As the first level of schooling, preschools are part of the educational system in Iceland. All preschools operate according to Preschool Act. No. 90/2008 and the National Curriculum Guidelines, where the emphasis is on children's learning through play and high-quality practice. The aim of this study was to shed light on how the first wave of…

Based on an in-depth, qualitative study of toddler teachers in the United States, this article examines relationships between the materiality and the social dimensions of a classroom space as teachers' workplace that mutually construct everyday work and lends meaning to their professional identities as a caring self. Findings highlight the…

Early career teacher (ECT) attrition data are often challenged by those outside of the profession. Attrition rates can only be interpolated from existing data, but fall somewhere between 8 and 53%. The Australian workforce data on ECT attrition are problematized at the outset, before presenting a collective case study examining early career male…

This study attempts to conceptualise English teachers' professional identity based on an understanding of identity in a socio-psychological framework, and thereby reveal the attributes and dynamics of professional identity by investigating Korean English teachers' cognitive, emotional and behavioural responses to their national English curriculum…

This article reports on a quantitative research study designed to examine the impact of organizational climate on burnout among homeroom and special education teachers working in Israeli state (non-religious) schools. The research literature identifies various causes for teacher burnout, offering evidence that special education teachers experience…

It is an accepted fact that resilience is a multifaceted phenomenon which has been proven to affect the learning, growth and development of individuals. A child's formative years are a time when resilience needs to be promoted so they can cope with the challenges of life. This paper reports some of the findings of an Australian Research…

Franz Kafka's 1912 novella "The Metamorphosis" provides an analogy for a consideration of the process of teacher identity formation and performance. Gregor Samsa awoke to find himself transformed into a giant beetle. He faced a complete loss of identity as he lost connection with the micro-political space that formed the context of his former role…

This paper describes the signature role played by accomplished, experienced teachers in professional learning communities, and the importance that these practitioners make their teaching public and shared. In so doing, the authors describe how accomplished practices can be shared between classrooms and between practitioners with varying levels of…

The dominant cultural image of veteran teachers is conveyed in the fictional life story of Mr Chipping of Brookfield School as conveyed in James Hilton's short novel "Goodbye, Mr Chips." This reflects emerging ideals and practices of teacher professionalism in England from the 1920s onwards in terms of its emphasis on autonomy and…

New teachers are unprepared for school politics and the conflicts they experience with administrators, colleagues and policies. Research and practice on mentoring often ignore organizational contexts. This article explores these under-examined contexts, asking: (1) What do mentors need to know and be able to do in relation to school and district…