Examined the practices and experiences of three elementary-level physical education teachers as they attempted to provide quality learning experiences to large classes of students. Data from lesson observations and interviews indicated that while the teachers provided high quality instruction, they were working under considerable hardship and had…

Explored within-school differences in teachers' sense of community. Surveys of teachers in three public high schools investigated time-related, work-arrangement, and school-organization variables. School organization (support for innovation and orderliness of student behavior) and time-related variables (tenure in school and time spent interacting…

States that part-time faculty--whose numbers have doubled in the last generation--are paid an average of only $1500 per three-unit class, are rarely included in the community college culture, receive no benefits, and frequently lack legal protective measures. Offers suggestions as to how these legal issues can be addressed and resolved. (NB)

This article describes the challenges faced by a first-year special educator of children with emotional disturbances. In addition to academic diversity and behavioral challenges, there were also issues related to working with a team of special educators and being the newcomer. These issues included instructional time, behavioral management, and…

A study of 149 teachers of students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) found that the higher the teacher's susceptibility to occupational stressors, the more willing the teacher was to leave the E/BD teaching field. Only 3 of the top 10 stressors were student-related. Results found an injury rate of one in five. (CR)

Investigated the influence of, and interplay between, biographical and contextual factors in Portuguese teachers' professional learning and development during their first teaching years. Teacher interviews and surveys highlighted the powerful influence of prior experiences as students, the low impact of preservice education on socialization, and…

This qualitative study explored factors that helped veteran public school health educators sustain enthusiasm in the classroom throughout their careers. Twelve Caucasian participants, seven men and five women with 18 to 28 years of public school teaching experience (mean age = 49 years, mean experience = 24 years), were interviewed. Participants…

Studies of the workplace of teachers commonly focus on the spaces of the classroom, staffroom and school as pre-given and bounded entities. This article explores the possibilities of moving beyond such topographies of enclosure, towards seeing space(-time) as recursively constructed with social relations and so made and remade. Boundaries are then…

The intent of this study was to examine factors associated with the attrition and retention of juvenile justice teachers. Prior to this study, no data were available on the specific attrition and retention factors of this population. An extensive survey was administered to all of Georgia's juvenile justice teachers. Completed surveys were received…

Working closely with others often gives rise to conflicts as each individual is driven by different and usually conflicting preoccupations and concerns. This article discusses the 3,000 year old 9-sided star-shaped paradigm known as Enneagram and how it is advantageous to early childhood professionals. This personality inventory purports that…

In Spring 2007, educators in 63 participating Ohio school districts across the state spoke out on working conditions in their schools by participating in a web-based survey that addressed key teaching and learning conditions related to time, empowerment, school leadership, professional development, and facilities and resources. This is the final…

To expand work-family conflict (WFC) research to specific occupations, this study investigated how work and family generic and occupation-specific stressors and support variables related to family interfering with work (F [right arrow] W) and work interfering with family (W [right arrow] F) among 230 Israeli high school teachers. Further expanding…

As China charges forward into modernity, the nation is confronted with major economic and social changes. China's one-child policy and economic growth, for example, have altered the values and attitudes of parents, thereby creating new challenges for Chinese teachers. In addition, nontraditional ways of thinking in China's youth have led to a…

For more than ten years, academics of public universities in Mexico have endured modernization programs that promote individual productivity and operate as a mechanism of selection and assessment. The implementation of the programs has exposed a tension between the values implicit in the programs and the values of the academic teachers. There is a…

Education and teaching have changed in significant ways over the last decade. Since the late 1980s the Commonwealth of Australia has encouraged the development of "multi-skilled workers"; however, Alvin Toffler (1990) points out that changes in technology would create a deskilled work force with overly specialized, noninterchangeable…