The primary goal of this handbook is to provide relevant and practical information for mentors as they guide the development of beginning special education teachers. Even the best prepared of new entrants face steep learning curves as they work to apply in complex school settings what they have learned from their pre-service programs. At the same…

This paper provides discussion of learning experienced by Applied Learning Educators in a workplace context where everyday teaching activities can involve undertaking unfamiliar tasks to the extent that the concept of 'crossing boundaries', or acting outside 'comfort zones' becomes 'normalised'. This perspective arises from consideration of…

This paper examines teacher job satisfaction for secondary school effectiveness. It was a descriptive survey. A sample of 512 teachers emerged from a population of 1280 representing 40% of the entire population. A 2-part, 15-item, 4-point scale instrument was used to generate data for answering 3 research questions. The instrument was validated by…

Unique stressors can cause special education teachers to experience burnout at twice the rate of their peers in general education. The purpose of this study was to determine if the Teacher Burnout Scale (TBS) is able to accurately predict burnout in special education teachers even though it does not include items that reflect the unique factors…

Training can often be the right answer--or part of the right answer--to help people learn how to do something that is new for them. Although some may be tempted to ignore instructional design when faced with a tight time line, that is exactly when following a systematic process can provide a recipe for success. Given six important questions, the…

The extent to which school neighbourhood affects teachers' work commitment is poorly known. In the current study, we investigated whether school neighbourhood socio-economic characteristics predicted teachers' organizational and professional commitment. Primary school teachers (n?=?1042) responded to surveys in 2000-2001 (baseline) and 2004…

What happened to the New Orleans public schools following the tragic levee breeches after Hurricane Katrina is truly unprecedented. Within the span of one year, all public-school employees were fired, the teacher contract expired and was not replaced, and most attendance zones were eliminated. The state took control of almost all public schools…

The study investigated destructive leadership behaviors (DLBs) and their influence on K-12 workplace attitudes (subordinate consideration for leaving their job, job satisfaction, and levels of stress). Quantitative survey method was used to gather data from experienced professional educators. Analyses of data show that the practice of DLB exists…

All organizations have "climates" that significantly affect their employees' performance and satisfaction. The authors posit that an academic department's "climate for teaching" (CFT)--or the the extent to which excellent teaching is rewarded, supported, and expected--has a profound impact on the experience of its instructors…

Since the 1950s, Taiwan has made great strides in higher education. However, its developmental growth has not been stable. Different studies show different ways to distinguish the stages of higher education development: Chen (2008) stated the stages of development in Taiwan from 1949 to the present can be seen as the following eras: early…

Educational change initiatives, whether they involve the implementation of new policies or curriculum reforms, often fail to reach the level of teachers' classroom practices. In the search for explanations, numerous studies have either characterized teachers as resistant to change or focused on how schools' workplace conditions have failed to…

In this article, I use the idea of "dyschrony" to describe the multiple disjunctures experienced in a Hispanic woman's life as she struggled to gain full membership in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) community. Despite having earned a doctoral degree in chemistry and a teaching position in a STEM school, she…

Research on the teaching profession in Russia shows that teachers continue to be among the lowest paid specialists. Despite this, recruitment is possible since teachers find the yearly schedule attractive, and this compensates somewhat for lower salaries. There is concern, though, about the conditions of their work and the inadequate amount of…

Background: Teacher turnover has been identified as a major problem that represents instability in teaching. Teacher turnover can be divided into three components: attrition means that the teacher is leaving the profession; "area transfer" means that the teacher is changing his/her subject area and "migration" means that the…

The HIV/AIDS pandemic's dramatic impact on African life and culture has influenced educational sector significantly. As a result of the chronic crisis, teacher retention in Zambia has reached abysmal lows. This qualitative narrative inquiry study explored teacher retention in a Zambian school through the lens of social constructivism. The study…