Math and Science Scholars (MASS) Program: A Model Program for the Recruitment and Retention of Preservice Mathematics and Science Teachers

The shortage of certified teachers in mathematics and science in Texas classrooms is a major concern and mirrors national tends. Dramatic increases in shortages of teachers have stimulated the design of new certification programs that recruit and place teachers in classrooms as quickly as possible (Texas Center for Educational Research, 1999). While maintaining several of the characteristics of traditional certification programs, the Math and Science Scholars (MASS) Program streamlines the certification process, supports preservice students through tuition remission and scholarships, and provides quality mentoring and early fiend experiences in K–12 classrooms with well-qualified teachers. The strategies in this model program are dramatically increasing the numbers of undergraduate majors in mathematics and science considering high school teaching as a career.     

Patterns in the Initial Teaching Assignments of Secondary English Teachers: Implications for Teacher Agency and Retention

This study examined the teaching assignments of English teachers in 13 Mid-Atlantic high schools across five states. Data on the experience levels of 175 English teachers teaching 246 classes and surveys from 85 teacher participants were collected. Findings reveal that major agency-thwarting challenges face new English teachers: They typically are assigned to teach the students who need the most assistance, do not have their own classrooms and believe that teacher tracking occurs in their schools. Results suggest that in order to increase teacher agency, retention, and student learning, we must shift the working conditions, rhetoric, and culture around new teachers.     

对我校顶岗支教工作的反思及建议

作为海南师范大学“播种希望”行动计划之一的面向少数民族和贫困地区顶岗支教与师资培训工作,自2006年10月正式启动以来,至今已成功组织了三期,初步达到了预期的目标,取得了令人欣慰的效果,产生了广泛的社会反响。当然作为一项初创性的工作,其中存在着不尽如人意的地方。文章指出顶岗支教工作中存在的问题,并提出了改进的建议,以期顶岗支教工作越做越好。     

'Bringing Me More Than I Contain …': Discourse, Subjectivity and the Scene of Teaching in Totality and Infinity

This paper explores the relationship between language, subjectivity and teaching in Emmanuel Levinas's Totality and Infinity . It aims to elucidate Levinas's presentation of language as always already predicated on a relationship of responsibility towards that which is beyond the self and the idea that it is only in this condition of being responsible that we are subjects. Levinas suggests that the relation with the Other through which I am a subject as one uniquely responsible is also the scene of teaching. Through examining these ethical conditions of subjectivity, I suggest that this notion of the self as oriented towards the Other in a relation of passivity presents a challenge to many of the standard topoi of teaching and learning and invites us to consider the nature of teaching in a provocative new manner.