and Oklahoma colleges of education. The…

Many post-secondary institutions in Canada over the past decade have made the transition from college to university status. The researchers on this team were hired in the midst of such a transition at one western Canadian institution. As new faculty we were navigating the normal tides of adjusting to a new faculty position, but our induction…

For a novice academic, the first experience of marking can be as memorable as preparing for and giving the first teaching session. Yet, while academic reflections and narratives abound for the latter, there is a paucity of literature regarding the former. This study begins to address this lack of literature through an exploration of six newly…

This article, which comes out of a research project exploring teaching as intellectual work, focuses specifically on a young woman who worked as a substitute teacher after she graduated from a two-year teacher education program at her local university. For Penny, substitute teaching was an interruption as she shaped a professional life moving…

This casual-comparative study was conducted to determine the professional development needs of teaching faculty with fewer than 6 years of university teaching experience (n = 67). Faculty were compared on the level of teaching assistantship responsibility during their graduate degree program. The purpose of this article is to provide faculty…

This article reports on a qualitative study investigating a group of novice ESL teachers' teaching experiences with ethnic minority students in secondary schools in Hong Kong. It finds that, while teachers argue that society has not been tolerant enough of ethnic minorities, they nonetheless believe that ethnic minorities should comply with…

The professional learning communities and communities of practice approaches in the arena of education appear to hold considerable promise for sustainable school improvement. These approaches flow from the assumption that teacher's collaboration is central to transform a school into a learning organization. They also provide opportunities for…