Based on a DfES funded study of 300 teachers in 100 primary and secondary schools in England, the authors identify different patterns of influence and effect between groups of teachers, which provide powerful evidence of the complexities of teachers' work, lives, identity and commitment, in relation to their sense of agency, well-being, resilience and pupil attitudes and attainment. This, in turn, provides a clear message for teachers, teachers' associations, school leaders and policy makers internationally, in understanding and supporting the need to build and sustain school and classroom effectiveness.

The New Lives of Teachers examines the varied, often demanding commitments on teachers’ lives today as they attempt to pursue careers in primary and secondary education. Building upon Huberman’s classic study, it probes not only teachers’ everyday lives, but also the ways in which they negotiate the pitfalls of professional development and the different life and work ‘scenarios’ that challenge their sense of identity, well-being and effectiveness. The authors provide a new evidence-based framework to investigate and understand teachers’ lives. Using a range of contemporary examples of teaching, they demonstrate that it is the relative success with which teachers manage various personal, work and external policy challenges that is a key factor in the satisfaction, commitment, well-being and effectiveness of teachers in different contexts and at different times in their work and lives. The positive and negative influences upon career and professional development and the influences of school leadership, culture, colleagues and conditions are also shown to be profound and relate directly to teacher retention and the work-life balance agenda. The implications of these insights for teaching quality and teacher retention are discussed. This book will be of special interest to teachers, teachers’ associations, policy makers, school leaders, and teacher educators, and should also be of interest to students on postgraduate courses.

Book In the second edition of this renowned book, you will find pearls of wisdom, heartfelt advice, and inspiration from one of the nation’s leading authorities on staff motivation, teacher leadership, and principal effectiveness. With wit and understanding, Todd Whitaker describes the beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and interactions of great teachers and explains what they do differently. New features include: Meaning what you say Focusing on students first Putting yourself in their position DVD Bundle This bundle includes a DVD featuring Todd Whitaker speaking about what great teachers do differently. It runs for approximately two hours and is the perfect addition to teacher training events and professional development meetings/workshops. Filled with pearls of wisdom, humor, and practical strategies, the video will motivate your staff and inspire them to be the best they can, each and every day. The DVD comes with a free copy of What Great Teachers Do Differently as well as a Facilitator's Guide.

Demoralized: Why Teachers Leave the Profession They Love and How They Can Stay offers a timely analysis of professional dissatisfaction that challenges the common explanation of burnout. Featuring the voices of educators, the book offers concrete lessons for practitioners, school leaders, and policy makers on how to think more strategically to retain experienced teachers and make a difference in the lives of students. Based on ten years of research and interviews with practitioners across the United States, the book theorizes the existence of a “moral center” that can be pivotal in guiding teacher actions and expectations on the job. Education philosopher Doris Santoro argues that demoralization offers a more precise diagnosis that is born out of ongoing value conflicts with pedagogical policies, reform mandates, and school practices. Demoralized reveals that this condition is reversible when educators are able to tap into authentic professional communities and shows that individuals can help themselves. Detailed stories from veteran educators are included to illustrate the variety of contexts in which demoralization can occur. Based on these insights, Santoro offers an array of recommendations and promising strategies for how school leaders, union leaders, teacher groups, and individual practitioners can enact and support “re-moralization” by working to change the conditions leading to demoralization.

Encroaching work demands—coupled with domestic chores, overbooked schedules, and the incessant pinging of our devices—have taken a toll on what used to be our free time: the weekend. With no space to tune out and recharge, every aspect of our lives is suffering: our health is deteriorating, our social networks (the face-to-face kind) are dissolving, and our productivity is down. The notion of working less and living more, once considered an American virtue, has given way to the belief that you must be “on” 24/7. Award-winning journalist Katrina Onstad, pushes back against this all-work, no-fun ethos. Tired of suffering from Sunday night letdown, she digs into the history, positive psychology, and cultural anthropology of the great missing weekend and how we can revive it. Onstad follows the trail of people, companies, and countries who are vigilantly protecting their time off for joy, adventure, and most important, purpose. Filled with personal and professional inspiration, The Weekend Effect is a thoughtful, well-researched argument to take back those precious 48 hours, and ultimately, to save ourselves.

Many studies of teacher motivation have been conducted in different contexts over time. However, until fairly recently there has not been a reliable measure available to allow comparisons across samples and settings. This has resulted in an abundance of findings which cannot be directly compared or synthesised. The FIT-Choice instrument offers the opportunity to examine motivations across settings. The various studies in this book suggest that people who choose teaching as a career are motivated by a complex interaction of factors embedded within communities and cultural expectations, but seem generally to embrace a desire to undertake meaningful work that makes for a better society. Unlike some careers, where rewards are in the form of salary and status, by and large these factors are not strong drivers for people who want to become teachers. They want to work with children and adolescents, and believe they have the ability to teach.

‘Tom Bennett is the voice of the modern teacher.’ - Stephen Drew, Senior Vice-Principal, Passmores Academy, UK, featured on Channel 4’s Educating Essex Do the findings from educational science ever really improve the day-to-day practice of classroom teachers? Education is awash with theories about how pupils best learn and teachers best teach, most often propped up with the inevitable research that ‘proves’ the case in point. But what can teachers do to find the proof within the pudding, and how can this actually help them on wet Wednesday afternoon?. Drawing from a wide range of recent and popular education theories and strategies, Tom Bennett highlights how much of what we think we know in schools hasn’t been ‘proven’ in any meaningful sense at all. He inspires teachers to decide for themselves what good and bad education really is, empowering them as professionals and raising their confidence in the classroom and the staffroom alike. Readers are encouraged to question and reflect on issues such as: the most common ideas in modern education and where these ideas were born the crisis in research right now how research is commissioned and used by the people who make policy in the UK and beyond the provenance of education research: who instigates it, who writes it, and how to spot when a claim is based on evidence and when it isn’t the different way that data can be analysed what happens to the research conclusions once they escape the laboratory. Controversial, erudite and yet unremittingly entertaining, Tom includes practical suggestions for the classroom throughout. This book will be an ally to every teacher who’s been handed an instruction on a platter and been told, ‘the research proves it.’