Believes that mentoring helps new music teachers remain in the profession. Discusses the use of mentoring, focusing on the benefits of mentors for new teachers, mentor programs, and tools for mentors. Includes stories about teachers with mentors as well as a bibliography of resources. (CMK)

Examines the experience of Tasmanian teachers who gave accounts of increased workloads in the 10 years between 1984 and 1994. States that they reported working longer hours, teaching more students, and having increased professional, pastoral, and administrative duties. Highlights the reason for the increased workload. Includes references. (CMK)

Examines teachers' working identities, highlighting gender inequities among teachers, within school systems, and in society, especially in relation to computers. Highlights tensions central to teaching in relation to new technologies, emphasizing gender inequities that structure understandings of teaching. Documents how, for the teachers studied,…

Reports on a qualitative study of the effects of student teaching in urban secondary schools on the motivation of student teachers. Concludes that the demands of teaching in urban schools may discourage many talented but idealistic liberal arts graduates from pursuing a teaching career. (FMW)

This article gives a personal account of the effects of a district-wide policy of "teaching to the test" on teachers, administrators, and the curriculum. The effects include low teacher morale and incidents of cheating by administrators and teachers. (IAH)

Presents a case study in which an experienced teacher was terminated for incompetence following a forced transfer, assignment to a class with serious behavior problems, and conflicts with colleagues and superiors. Suggests that the development of teacher incompetence is a process exacerbated by organizational conditions. (SV)

Teacher empowerment can be better appreciated if viewed as professionalization, rather than an exercise in worrying about who the boss is. This article discusses three guiding principles toward empowerment (status, knowledge, and access to decision-making), separate needs and vantage points of teachers and administrators, and teacher autonomy.…

While expecting to see microcomputers on the desks of business people, scientists, lawyers, and other professionals, we have failed to allow teachers similar access to these machines. Instead of trying to restructure teaching to fit future technologies, schools should empower teachers and place them at the forefront of future innovation. (MLH)

Lessons learned by teaching a curriculum and implementation course at a Jamaican college include awareness that the rhythm of academic life, locus of curriculum decision-making power, autonomy, and needed knowledge and skill vary across settings. The influence of more industrialized countries on vocational education in lesser developed countries…

Organizational transformation, rather than improvement, is fast becoming the focus as dynamic and energetic leaders open new frontiers in work life and productivity. Schools can move beyond tinkering with structures and processes by creating a vision of school greatness. Florida's and Minnesota's experiments with professional partnerships are…

Principals must create conditions that ensure that professional growth is part of school culture, remembering to create consensus, promote shared values, monitor the effort, ensure systematic collaboration, encourage experimentation, model commitment, provide one-on-one staff development, offer purposeful staff development programs, promote…

Examines how teacher expectations, their empathy, and their own sense of self-efficacy have an effect on their teaching and on their students. Points out some parallels between the affective issues in the classroom (the expectations teachers have of students) and in composition programs (the expectations administrators have for teachers of…

Offers advice on dealing with individual workers at childcare centers who whine, complain, and spread unsettling rumors. Suggests that coworkers resist the temptation to argue or immediately propose solutions to problems; accept the negative person as is; ask for "specific" objections to the ideas of others; and try to empower the…

Analyzes the contemporary school restructuring movement, discussing democratic possibilities, the relationship between educational technology and school restructuring, critical questions about educational technology, the effect of new technology on teacher work, and the relationship of educational technology to school structures and economic…

Discusses an experimental project with a prelim group of students of Russian undertaken in order to incorporate various skills into the teaching environment. These skills include keyboard competence, time management, group interaction, and personal presentation. The project was a success; all participants improved in their Russian. (five…