The retention of quality teachers has become a critical issue facing the American educational system. Unfortunately, various estimates identify that 30-50% of teachers leave the profession with the first five years. To address this issue, educational researchers have focused on identifying ways of enhancing retention through examining factors that…

Retaining teachers is a pressing issue facing many urban middle schools in the southern US. Urban middle schools continually face increased teacher turnover rates in spite of state mandated induction and mentoring programs. Drawing from Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, the purpose of the qualitative case study was to examine urban middle…

This study brings the concept of inquiry as stance to bear on current understandings of how inquiry occurs within online networks for teacher induction. The author presents a case study of an online network that allowed 36 new teachers to participate in informal, spontaneous conversations. Genre research is used to examine the on-network,…

This paper focuses upon the case of one early career teacher, Don, a participant in a longitudinal study examining the transfer of learning about literacy practices from pre-service teacher education to the classrooms of secondary content area teachers. We followed Don from his B. Ed. program into his first two years of teaching in an Indigenous…

This study explores the experience of becoming an elementary teacher in an educational climate where standardization and accountability increasingly affect what happens in classrooms across the country by following two beginning teachers. Specifically, this longitudinal study in which two first-year teachers' stories are analyzed and restoried…

This dissertation is a qualitative study on the decision-making of administrators within California's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment (BTSA) teacher induction program. The study focuses on examining how declining resources act as a pressure, how well-established research on cutback management predict the behaviors of the BTSA…

This article explores the paradoxical situation of early career teachers in this era of standards-based reforms, beginning with the experiences of an English teacher working in a state school in Queensland, Australia and expanding to consider the viewpoints of her colleagues. Our goal is to trace the ways she and the other early career teachers at…

This study focuses on teachers' engagement with tasks based on the income tax tables issued by the South African tax authorities. The participants in the study are a group of 37 teachers who were enrolled in an in-service programme for Mathematical Literacy teachers. The purpose of the study is to explore the teachers' interpretation and use of…

Approximately 80% of new teachers have mentors, yet mentoring typically fails to foster new teachers' professional learning--particularly in high-poverty schools. This qualitative study was situated within an urban teacher residency context and explored how six first-year urban teachers and the two induction mentors with whom they worked perceived…

Novice teachers often have difficulty transferring what they learn in teacher education programs to classroom practice. This is especially true for elementary school teachers who are expected to teach mathematics with reform-oriented methods. The purpose of this longitudinal case study was to examine the experience of one novice elementary school…

This study investigates novice non-native English teachers' opinions about the effectiveness of their teacher education programme and the challenges during their initial years of teaching. The results of a survey administered to fifty-five novice teachers and follow-up interviews identify strengths and weaknesses in their teacher education…

Knowledge and understanding of foundational reading skills are critical in teaching both beginning readers and students who continue to struggle with reading in upper elementary grade levels. The purpose of this research study was to examine the essential knowledge and aptitude of teachers and the relationship between this knowledge and the…

Research highlights teacher attrition as one of the biggest challenges facing public schools and their attempts to provide a quality teacher for every student (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). The teacher shortage is particularly daunting in special education where teachers are over twice as likely to leave the field. The first few years of teaching…

Teacher induction programs have been used by districts and schools to help respond to high turnover and inadequate preparation among beginning teachers. These programs are offered to novice teachers entering their own classrooms and are designed to provide professional development (PD) and support. Although most districts use some form of teacher…

This mixed-methods study analyzes the induction programs for alternate route beginning teachers in low socioeconomic, urban schools. The researcher surveyed 53 teachers at the end of their first year and conducted six in-depth follow-up interviews. The study found that half the teachers did not receive an induction program congruent with state…