Julie is in her eighth year of teaching at one of the top suburban high schools in the state of Massachusetts in the United States. She teaches history and psychology at both the general and Advanced Placement levels and has been at this same school since she began her career in teaching. Since the birth of her son more than 2 years ago she has been working a reduced schedule, which she hopes to continue into next year as well. Julie is in her mid-30s and teaching is her second career; prior to teaching she worked in political organizing.
Like many other teachers of her generation, Julie struggles with the balance between home and work life; with the types of changes she is being asked to make to her curriculum as a result of standardized testing regimes; and with her role as a teacher as she moves from being the new kid on the block to one of the more veteran teachers on her staff. She loves teaching but is considering a move into counseling, which would allow her to continue to work with students but perhaps offer something exciting and new in terms of her personal career development. She expresses little to no interest in being in administration, although she has held multiple leadership positions in her school over the course of her 8 years there.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Bartlett, L. (2004). Expanding teacher work roles: A resource for retention or a recipe for overwork? Journal of Education Policy, 19(5), 565–582.
Blase, J. & Anderson, G. (1995). The micropolitics of educational leadership: From control to empowerment. New York: Teachers College Press.
Burden, P. R. (1982, February). Developmental supervision: Reducing teacher stress at different career stages. Paper presented at the annual conference of the Association of Teacher Educators, Phoenix, AZ.
Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. London: Sage.
Cochran-Smith, M., Davis, D., & Fries, M. K. (2002). Multicultural teacher education research, practice, and policy. In J. A. Banks & C. M. Banks (Ed.), The handbook of research on multicultural education, Second edition. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Datnow, A., Hubbard, L., & Mehan, H. (2002). Extending educational reform: From one school to many. London/New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
Donaldson, M. (2007). To lead or not to lead? A quandary for newly tenured teachers. In R. H. Ackerman and S. V. Mackenzie (Eds.), Uncovering teacher leadership (pp. 259–272). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Edmunds, J. & Turner, B. S. (2002). Generational consciousness, narrative, and politics. In J. Edmunds and B. S. Turner (Eds.), Generational consciousness, narrative and politics (pp. 1–12). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Ellis, D. (2007, May 25). Making less than dad did. CNN Money. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://money.cnn.com/2007/05/25/pf/mobility_study/index.htm?cnn = yes.
Evans, R. (1996). The human side of school change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Farber, B. A. (1981). Teacher burnout: Assumptions, myths, and issues. Teachers College Record, 86(2), 321–338.
Fessler, R. (1995). Dynamics of teacher career stages. In T. R. Guskey and M. Huberman (Eds.), Professional development in education: New paradigms and practices (pp. 171–192). New York: Teachers College Press.
Gleick, J. (2000). Faster. New York: Vintage Books.
Goodson, I. F. (1983). School subjects and curriculum change. London: Croom Helm.
Goodson, I., Moore, S., & Hargreaves, A. (2006). Teacher nostalgia and the sustainability of reform: The generation and degeneration of teachers' missions, memory, and meaning. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(1), 42–61.
Goodwin, A. L. (2002). Teacher preparation and the education of immigrant children. Education and Urban Society, 34(2), 156–172.
Hargreaves, A. (1994). Changing teachers, changing times: Teachers' work and culture in the postmodern age. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hargreaves, A. (2003). Teaching in the knowledge society. New York: Teachers College Press.
Hargreaves, A. (2005). Educational change takes ages: Life, career and generational factors in teachers' emotional responses to educational change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 967–983.
Harris, A. & Muijs, D. (2004). Improving schools through teacher leadership. London: Open University Press.
Huberman, M. (1989). The professional life cycle of teachers. Teachers College Record, 91(1), 31–57.
Ingersoll, R. M. (2001). Teacher turnover and teacher shortages: An organizational analysis. American Educational Research Journal, 38(3), 499–534.
Johnson, S. M. (2004). Finders and keepers: Helping new teachers survive and thrive in our schools. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.
