1st Edition
A Handbook for Retaining Early Career Teachers Research-Informed Approaches for School Leaders
This book addresses the global concern of teacher attrition rates, particularly those who walk away from the profession within the first five years. The author offers new knowledge about the factors that influence beginning teachers’ career decisions through an in-depth examination of their lived experiences.
Using a unique lens that explores the complexities of a beginning teacher’s classroom through its many attendant axiological, structural, interpersonal, and practical contexts, the book presents strategies that address the deep matters of retention in the educational arena. Using its insights, school leaders are enabled to shift the balance of school policy understanding towards beginning teachers’ acute needs for support.
Based on an empirical study of more than 2,000 beginning teachers and school leaders, this book reveals perceptions, truths, and lived experiences in order to guide the development of effective retention strategies and policies, which are fundamental to stabilising the teacher workforce.
Section 1. Reimagining the Frame 1. The Challenges for Staying: What Makes Beginning Teachers Leave the Teaching Profession? 2. A Voyage of Noticing the Context 3. Finding the Golden Thread 4. Identifying the Exits Section 2: The Value of Time 5. Leaders Connecting the Dots 6. "Here I Am, Ready to Teach": Harnessing Preparedness 7. Sharing the Load: Professional Interrelationships and the Community of Practice 8. High-Risk Contexts 9. Protect and Guard: A Balancing Act
Biography
Anna Elizabeth Du Plessis is an education specialist who has 26 years’ experience in teaching, including eight years in school leadership. Her various research projects have examined educational leadership, professional development for teachers and school leaders, preservice teachers’ professional experience, the beginning teacher workforce, and teachers’ lived experiences in relation to out-of-field teaching practices.
