1st Edition

Handbook on Teachers’ Work International Perspectives on Research and Practice

Edited By Nina Bascia, Rhiannon M. Maton Copyright 2026
512 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

512 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

512 Pages 7 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The Handbook on Teachers’ Work brings together research and evidence-based authoritative writings from across the globe that explicitly theorizes and studies teachers’ work. Drawing on research from twelve countries across 6 continents, the chapters are grouped into themes that represent key issues related to work from global perspectives, including: The Political and Policy Contexts of... Read more

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Handbook
Nina Bascia & Rhiannon Maton

Section 1: Policy, Governmentality, and Teachers’ Work

Introduction to Section 1
Nina Bascia & Rhiannon Maton

Chapter 2: Beyond Policy Promises: Performance-based Accountability in Education and its Side-Effects on Teachers’ Work Across the Globe
Antoni Verger, Antonina Levatino, Marjolein Camphuijsen, Andreu Termes, Lluís Parcerisa & Deborah Lellek

Chapter 3: Racial Capitalism and the Politics of Class Size and Delivery Mode: A Survey of Secondary Teachers in Ontario, Canada
Arlo Kempf

Chapter 4: Teachers’ Work and School Material Culture: How Teachers Configure the Role of Collective Didactic Devices in Argentina
Octavio Falconi

Chapter 5: Teacher Unions and Policy-Making in South Africa: Exclusion, Contestation and Collaboration
Logan Govender & Michael Cross

Chapter 6: The Governance of Teaching During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Ontario, Canada
Nina Bascia 

Chapter 7: Policy Agency and Advocacy as Teachers’ Work in the USA
May Hara & Annalee G. Good

Section 2: Situating Teachers’ Work in Broader Contexts

Introduction to Section 2
Nina Bascia & Rhiannon Maton

Chapter 8: Pursuing the School as a Workplace: The Policies and Practices that Support and Sustain Teachers Over Time: A view from the USA
Susan Moore Johnson 

Chapter 9: Mentor Teachers’ Perspectives on Mentoring Preservice Teachers in Chile
Carmen Montecinos

Chapter 10: Striking a Balance: Examining the Interplay Between Teacher Empowerment and Teacher Accountability in U.S. Schools
Richard M. Ingersoll & Hannah E. Ingersoll

Chapter 11: Teachers’ Work: Lessons Learned on Three Continents
Kathryn Anderson-Levitt

Chapter 12: The Globalization of the Teacher Workforce
Lora Bartlett & Esra Bozkurt

Section 3: Teachers’ Diverse Identities

Section 3 Introduction
Rhiannon Maton & Nina Bascia

Chapter 13: Conceptualizing Teachers’ Care Work in the U.S.A.: Lessons from Black Women and Trans- and Non-binary Teachers
Sarah A. Robert, Moza Coote, & Heather K. McEntarfer

Chapter 14: Uncomfortable Hierarchies and Structural Constraints: Teachers as Middle Managers of Paraeducators in the USA
Johanna S. Quinn

Chapter 15: Revisiting Gender and Class in Urban China: Undervalued Work of Migrant Teachers and Their Resistance
Min Yu

Chapter 16: The Hazards of "Positive Organizational Environment": Racialized Emotional Labor and Work in Teachers' Lives in Canada
Jamil Kalin & Peter H. Sawchuk

Section 4: The Collective Work of Teachers

Section 4 Introduction
Nina Bascia & Rhiannon Maton

Chapter 17: Teachers and Their Colleagues in the United States: 50 Years Beyond "Schoolteacher"
Judith Warren Little

Chapter 18: Relationships of Knowledge and Practice: Teacher Learning in Communities
Marilyn Cochran-Smith & Susan M. Lytle

Chapter 19: Social Justice-Oriented Educators’ Collectivist Organizations in Canada and the U.S.: A Typology
Rhiannon M. Maton

Chapter 20: Teachers' Professional Authority and Bureaucratic Control : The Case of Professional Learning Communities in the United States
Joan E. Talbert

 

Section 5: Teaching and Contestation

Section 5 Introduction
Rhiannon Maton & Nina Bascia

Chapter 21: Teacher Activism as Teachers' Work: Perspectives on Teachers' Work in Social Movements and Unions Across the Americas
Rebecca Tarlau 

Chapter 22: Making Black Lives Matter at School: Educators Working in Solidarity for Black Lives in the U.S.A.
Denisha Jones & Sarah A. Mathews

Chapter 23: Navigating Terror and Trauma In A Conservative-Controlled State: A 2024 Dispatch from Anti-Oppressive Public School Educators in Iowa, U.S.A.
Monique Cottman, Carrie Romo, Petra Lange, greg wickenkamp, Amira Nash, & Katy Swalwell

Chapter 24: Toward Equity-Centered Teaching in a Centralized, Meritocratic System: A Tale From Singapore
Wenchia Chang & Lionel Lim

Section 6: Final Words

Chapter 25: Teachers’ Worth
Raewyn Connell

Chapter 26: Final Words
Nina Bascia & Rhiannon Maton 

List of Contributors
Index

 

Biography

Nina Bascia is Professor at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, Canada.

Rhiannon M. Maton is Associate Professor at the State University of New York at Cortland, USA.