Research reports show that in many schools, teachers are isolated and have little chance for professional collaboration with fellow teachers. However, research also demonstrates that when teachers collaborate, instruction improves. Seven examples of teacher collaboration throughout the United States show how collaboration can be implemented and…

Based on a review of recent research on school effects and workplace psychology, this paper hypothesizes that three core concepts comprise teacher organizational commitment: (1) belief in school goals and student learning ability; (2) intention to remain an active member of the school; and (3) willingness to exert extra effort on the school's…

Ever since the publish-or-perish era began sometime ago, academics in the humanities have experienced a widening gap between their two primary obligations, teaching and research. Bad enough for tenure-track junior faculty, the tension between the demands of writing, delivering, and publishing papers is even worse for graduate students because of…

The issue of teacher absenteeism has become an increasingly important topic in educational policy, as teachers have gained generous sick day and personal leave benefits. The financial cost of teacher absenteeism is also problematic. In one national survey, the combined costs of absent teachers and substitutes came to $2 billion yearly. The…

Burnout measures cover the same ground as depressive symptom scales. Problems with burnout scales include their vulnerability to attribution errors. The few studies having both burnout/stress and psychological symptom measures suggest considerable overlap in the scales. Three cross-sectional studies from very different geographic areas reveal high…

The difficulties experienced by part-time faculty members are discussed, and some benefits of part-time teaching are identified. Among the problems faced by part-time staff are per-course salaries, lack of college-paid benefits, job insecurity, and invisibility on campus. If the part-time teaching position is a primary source of income and career…

Professional role performance difficulties experienced by 23 first year itinerant specialists in the field of special education were studied in Illinois public schools (excluding Chicago). An itinerant specialist is a teacher with specialized training in a particular disability who provides services to students on a homebound basis, in a hospital…

To investigate the current attitudes of Mississippi public school teachers toward the use of militant, collective actions, 600 randomly selected elementary and secondary teachers were asked to complete the Teacher's Attitude Scale and a demographic data sheet. A total of 450 responses were received, representing a 75 percent return rate. The…

The benefits of a collaborative work setting--including such practices as mutual help, exchange of ideas, joint planning, and participative decision-making--have been consistently confirmed by studies of effective schools and successful businesses. However, teacher isolation remains the norm. Drawing on recent research and educators' firsthand…

Despite the recognized importance of school-level leadership, little attention has been given to principals' influence over teachers' daily work lives. This study tries to identify what principals do, through their actions and decisions, to affect teachers' working conditions. Since teacher engagement in their work affects student learning, the…

Findings are presented of the responses of over 800 teachers to a questionnaire seeking opinions on (1) working conditions; (2) support and assistance from peers, administrators, and parents; (3) participation in decision making; and (4) reform proposals. Responses to the survey indicated that the majority of teachers (1) support many reform…

This paper explores the problems of recruiting the most qualified individuals to the teaching profession. Part 1 discusses the premise that supply and demand in teacher education are subject to the market forces that influence career choices in other fields. An analysis is given of how those fluctuations operate to reduce the intellectual quality…

By means of a literature review and teacher survey, the following key questions are addressed: (1) How widespread is the problem of professional burnout among public school teachers? (2) What are the professional characteristics of teachers who suffer from burnout? (3) In what ways do teachers differ in the amount of job-related stress and…

This paper describes the range of variation in the key working conditions of 13 new teachers in 6 different high schools in California. A prologue tells the stories of "Alex" and "Michael" to show how two equally promising young teachers may encounter working conditions as different as a cradle is from a crucible. The second…

Prior research has suggested that solutions to teacher labor market problems must take into account the importance of local context and indigenous labor market forces. With this in mind, three rural school systems in north Louisiana collaborated with the Louisiana Center for Rural or Small Schools (LaCROSS) to develop teacher recruitment…