The Secret Lives of Teachers, Turnover, and the Basic Principles of Teacher Care Programs

• In Event: Poster Session 9
  In Poster Session: Teacher Knowledge and Beliefs in the Context of Schooling

Abstract

There are many societal stressors that affect educators’ life experiences and Nel Noddings, in The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Approach to Education, warns that schools are often slow to effectively respond to the needs of our changing society. Teachers endure public and private burdens such as: death of loved ones; substance abuse; domestic violence; anger management; divorce; parenting / balancing family; personal illness; abusive bosses; poor working conditions; depression; burn-out; diminished colleague relationships, and so on. All of these issues can exact incalculable tolls on the teacher, the profession and retention issues, and on the students they must care for and serve (Noddings, 2003) and require conscious actions by educational systems to halt the effects of attrition.

Author

• Valerie Hill-Jackson, Texas A&M University