Career pathways: does remaining close to the classroom matter for early career teachers? A study of practice in New Zealand and the USA

Abstract

Retaining early career teachers and enticing promising teachers to become teacher leaders are issues of international interest not only because large numbers of teachers will retire from the profession over the next five to 10 years but also because the strongest teachers are the teachers most likely to leave the profession during their early years in the profession. This article explores the promise two formal teacher leadership roles – the consulting teacher role in Maryland, USA, and the specialist classroom teacher in New Zealand – have for extending and enhancing the work and career engagement of early career teachers. The article also focuses on one early career teacher, Ruby, who, having assumed the role of specialist classroom teacher, shaped it so she could connect teacher leadership and teacher professional learning in ways likely to enhance her own and her colleagues’ pedagogical practice and thereby raise student achievement.

Keywords:

• early career teachers
• career pathways
• retention
• teacher leadership
• learning conversations
• professional learning

Acknowledgements

This article was funded by the New Zealand Council for Educational Research as part of a purchase agreement with the Ministry of Education.

Notes

1. Ruby was granted special approval to hold the dual roles of HOD and SCT, an unusual occurrence. Usually, teachers do one or the other, not both.