Teachers' motivation and encouragement are considered as one of the priority areas in the Education Development Strategy of Kyrgyz Republic Ministry of Education and Science. At the same time, teachers claim that the specified salary structure, benefits, and working conditions do not meet their basic needs. In this study, we`ve tried to determine…

Adult educators are often concerned with the well-being of our students, but how often do we consider our own quality of work-life? The purpose of the discussion session this paper is based on was to provide a safe space for participants to "Gripe and Grow." Participants were invited to share issues (gripe) that negatively affect their…

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…

Findings of a study that examined the working conditions that teachers face in an urban school district in the southern United States are presented in this paper. A survey mailed to 1,329 teachers in 15 secondary and 68 elementary schools produced an approximate 50 percent response rate per school. Interviews were also conducted with the union…

Addressing the need to consider ways in which the quality of educator work life can be improved, the author uses J. Walton's eight-point definition of the quality of work life as a framework for discussion. The eight points include (1) adequate and fair compensation, in which financial incentives are provided for advanced coursework; (2) safe and…

This survey was undertaken to build upon and validate understanding of teacher satisfaction and dissatisfaction, orientation to teaching, teachers' values, and teacher health. The purpose of this endeavor was also to develop an instrument suitable for identifying and quantifying the sources and relative strength of factors contributing to teacher…

The potential impacts of teacher work reform efforts on attracting and retaining the best teachers are summarized in this paper, which draws on research conducted in Utah, Colorado, and Missouri between 1985 and 1991. Bluedorn's (1982) model of turnover is used to evaluate the effects of teacher work reform on turnover, which is composed of…

This article presents ethnographic data to elaborate the nature of teacher resistance and accommodation to the structural context of schooling, and it illustrates the dynamics of group solidarity among a group of eighth-grade middle school teachers. The analysis is predicated on concepts identified by Paul Willis in his study "Learning to…

To explore several categories of variables strongly associated with professional satisfaction and dissatisfaction in American middle schools, responses of 540 out of 900 targeted middle school teachers to two open-ended questions were analysed. (The two survey items were drawn from the Status of the U.S. American Middle School Teacher…

For a variety of reasons, including overemphasis on professional autonomy, many classroom teachers experience disillusionment and feelings of isolation. This paper explores teaching clinics as a way to break down barriers and foster dialogue among teachers. The Schenley High School Teacher Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, developed a teaching…

Despite their common goal, reformers promoting school choice and those seeking ways to improve schools through more effective principal leadership have remained for the most part disconnected. This paper presents findings of a study that examined differences in teachers' ratings of effective principal leadership in magnet and nonmagnet schools in…

The academic qualifications, experience, and productivity of nontenure-track and tenured/tenure-track full-time and part-time faculty at a state university are compared, based on the results of a 1985 study. Recommendations concerning working conditions and policy for nontenure-track faculty are also offered. Findings include: almost 87% of…

Discusses the history of schools of choice and their place within the current school reform efforts and Excellence Movement. Asserts that choice is an effective strategy for holding schools accountable for improving conditions for teachers and students and for paving the way for innovation. (CR)

This research studies task-based stress among teachers in a rural setting. A 51-item instrument was administered to teachers in 12 schools to determine (1) the extent of differential reactions to a wide range of task-based teaching events, as correlated with situational characteristics (sex, age, elementary or secondary affiliation, school size);…

Underlying barriers to adjunct faculty forming effective communities are time and distance; they spend little time on campus, and there is distance, physically and psychologically, from their peers. There can be no hope of challenging and changing the system without the organizing and focusing of energies. Lessons can be learned from big business.…