Introduction: Teaching: An All-Terrain Career Path

To embark on an all-terrain race, an athlete needs fundamental equipment, mental and physical preparedness, and personal commitment. These necessities are also requisite for a teacher venturing into the profession. Early on the career path, a novice develops classroom management skills and explores curricular and instructional possibilities. Even the best teacher education program cannot fully prepare a neophyte to coordinate a lesson while handling disciplinary matters and considering individual student needs. Adapting to the culture and expectations of the school can also be taxing. Because juggling such assorted situations challenges even those with the greatest potential for success, novice teachers too often are forced to rely on trial and error to address the unexpected. For this reason professional development in the early stages of teaching is vital. Organizational and personal environments also influence the job satisfaction of veteran teachers. Crowded classrooms, conflicts with parents, insufficient administrative support, and limited internal and external rewards may press teachers toward burnout. The personal lives of veteran teachers also affect contentment with work. Struggling marriages, personal health, or financial stresses can drain the resources a teacher draws from to meet school demands. Without additional support in the workplace, teachers' sense of personal efficacy can falter. To counter these negative pressures, measures aimed at stimulating growth and building competency may rekindle enthusiasm. Involvement in professional organizations, leadership on school committees, and advanced coursework may energize flagging spirits. Avocational outlets may also contribute to a teacher's sense of efficacy. This theme issue of The Clearing House focuses on the career paths of teachers. Some authors present research data and their implications, and others reflect on career-stage experiences. The significance of professional development in the career cycles of teachers emerges epeatedly. Susan Lynn's 'The Winding Path: Understanding the Career Cycle of Teachers" describes Fessler's Teacher Career Cycle Model, a union of the literature on career stages with that on adult growth and development. This is an attempt to describe an eight-stage teacher career cycle within the context of a dynamic and flexible social system. Movement through cycles is recursive rather than linear. Fessler implies that teachers move in and out of career stages in response to personal and organizational environments. Lynn defines specific professional development applications needed at all stages of the career cycle to retain and stimulate quality teachers. Kristie L. Walsdorf and Susan K. Lynn's "The Early Years: Mediating the Organizational Environment" cites isolation and loneliness as key to the high attrition rate. Walsdorf and Lynn propose strategies for beginning teachers and administrators to address barriers in the organizational environment. Administrators must support neophytes with orientation, in-service training, reasonable teaching assignments, and nonevaluative feedback when student discipline matters arise. Beginning teachers need to learn to use time wisely, to set aside time for relaxation, and to reduce course assignments if the paper load is too heavy. Often novice teachers enter the field armed with contemporary theories and practices but are pressed by veteran colleagues to conform to the norms of the school. Remaining connected with university personnel and with others in the