The transition of learners to classes for learners with special educational needs from the perspective of the learners, teachers and parents

The researchers investigate how learners with barriers to learning experience the transition to classes for learners with special educational needs. The research was conducted at a full-service school in Potchefstroom, North West province, South Africa. Interviews were conducted with current and former teachers as well as the parents of selected participants who were learners in special educational needs (LSEN) classes at the school. Focus group interviews were held with each of the groups of learners. The findings of the study could be divided into intrapersonal factors (emotional development; group pressure; self-image and self-confidence; a feeling of loss; a transition that was traumatic, filled with stress and aggression; level of security; and the inability to hold his or her own in situations) and interpersonal factors (low social skills, the loss of friends, the loss of social status and the feeling that the transition was merely a temporary measure). We concluded that, based on the social and psychological effects of the transition between LSEN- and mainstream classes, teachers and parents need to make better informed decisions about the transition of learners.

Former Teachers: Exits and Re-Entries

Despite the large literature on teacher labor market in the United States, only few studies have examined the career choices of former teachers and the factors that affect their decisions to return to the profession. This is surprising given that former teachers represent over a third of teachers entering the teaching workforce, according to some estimates. This paper examines the exit and re-entry decisions of former teachers using a restricted-use data from the Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS). We use a discrete time hazard model that estimates the probability that a former teacher returns to teaching in a given year conditional on not having returned in the previous year. Results suggest that female teachers are more likely to return to the teaching profession by somewhere between 10 and 12 percentage points. We also find that teachers who are highly paid are more likely to re-enter teaching.

How does the professional identity of teachers from India change when they work as early childhood educators in Ontario?

Many Early Childhood Educators (ECE) in Toronto are foreign-educated teachers. They take up this profession because they cannot enter the teaching profession. Training as ECEs takes a shorter time, has lower entry requirements, and is more affordable. The case studies undertaken for this project are based on qualitative data collected by interviewing and observing two former teachers from India, now working as ECEs in a for-profit daycare. The data shows that because of low compensation rates, poorer working conditions, and lack of appreciation, community and respect, especially compared to what they received in India, these teachers report a downward spiral in their professional identity. Their daily routines and practices follow the norms in childcare centers, but they feel as though their employers and parents do not value them. As a result, these ECEs struggling to suppress their dominant teacher identity, think of themselves simply as ‘babysitters’ and do not value the work they do.

How does the professional identity of teachers from India change when they work as early childhood educators in Ontario?

Many Early Childhood Educators (ECE) in Toronto are foreign-educated teachers. They take up this profession because they cannot enter the teaching profession. Training as ECEs takes a shorter time, has lower entry requirements, and is more affordable. The case studies undertaken for this project are based on qualitative data collected by interviewing and observing two former teachers from India, now working as ECEs in a for-profit daycare. The data shows that because of low compensation rates, poorer working conditions, and lack of appreciation, community and respect, especially compared to what they received in India, these teachers report a downward spiral in their professional identity. Their daily routines and practices follow the norms in childcare centers, but they feel as though their employers and parents do not value them. As a result, these ECEs struggling to suppress their dominant teacher identity, think of themselves simply as ‘babysitters’ and do not value the work they do.

Vocational Teacher’s Career as a Second Profession and Factors Determining Its Choice

There is an increasing focus on the so-called hybrid teacher, at the European level. This teacher can alternatively work in a vocational school and a business. It is highly believed that this would help to solve both the aging of VET teachers and the quality of VET. The factors determining the choice of a VET teacher as a second career as well as perceptions of the participants’ former occupation were examined in this research using respectively the FIT-Choice and the PPO scales. The survey involved 114 VET teachers from 33 VET institutions of the country. The results revealed the determinants of VET teachers’ career choice, the most important of which are the high requirements of the teaching profession, the willingness to work with young people, and the influence of former teachers. The analysis of the relations between the perception of prior occupations and these determinants showed that social significance of prior occupation, strong interest in the subject and teaching, as well as workplace training self-efficacy facilitates the transition from business to vocational training. The results are discussed taking to similar studies conducted in other countries using the same measuring instruments.

Constructing race in white spaces of Dutch education (1968–2017)

PurposeThe key purpose of this paper is to explore how teachers' historical constructions of race and racism may reify whiteness in Dutch classrooms. How has whiteness contributed to how teachers understand and teach race and (historical) racism in white educational spaces in the years 1968–2017?Design/methodology/approachInterview data are obtained from a selection of Dutch secondary school (former) teachers, mostly history teachers, who have taught in the period between 1968–2017 (N = 28). Grounded theory and critical discourse analysis are used for analytical purposes.FindingsThe findings reveal that most teachers minimize and distort (historical) racism and its connection to the normalization of whiteness in the Netherlands. These teachers are constantly (re)constructing race based on their own histories, which silences race. This implicates contemporary educational spaces in numerous ways. Among other things, teachers normalize whiteness, while racializing the “other”, they explain racial inequities by reference to factors that exclude racism, and perpetuate whiteness through their teaching.Originality/valueWhile in the USA, critical scholars have long provided evidence for racism in educational contexts, racism in Dutch education remains largely unexamined. This paper offers a critical perspective on teachers' racial contributions.

Teacher Attrition: The Former Teachers’ Perspectives in the Bhutanese Context

Aims: To examine why professional teachers leave teaching and what measures the stakeholders could adopt to retain them. Study Design: A qualitative research design. Place and Duration of Study: It was conducted in Bhutan, and it took one year. Methodology: Data were collected from 15 former teachers through semi-structured interviews and written responses to open-ended questionnaires. Qualitative data were analyzed using directed content analysis technique. Findings: Analyses of the data revealed four findings. They are human, social, structural, and psychological capitals. However, as structural and psychological capitals were either the cause or the result of human and social capitals, the findings were subsumed into human and social capitals. Conclusions: This study examined reasons for teacher attrition from the perspective of former teachers. Based on the analyses of the data, two measures are suggested for teacher retention. These measures are renovating or building new physical structures and revamping leadership selection procedures.

The Sensuous Pedagogies of Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence

Though the differences in style and politics between Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) and D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) are many, they both had formative experiences as teachers. Between 1905 and 1907, Woolf taught history and composition courses at Morley College while Lawrence spent nearly a decade in the field of elementary education between 1902 and 1912. This study reframes Woolf’s and Lawrence’s later experiments in fiction, memoir, and literary criticism as the works of former teachers who remain deeply preoccupied with pedagogy. Across their respective writing careers, moreover, they conceptualize problems of teaching and learning as problems of sensation, emotion, or intensity. The “sensuous pedagogies” Woolf and Lawrence depict and enact are not limited to classroom spaces or strategies; rather, they pertain to non-institutional relationships, developmental narratives, spaces, and needs. Friendships and other intimate relationships in Lawrence’s fiction, for instance, often take on a pedagogical shape or texture (one person playing the student; the other, the teacher) while Woolf’s literary criticism models a novel approach to taste-training that prioritizes the individual freedom of common readers who must learn to attend to books that give them pleasure. Sensuous Pedagogies also reads Lawrence’s literary criticism as reparative, Woolf’s fiction as sustained feminist pedagogy, and their respective theories of life and love as fundamentally entangled with pedagogical concerns.