This study considers the lives of two veteran, urban high school teachers who have persisted in the profession over several decades, and who demonstrate an investment and enthusiasm for the work that is unusual among teachers in "difficult" schools. Through ethnographic, open-ended interviews and observations, the study seeks to identify those…

Teachers' learning and occupational well-being is crucial in attaining educational goals both in the classroom and at the school community level. In this article teachers' occupational well-being that is constructed in teaching-learning processes within the school community is referred to as pedagogical well-being. The article focuses on exploring…

This paper is the result of an explorative study, based on the in-depth meta-analysis of a corpus of contemporary pieces of research in which there was found clear references to veteran theatre teachers talking about their work. Following that, extracts from interviews of experienced theatre teachers were analyzed. The major aim of this study is…

Voices of veteran junior high and high school biology teachers are seldom heard. Yet, the unique characteristics of this subject-matter may shed some light on veteran teachers' lives in school and their possible contribution to educational systems anywhere. Eight teachers were interviewed, aiming to arrive at their self-perceptions as veteran…

In this article, a parallel is drawn between Steven Hawking's use of common and novel metaphors in his evolving explanation of the theory of the universe and the similar use of common and novel metaphors by educators in four school contexts attempting to illuminate their experiences of school reform storied and restoried over time. The epistemic…

The dominant cultural image of veteran teachers is conveyed in the fictional life story of Mr Chipping of Brookfield School as conveyed in James Hilton's short novel "Goodbye, Mr Chips." This reflects emerging ideals and practices of teacher professionalism in England from the 1920s onwards in terms of its emphasis on autonomy and…

This paper attempts to identify the distinctive qualities of successful veteran teachers, referred to as "expert teachers", which separates them not only from novice teachers but more importantly from experienced non-expert teachers. Based on earlier case studies, this paper maintains that the critical differences between expert and…

During the last three decades Swedish education has undergone radical decentralisation involving increased school autonomy. One aspect of this change is the gradual weakening of the state regulation of teaching time. Thus, Sweden is somewhat of an extreme in the EU. This is accentuated by a five-year experiment, where 900 compulsory schools were…

Teachers make up one of the lowest income groups in Turkey. Research tells us that with their large class sizes, poor structural and physical characteristics of the classes, and the inadequate professional conditions offered to teachers, education at the university level is not up to modern standards. The aim of the study reported in this paper is…

This article addresses teachers' use of their professional time. With the support of substantive grounded theories from two separate studies--focusing on two "invisible" parts of teachers' work: recesses and off-the-clock work--we aim to conceptualize some patterns in contemporary work of teachers and discuss them in the light of…

In this essay I offer a series of autobiographical ruminations and poems for inviting readers to reflect on poetic possibilities for conceiving and fostering the well-being of teachers. As an educator, I am confronted daily with challenges. In order to sustain my spirit and energy, I turn to poetry, both reading and writing poetry, and I find in…

During the last two decades teachers in many countries have found themselves facing new demands and changes. In his "intensification thesis" Apple made a powerful attempt to conceptualize and explain these changes: the growing economic and management oriented perspective on education leads to intensification of teachers' work, implying deskilling…

One characteristic of long day childcare settings in New Zealand is the opportunity for teachers to continuously observe each other at work. Ngaire's story is an account of one teacher's problematic negotiation of her subjectivity (self-as-teacher) in the context of a wider institutional story drawn from Ngaire's colleagues' observations of her…

By evoking the concept of memory pictures, the author recalls her early years as a teacher. Rather than calling herself a beginning teacher, she characterizes herself as a fledgling teacher to capture the insecurity associated with the first years of teaching. This experience is narrated through five memory pictures: (1) the new school's many…

New teachers are unprepared for school politics and the conflicts they experience with administrators, colleagues and policies. Research and practice on mentoring often ignore organizational contexts. This article explores these under-examined contexts, asking: (1) What do mentors need to know and be able to do in relation to school and district…