Beacons of Hope

Whilst there is a significant and growing body of literature on teacher resilience, there is considerably less literature on why long service career teachers choose to stay in their profession. This book aims to explore, through the personal narratives of four resilient long service teachers, why this might be and it has implications for school leaders, pupil attainment, policy makers, ITE educators and of course, both pre-service and inservice teachers. The book identifies key themes and lessons which emerge from their stories and makes a number of recommendations which may benefit a range of stakeholders, not the least of which are teachers themselves. Throughout this book, which is based on the author’s doctoral research, the concept of teacher professional identity emerges as a framework which offers considerable promise to those investigating the resilience of teachers. This book contends that the manifestation of a professional identity, which enables teachers to construct, reconstruct and manage multiple identities over time, will be crucial to teachers’ ongoing resilience if they are to continue to function purposefully and effectively, in the future.