Invested Stayers

How Teachers Thrive in Challenging Times

Edited by Terri L. Rodriguez; Heidi L. Hallman and Kristen Pastore-Capuana

Invested Stayers: How Teachers Thrive in Challenging Times features chapters co-authored by PK-12 teachers and postsecondary teacher educators from across the U.S. that reflect how they persist, remain, and thrive in the teaching profession. Premised on the idea that co-authors are colleagues and mentors to each other, this book conceptualizes contributors as invested stayers in the education profession.

Chapters feature how particular catalysts, or landmark changes in education, have been productive sites for growth, agency, and even resistance across the arc of contributors’ professional lives. The book recognizes that teacher educators and teachers persist because of multiple and overlapping factors between our professional and personal lives, including the relationships we develop with each other as colleagues and mentors in our professional learning.

In the public sphere, PK-12 educators increasingly face challenges that limit their ability to initiate their own professional learning. In this book, we considered what might occur if educators had space and time to write together and reflect on how they’ve persisted. These authors narrate themselves as invested stayers who invite personal and professional growth through inquiry, creativity, and innovation.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-4758-5207-3 • Hardback • September 2020 • $71.00 • (£55.00)

978-1-4758-5208-0 • Paperback • September 2020 • $36.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-4758-5209-7 • eBook • September 2020 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / General, Education / Professional Development, Education / Renewal and Retention

Invested Stayers

How Teachers Thrive in Challenging Times

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

Invested Stayers: How Teachers Thrive in Challenging Times features chapters co-authored by PK-12 teachers and postsecondary teacher educators from across the U.S. that reflect how they persist, remain, and thrive in the teaching profession. Premised on the idea that co-authors are colleagues and mentors to each other, this book conceptualizes contributors as invested stayers in the education profession.

Chapters feature how particular catalysts, or landmark changes in education, have been productive sites for growth, agency, and even resistance across the arc of contributors’ professional lives. The book recognizes that teacher educators and teachers persist because of multiple and overlapping factors between our professional and personal lives, including the relationships we develop with each other as colleagues and mentors in our professional learning.

In the public sphere, PK-12 educators increasingly face challenges that limit their ability to initiate their own professional learning. In this book, we considered what might occur if educators had space and time to write together and reflect on how they’ve persisted. These authors narrate themselves as invested stayers who invite personal and professional growth through inquiry, creativity, and innovation.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 188 • Trim: 6½ x 9

978-1-4758-5207-3 • Hardback • September 2020 • $71.00 • (£55.00)

978-1-4758-5208-0 • Paperback • September 2020 • $36.00 • (£30.00)

978-1-4758-5209-7 • eBook • September 2020 • $34.00 • (£25.00)

Subjects: Education / Teaching Methods & Materials / General, Education / Professional Development, Education / Renewal and Retention

Author

Terri L. Rodriguez, PhD, is professor of education at the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University. Her work focuses on teacher preparation for diversity, equity, and social justice.

Heidi L. Hallman, PhD, is professor of English education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on how prospective teachers are prepared to teach in diverse school contexts.

Kristen Pastore-Capuana, PhD, is assistant professor of English education in the English Department at Buffalo State College. She is the assistant director of the Western New York Network of English Teachers (WNYNET).

Table of Contents

Foreword by Shelbie Witte

Introduction by Terri L. Rodriguez, Heidi L. Hallman, and Kristen Pastore-Capuana

Section I: Social Landscapes

Chapter 1: Do More, Think Again, Keep Learning: Advocating for Refugee and Immigrant English Learners Through Social Justice Teaching by Terri L. Rodriguez and Lauren Thoma Ergen

Chapter 2: Reciprocity for CriticallycConscious Language Teacher Education by Allison J. Spenader and Leah Shepard-Carey

Chapter 3: Lessons for Special Education Teachers to Persist and Thrive by Shelley Neilsen Gatti, Martin Odima Jr., Deeqaifrah Hussein, and L. Lynn Stansberry Brusnahan

Chapter 4: Rowing Together in the Same Direction: How Entwined Symbiosis Empowers Teachers at all Levels to Embrace Culturally Responsive Teaching by Katharine Covino, Garrett Zecker, and Hannah M. Britten

Section II: Political Landscapes

Chapter 5: Ongoing Transformation: Exploring the Chronologies of Becoming a Teacher by Margaret Flynn and Heidi L. Hallman

Chapter 6: Beyond Reacting: One New Teacher’s Re-envisioning of Top-Down Accountability Initiatives by Meghan A. Kessler and Arpan Patel

Chapter 7: Growing to Thrive: The Story of Two Colleagues Prospering in an Era of Standards-based Education by Eric D. Moffa and Toni M. Poling

Chapter 8: Sustaining Our Voices: Critical Collaboration Through English Teacher Communities of Practice by Kristen Pastore-Capuana and Deborah Bertlesman

Section III: Disciplinary Landscapes

Chapter 9: Persisting in Teaching with a New Vision of Science Education by Elizabeth Xeng de los Santos, Candice Guy-Gaytán, and Sylvia Scoggin

Chapter 10: An Innovative Approach to Improve College Readiness in Mathematics: A Collaborative Project by A. Susan Gay, Christopher W. Carter, and Carrie L. La Voy

Chapter 11: Using Digital Spaces to Foster and Sustain an Informal Professional Learning Community by Joe O’Brien, Brian Bechard, Kori Green, and Nick Lawrence

Chapter 12: Hope as the Catalyst to Thrive in the Profession by Elizabeth Yomantas and Sarah Rosenthal

About the Contributors

Reviews

Invested Stayers, edited by Rodriquez (College of St. Benedict and St. John’s Univ.), Hallman (Univ. of Kansas), and Pastore-Capuana (Buffalo State College, SUNY), examines three landscapes (social, political, and discipline-specific) through the lens of multiple teachers and university faculty to provide a variety of examples of why teachers stay in education. The text does not provide a central list of ideas that one can apply to his or her specific context; however, themes emerge throughout. One is the idea of mutual benefit for the mentor and mentee and how their roles can shift over time. A second theme focuses on teachers empowered to make change, whether for a particular population of students (e.g., emergent bilingual) or against a system of injustice. A third theme considers creating relationships to mitigate a sense of isolation. . . the individual chapters can be read independently, and the literature that supports the research is excellent. Overall, this is an interesting examination of how teachers can thrive in challenging times prior to the impact of COVID-19 and could be helpful for teacher education programs. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

— Choice Reviews

From new educators to veterans, this book is a practical resource for teachers of all content areas. It offers an honest look at our profession and provides insight on the changing classroom culture that impacts daily connections with students. The authors are tireless advocates for all learners, while offering relevant ways for teachers to persist and thrive in the classroom. This book is a welcome addition to my professional library!
— Terri Benson, High School Language Arts Teacher, 21 years experience

This is an important book in that it provides teachers with examples and strategies for persistence as well as strategic resistance...In the teaching profession, remaining is a pre-requisite for thriving, because when teachers go they cannot grow as educators. But thriving teachers are a pre-requisite for thriving students--through innovation, collaboration, and transformation--and this is the book's ultimate take-away.
— Jason Margolis, Professor of Education, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA