Internationally, the quality of teachers is a growing focus of educational reform, with new policies attempting to ensure that only the "best and brightest" are selected for the teaching profession. This article tests the assumption underpinning these developments that prospective teachers lack the desired academic and personal…

This study addresses how teacher candidates committed to a social-justice-oriented urban teacher residency programme articulate and reflect why they want to be teachers in high-need public schools and what they expect from teaching so as to ascertain what they expect to do. The participants of this study included 77 graduates who participated in…

The Eurydice report 'Teaching careers in Europe: access, progression and support' provides a comparative overview of national policies on teacher careers across Europe. It maps existing regulations and policy recommendations at primary and general secondary levels, and covers all the countries of the European Union as well as Albania, Bosnia and…

To better understand the status of the teaching profession, we present a conceptual framework outlining the 4 domains of knowledge-worker professionals: professional benchmarks, professional discretion, room for promotion, and workplace conditions and use the TALIS 2013 survey data to show that these domains exist globally and vary within…

This paper presents the early findings from a study that addresses the topic of mature age professionals making a career change into the secondary teaching profession by undertaking a postgraduate coursework initial teacher education program. The paper specifically addresses the factors that affect the decision for mature age professionals to make…

Authors and scholars published within "Arts Education Policy Review" have been diligent to investigate various topics surrounding music educator preparation, mentoring, retention, as well as avenues for continued professional development and growth. Linda Darling-Hammond and Robert Rothman, along with various chapter authors, address…

This report adds a significant perspective to the current wave of efforts aimed at diversifying the teacher workforce, specifically to address the mismatch between Latinx students and Latinx teachers. The Latinx population is the largest ethnic group in America's public schools, currently making up a quarter of the student population, and expected…

The title is catchy and positive: "Smart, Skilled, and Striving: Transforming and Elevating the Teaching Profession." It sounds like a teacher-friendly approach to improving the perceptions and experiences of teachers working in classrooms. However, this report published by the Center for American Progress uses popular rhetoric and sound…

Across the country, districts and schools are struggling to meet the growing demand for qualified teachers. Indeed, there are some subjects--such as mathematics, science, and special education--in which nearly every state is experiencing a teacher shortage. As a result, states often turn to underqualified teachers to fill the vacuum, a problematic…

There is a developing body of research suggesting low job satisfaction among teachers can lead to potential consequences for educators, students, and school districts (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ladebo, 2005; Sarnek, Musser, Caskey, Olsen & Green, 2006; Wu & Short, 1996). There is also a growing concern about the number of teachers who are…

This study seeks to understand the motivation of prospective teachers in Pakistan for embarking upon a teaching career. The study, which was conducted in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan, used a survey instrument called Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FITchoice) to generate data. The sample of the study was 92 prospective teachers…

This study explores the motivation of "high-status" professionals to change career and enter teaching, and their experience of undertaking initial teacher education (ITE) programmes in England. The study builds on previous research which found that career-changers are disproportionately more likely to fail to complete their ITE studies,…

This study gathers evidence on policies that aim to raise students' learning outcomes through incentives and support measures to enhance teacher quality. A central concern is to identify policies that are effective and efficient. These include incentives and support systems to ensure that high-quality candidates are recruited to initial teacher…

This paper outlines a set of ideas for improving teacher quality in America's schools. In it, the author proposes a combination of incremental steps and ambitious ones, designed to stimulate policymakers, practitioners, and the public to accelerate efforts to develop high-quality teachers. The paper has four main sections. First, the author…

The teaching workforce is in a constant state of change, susceptible to fluctuating federal and state governments, policy directions within the various bureaucracies that control the curriculum, teachers' accreditation and certification requirements and universities that regulate entry into initial teacher education programs, and eventually the…