Teaching can be an exhilarating and exciting career despite, or perhaps because of, a never-ending round of challenges, difficulties and problems to solve. Beginning teachers face new challenges every day. This book points the way for school leaders to help them meet these challenges and encourage them to stay in teaching. New Zealand is no better…

The field of special education continues to have lower teacher retention rates compared to general education. As a result, concerns over the quality of special education teachers' professional experiences have risen. Both general and special education teachers have their ideal views of the profession, including ample classroom facilities,…

The authors conducted a phenomenological inquiry that described factors that influenced two novice and two experienced teachers' decisions to remain in the teaching field. These teachers taught in both Title I and non-Title I elementary schools, and their teaching experiences ranged from four months to 38 years. Data for this research…

This article addresses key issues embedded within what some commentators are describing as a "virtual" or "digital" ethnography. Namely, that through the adoption of new (virtual) spaces for ethnographic inquiry it is possible to trouble previous notions of site, place, space and meaning when collaborating in online fields.…

In an urban Texas Independent School District (TXISD), novice teachers leave the field of education for different careers within the first 3 years of employment at a rate that is nearly twice the Texas average and near the top of the national novice teacher attrition rate range. This study examined the lived experiences of 23 TXISD novice teachers…

The professional development of novice staff at the university still requires considerable improvement. In this research paper, and in an attempt to define a development model in higher education, attention is paid to the perspectives and judgments of novice university staff. The research focuses specifically on the expression of their problems,…

Teachers often describe their first teaching job following graduation as a shocking experience. This description raises several questions: Do novice teachers actually have a lower level of coping than experienced teachers? Are there factors in the work environment that make coping difficult for all teachers at a school? This paper compares the…

This study was conducted for the purpose of reporting the possible relationships between induction programs on beginning teachers' feelings of preparedness as well as their plans to remain in teaching. The exploration of the experiences of teachers during their first year of teaching aims to evaluate the support system they are offered during…

Looking back through the lens of experience at his first disastrous year of teaching, a veteran shares what he's learned about the supports new teachers need. Some supports--such as getting comfortable with one's teaching persona, becoming familiar with the school community, and being truly dedicated to the job--are within the teacher's control.…

New teachers are often too overwhelmed by their new responsibilities to be the effective teachers they wish to be. Brian K. Jones, a new teacher who loves his job but still thinks of quitting at least once a month, says that teachers need a more comprehensive system of supports before and after they enter the classroom. Such a system would include…

The purpose of this study was to describe beginning agriculture teachers' perceived agricultural education teacher self-efficacy. Additionally, the researcher sought to describe the relationship among teachers' demographic characteristics and their agricultural education teacher self-efficacy. An instrument specific to agricultural education was…

New or beginning teachers are well received by the education profession, yet for a large portion of new teachers the assessment of how successful their transition into the first year of teaching tends to be overtly negative. Research reports indicate that the often traumatic and difficult nature of new teachers' experiences is not a new phenomenon…

In recent years the higher education context in Estonia, as in most European countries, has changed a lot. All changes have an impact on university teachers' practice and their work organisation, and are presenting new challenges. The current research aims at developing an understanding of Estonian early career academics' professional identity by…

This hermeneutic phenomenological study explores the lived experience of beginning teachers defining their pedagogical way of being. Many beginning teachers have found frustration and disillusionment during their first year in the classroom, leading to high levels of attrition. Those beginning teachers who remain in the classroom may develop a way…

Purpose: This article is nested within a longitudinal project examining 6 teachers' journeys along their career cycles (Lynn & Woods, 2010; Woods & Earls, 1995; Woods & Lynn, 2001). Two participants from the initial 6 continue to teach K-12 physical education; 1 of these participants, Everett, is examined in the current study.…