Christopher Day - The New Lives of Teachers

The New Lives of Teachers

The New Lives of Teachers provides a new research informed and evidence-based framework to investigate and understand teachers lives. Using a range of contemporary examples of teaching, the authors 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 and wellbeing 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.

Christopher Day is Professor of Education at the University of Nottingham, UK. His previous books include A Passion for Teaching, also published by Routledge. Qing Gu is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, UK.

The New Lives of Teachers

Christopher Day and Qing Gu

LONDON AND NEW YORK

First edition published 2010
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

2010 Christopher Day and Qing Gu

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Day, Chris.
The new lives of teachers / Chris Day and Qing Gu. 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
1. TeachersIn-service training. 2. TeachersTraining of.
3. EducationBiographical methods. 4. TeachersVocational
guidance. I. Gu, Qing. II. Title.
LB1731.D39 2010
371.1dc22 2010000861

ISBN 0-203-84790-3 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10: 0-415-48459-6 (hbk)

ISBN10: 0-415-48460-X (pbk)

ISBN10: 0-203-84790-3 (ebk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-48459-6 (hbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-415-48460-2 (pbk)

ISBN13: 978-0-203-84790-9 (ebk)

New Lives of Teachers is a unique and compelling book that gets at the heart of what it means to be a teacher. Not since Michael Huberman, 20 years ago, has anyone got inside the lives of the day to day reality of teachers across the spectrum of an ever challenging profession. A compelling read that makes you appreciate teachers, but equally will spur teachers on to increase the impact they have on their colleagues and on the children they serve. Interesting to read, deeply meaningful Day and Gu have written a book for all educators, young and old.

Professor Michael Fullan, University of Toronto, Canada

This is one of the best books ever written about the working lives of teachers. This is a must read for all interested in education.

Professor Cary L. Cooper, Lancaster University, UK

This book is a wakeup call for governments and how they support the teaching profession. Day and Gu provide us with compelling evidence of how the changing social, economic and political conditions are having a significant impact on teachers lives.

Judyth Sachs, Macquarrie University, Australia

New Lives of Teachers foregrounds an old truth much neglected by contemporary educational reformers: Teachers passion and commitment are foundational to high quality teaching.

Milbrey McLaughlin, Stanford University, US

Carefully documented, thoughtfully unravelled and systematically represented. An insightful must read for anyone who cares for teachers and teaching and who hates simplistic discussions about them.

Geert Kelchtermans, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium

Through this book, Day and Gu offer insightful portraits of teachers that shed new light on traditional views of expertise as being built solely on age and experience. They hold up for critical analysis teachers working lives in ways that make clear what it is like to be confronted by the ongoing challenges of change so endemic in education today.

John Loughran, Monash University, Australia