Search results for: School culture

The purpose of this study was to discover what novice teachers required to remain in the classroom. The authors identified four key elements that describe the process of teachers' attrition: entry, early experiences, pre-exit and exit. When the participants entered teaching, they were confident about what they would contribute. However, their early experiences reflected that their progress prevented. The participants were disappointed by leadership and/or veteran colleagues at pre-exit phase of leaving. The authors conclude that the participants enjoyed engaging with ideas and teaching practice during their preservice education. However, they reported that the schools they entered did not foster their growth as teachers or as individuals. They felt that this led to a sense of disillusionment, which led to their decision to leave school.

The purpose of this research is to identify the factors within the school environment that enhance and facilitate a teachers’ innovative behavior. Furthermore, it aims to examine whether it is possible to predict a teachers’ innovative behaviour with the proposed two-layer model (with self-efficacy being the first layer and teaching practices being the second). In this study, a model for predicting teachers’ innovative behaviour was proposed, with three general factors of school environment: interaction and involvement, need for innovation and freedom for innovation. The authors conclude that a teachers’ innovative potential is developed and used in the best possible way, when the school environment provides them with possibilities for self-development, recognition for their innovative behaviour and professional development and also constructive feedback from school management and the students’ parents.

This article investigates how and what type of relationships cooperating teachers (CTs) can develop with student teachers (STs) and university tutors (UTs) to enhance the school placement process. By facilitating collaborative relationships, a CT’s learning experience can be positively enhanced and a ST is provided with a scaffolded entry into the teaching profession. As the relationships in the study had various degrees of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and a shared repertoire, it allowed the ongoing interactions between various stakeholders to be labelled ‘communities’. The approaches of the CTs in developing communities were either enabled or challenged by other members in the school placement process.

This paper presents an alternative explanation for turnover—one grounded in organizational theory and substantiated by an emerging line of research. In doing so, it reframes the debate over what fuels high rates of teacher turnover in high-poverty schools and provides advice for policy makers and practitioners. This paper reviews six studies analyzing turnover as a function of school context rather than as a function of student demographics. The review suggests that teachers who leave high-poverty schools are not fleeing their students. Rather, they are fleeing the poor working conditions that make it difficult for them to teach and for their students to learn. The working conditions that teachers prize most include school leadership, collegial relationships, and elements of school culture.