Postscript to ‘Careers Under Stress: Teacher Adaptations at a Time of Intensive Reform’

Abstract

ABSTRACT. There is currently a crisis of recruitment and retentionof teachers in the United Kingdom. One feature of this trend is thenumber of teachers who are leaving the profession prematurely inreaction to the changed nature and organization of their work. Thisarticle focuses on how the crisis was experienced at the level ofthe indi- vidual. It explores the perceptions and interpretationsof a group of teachers who left teaching or who considered leavingbut remained by making adaptations to their roles; adaptations ofretreatism; downshifting; and self-actualisation. The article usesdata from a longitudinal study of a sample of English primary schoolteachers who are experienc- ing or have experienced occupationalstress and stress-related illness. Unpredictable and stress-inducedbreaks in the teachers' careers are defined as fateful moments' involvinga reassessment' and redefinition' of each teacher's self, commitmentand career. This case study of teacher stress makes emerging patternsand experiences of teacher career in the conditions of late modernity'highly visible. The article concludes by arguing that the new andunplanned disruption in careers can involve the teachers in repeatedre-inventions of the self (a stressful and convoluted process initself) and that a reconceptualisation of teacher career is required.