Scarcity has been such a constant in education for so long that self-sufficient teachers routinely purchase classroom supplies at their own expense. Sometimes desperate measures are needed to obtain even the most basic equipment. But beyond the lack of material resources are more serious conditions that create an atmosphere of famine, turning…

Forty-eight African American counselor educators completed the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire-Short Form (D. J. Weiss, R. V. Dawis, G. W. England, & L. H. Lofquist, 1967), the Racial Climate Scale (R. J. Watts & R. T. Carter, 1991), and a biodata questionnaire. Results indicated that African American counselor educators' perceptions…

Five teachers of English at the secondary level in Japan agreed to participate in this qualitative study that set about uncovering their beliefs about teaching and their current curricular activities. Findings indicate that despite their vastly different workplaces, teacher-participants continue to work in the shadow of an educational system…

Although several studies in the affluent world have examined the job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of lecturers in higher education, little is known about academic job satisfaction in the low-resource countries. This study probes those factors contributing to academic satisfaction and dissatisfaction in higher education in the developing world.…

Teachers in Japan are no longer held in high esteem simply because of their position in the Confucian hierarchy of status and authority. Gone is the time when the word of the sensei would bring silence and order to a classroom. Ironically, the fruits of a postwar first-world nation--increased parental education, material affluence, and a…

Research addressing attraction and selection of employees within the public school setting seems to indicate that the higher a school's student achievement the more likely a potential job candidate is to assess a position at that school favorably. However, the validity of this finding has failed to be assessed with "real teachers" accepting actual…

This study moves from theory to practice to theory. Through multiple narratives, I present how theory and practice work together to produce praxis, defined as critical pedagogy. The story takes place through my experience as teacher and researcher, but it shows how the theory takes place in practice on many different levels. I present a critical…

This article analyses the views of secondary school teachers involved in the Transforming the School Workforce: Pathfinder Project--a project designed to address issues of teacher workload and job satisfaction. The initiative was launched in 2002 by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to enable 32 pilot schools to explore ways in which…

This paper reviews the research literature on new teacher mentoring, focusing on issues of definition, why teachers quit, and the effects of mentoring on retention. Conclusions call for more scientific studies on the relationship between mentoring and retention, more research on the relation between mentoring and other educational outcomes, and a…

This article focuses on teachers' dual frustrations caused by contradictory requirements in Korean education reform policies since 1995. It summarizes recent education policy reforms in Korea and links them to the intensification of teachers' work through the extension of its range, and the possibility that teachers' work will be deskilled by…

The future of Greece's well-being will depend on improving educational performance to boost productivity and improve social outcomes. In the current economic context, with the need to get best value for spending, Greece must and can address inefficiencies in its education system. The challenges are significant. For example, Greece lags behind many…

This chapter examines changes in preservice and continuing teacher professional development that are aimed at addressing sexual minority issues in schools as students' learning places and teachers' workplaces. (Contains 1 note.)

The relationships among teacher occupational stressors, self-efficacy, coping resources, and burnout were investigated in a sample of 247 Spanish secondary school teachers. Concretely, two specific aims were formulated in order to examine the effect of teaching stressors on teacher burnout and the role of self-efficacy and school coping resources…

Due in large part to the trends towards economic globalization, English has become the most widely disseminated and ubiquitous international language. The purpose of the study was to investigate what Taiwan's EFL teachers at the elementary level believe about the policy of English as a compulsory subject and how they perceive the benefits and…

The complexity of science teaching requires science teachers to encounter a range of tasks. Some tasks are perceived as stressful while others are not. This study aims to investigate the extent to which different teaching situations lead to different stress levels. It also aims to identify the easiest and most difficult conditions to be regarded…