“So I had to give it up”: The role of social support for career persistence or attrition in a qualitative sample of second career teachers

This qualitative study uses the Job Demands-Resources framework to examine social support and its role in career retention or attrition among Swiss second career teachers (SCTs). In many countries, including Switzerland, great efforts are made to bring professionals from other occupational fields into teaching. As a result, the number of SCTs is growing, as are speculations about their skills, resources, and career persistence. A qualitative content analysis of 23 semi-structured interviews shows that support from colleagues and principals is a crucial job resource for SCTs, but seems to be positively associated with work engagement and career retention only if it is offered in forms that are sensitive to SCTs’ own needs and skills. Implications for SCT training and job induction are discussed.

Entering, Staying, Shifting, Leaving, and Sometimes Returning: A Descriptive Analysis of the Career Trajectories of Two Cohorts of Alternatively Certified Mathematics Teachers

Background: By attracting high-achieving college graduates and professional career changers, selective alternative certification programs, such as the New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF), promise to address pressing teacher shortages while also improving outcomes in hard-to-staff schools. Purpose: Looking at the main patterns in their careers before, during, and after completing NYCTF, the study provides insights into the short- and long-term impacts of mathematics teachers who entered as first- and second-career teachers on NYC public schools and the people in them. Participants: The study tracked the career trajectories and decision-making of more than 600 NYCTF mathematics teachers over a 9-year period. Research design: The longitudinal analysis of the teachers’ career trajectories is illuminated by descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses of their responses to open-ended survey items. Results: The article provides a portrait of urban mathematics teachers’ career decision-making as it unfolds over time. It challenges conventional understandings by demonstrating the stochastic nature of teachers’ career decision-making and, as part of this, consequential amounts of involuntary and midyear turnover. It further shows that, although in many ways similar, the career trajectories of the career changers and recent college graduates differed in key regards. Recommendations: On their own, strategies designed to attract high-achieving recent graduates and professional career changers to teach core subjects like mathematics will not solve long-standing teacher turnover and shortage issues in in high-needs urban schools. Districts also should focus on retention strategies, including training and induction tailored to meet the different needs and career goals of first- and second-career teachers.

Learning Transformation Perceptions of Preservice Second Career Teachers

Teachers’ shortage has become a critical issue in most countries in the world. One of the solutions has been the initiation of short-term teacher education programmes which attract adult career changers who enter the programme with prior working experiences and world knowledge. However, the process of transferring previous knowledge is challenging and teachers need to navigate new horizons. The aim of the study is to identify shifts in students’ perceptions regarding the teaching profession, and what experiences prompted the shifts. The research was conducted among 15 students in a teacher education college in Israel. The analysis of interviews exposed five main themes where students displayed shifts of perceptions. The themes relate directly to the two interrelated key concepts of second career teachers and transformative learning. The synergy between the two concepts created tension, dilemmas and dissonances which generated spaces for learning and fertile ground for shifting in frame of reference.

Alchemy of Teaching

This chapter examines how second-career teachers' prior experience impacts student success. Through a review of research literature, this chapter explores second-career teachers' ability to draw from their accumulated knowledge, experience, and wisdom to enrich classroom instruction, and the impact such experience has on students' success. This chapter also examines the relevance of transformative learning theory, constructivist learning theory, and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs theory to a second-career teacher experiential approach to teaching and the impact such experience has on the students' success. The author compares the teaching approaches of the initial-career teacher and the second-career teacher.