Lancaster, L. C. & Stillman, D. (2002). When generations collide. New York: Collins Business. Laying a foundation for the future of teaching. Teacher Magazine, 6(4). 8–9.
Lieberman, A. & Miller, L. (1999). Teachers transforming their world and their work. New York: Teachers College Press.
Louis, K. S. & Miles, M. B. (1990). Improving the urban high school: What works and why. New York: Teachers College Press.
Lovely, S. & Buffum, A. G. (2007). Generations at school: Building an age-friendly learning community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Lytle, J. H. (2000). Teacher education at the millennium: A view from the cafeteria. Journal of Teacher Education, 51(3), 174–179.
McLaughlin, M. W. & Talbert, J. E. (2001). Professional communities and the work of high school teaching. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
McNeil, L. M. (2000). Contradictions of school reform: Educational costs of standardized testing. New York: Routledge.
Merriam, S. B. (1998). Qualitative research and case study applications in education. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.
Murphy, P., DeArmond, M., & Guin, K. (2003). A national crisis or localized problems? Getting perspective on the scope and scale of the teacher shortage. Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 11(23). Retrieved 26.03.2009 from http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v11n23/.
Raines, C. (2003). Connecting generations: The sourcebook for a new workplace. Berkeley, CA: Crisp.
Ravitch, D. (1995). National standards in American education: A citizen's guide. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
Riseborough, G. F. (1981). Teachers' careers and comprehensive schooling: An empirical study. Sociology, 15, 325–381.
Safire, W. (2008). Generation what? The New York Times. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/magazine/30wwln-safire-t.html?ref = magazine.
Schempp, P. G., Sparkes, A. C., & Templin, T. J. (1993). The micropolitics of teacher induction. American Educational Research Journal, 30(3), 447–472.
Shen, J. (1997). Teacher retention and attrition in public schools: Evidence for SASS91. Journal of Educational Research, 91(2), 81–88.
Sikes, P. (1992). Imposed change and the experienced teacher. In M. Fullan and A. Hargreaves (Eds.), Teacher development and educational change (pp. 36–55). London: The Falmer Press.
Sikes, P., Measor, L., & Woods, P. (1985). Teacher careers: Crises and continuities. London: Falmer Press.
Smylie, M. (1999). Teacher stress in a time of reform. In R. Vandenberghe & M. Huberman (Eds.), Understanding and preventing teacher burnout (pp. 59–84). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Spillane, J., Halverson, R., & Diamond, J. (2001). Towards a theory of leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Northwestern University, institute for Policy Research, working article.
Stephey, M. J. (2008, April 16). Gen-X: The ignored generation? Time. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1731528,00.html.
Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications.
Strauss, W. & Howe, N. (1991). Generations: The history of America's future, 1584 to 2069. New York: William Morrow.
The Boston Globe Magazine: (2008, July 27). The Boomers Issue.
Twenge, J. (2006). Generation me. New York: Simon & Schuster.
U.S. Department of Education. (2002). No Child Left Behind: A desktop reference. Washington, DC: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Watters, E. (2004). Urban tribes: Are friends the new family? New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Weiss, E. M. (1999). Perceived workplace conditions and first-year teachers' morale, career choice commitment, and planned retention: A secondary analysis. Teaching and Teacher Education, 15, 861–879.
Wikipedia. (2008a). Baby boomer. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer.
Wikipedia. (2008b). Generation X. In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved November 30, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_X.
Zemke, R., Raines, C., & Filipczak, B. (2000). Generations at work: Managing the clash of veterans, boomers, Xers and Nexters in your workplace. New York: AMACOM.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Stone-Johnson, C. (2009). Regenerating Teachers. In: Bayer, M., Brinkkjær, U., Plauborg, H., Rolls, S. (eds) Teachers' Career Trajectories and Work Lives. Professional Learning and Development in Schools and Higher Education, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2358-2_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2358-2_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-2357-5
Online ISBN: 978-90-481-2358-2
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)