Compassion fatigue is a theoretical framework researchers have applied to helping professions other than teaching. The purpose of this report is to propose the use of this theory to better understand the prevalent rates of special education teachers' exit from the profession often labeled as burnout. A qualitative study with six middle school…

We surveyed 374 parents and 82 teachers in the Juarez, Mexico schools regarding their views of what makes an effective elementary school. The survey was a Spanish translation of an instrument used by Johnson (1998). Although both parents and teachers supported most of the factors associated with effective schools, they emphasized different aspects…

Research supports teacher preparation programs to recognize stress factors and to assist students and new teachers with effective coping mechanisms. Twenty-five to fifty percent of beginning teachers resign during their first three years of teaching (Fleener, 2001; Roulston, Legette, & Womack, 2005). Among all the causes, stress from teaching is…

New demands and high attrition levels of special education teachers have created a crisis for education and extensive additional stress for special education directors and principals. The critical shortage of highly qualified special education teachers has significantly increased the pressure to hire and retain them. This article discusses factors…

Focus of Study: This article investigates how teachers' relationships with boys can be central in bolstering boys' resilience and connection to their work in schools. Specifically, we examine how teachers understand the ways that their relationships with boys shape their teaching practice as well as their understandings of boys' learning in…

Miami-Dade Community College began in 1960 and now has 5 campuses and about 20 outreach centers. For the 1993-94 school year (the latest on which there are complete figures), 76,787 students were enrolled at Miami-Dade; another 43,391 took non-credit courses. Over the past 25 years, as the community has changed, obviously the college has reflected…

Subject departments form the primary organizational unit of the high school. The chapters in this book illuminate the ways in which departments shape the views and practice of individual teachers, serve as a locus of professional community, and express institutional and social values. The book examines the implications of subject affiliation and…

Data were collected on the demographic characteristics, educational backgrounds, and perceptions/attitudes of the approximately 1,429 business and marketing education teachers who were among the subsample of 3,538 vocational teachers and total sample of 56,051 public school teachers who participated in the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey.…

This paper presents the Australian perspective on a study conducted by the Consortium for Cross-Cultural Research in Education. Only 23 percent of the Australian teachers in the sample perceived the main objective of significant change as relating directly to their own work context. While most respondents saw themselves as "adapters" (63…

This paper describes the first phase of a study of teachers and school administrators in Western Sydney, Australia. A survey to measure teacher satisfaction, motivation, and health was designed based on findings from earlier research. Participants were 529 teachers and school administrators at 47 primary, secondary, and special purpose schools.…

The aim of this study was to analyze the relationship between professional isolation and occupational stress in teachers. A systematic random sample of 1158 French Canadian teachers were administered French Canadian versions of the "UCLA Loneliness Scale and Teacher Stress Inventory." Professional isolation was measured by the subjects'…

The complexity of technology training for teachers can be partially explained in terms of three phenomena: the historical resistance of teachers to use media, the nature of teaching itself, and the life cycle of technological innovations. Factors that influence teachers' use of technology include: accessibility of hardware and software,…

This report explores the effects of teacher professionalization on elementary and secondary teachers in the United States. The analysis examines the relationships between a set of characteristics traditionally associated with professions and professionals and teachers' commitment to their teaching careers. The report focuses on the following…

Thirteen guidelines are offered to teacher educators who seek to improve student thinking by improving the teaching of thinking in schools: (1) regard improved thinking as a means to an end, not the end itself; (2) be precise in the language and terms used to describe thinking; (3) recognize that the term "critical thinking" is a loaded term, with…

Part essay, part poetry, part collage of student writing and personal reflections, this book uses metaphor to evoke the interactions and anguishes of a high school English teacher's day, a juggling act of efforts to help the demoralized and disruptive while still trying to make learning meaningful. In the book, the English teacher's students speak…