This book offers a foundation from which to reframe obstacles to teaching as opportunities for personal and professional growth. As this book demonstrates, a perspective that acknowledges the tensions and realities of various teaching contexts prepares educators to teach for the long haul, and to teach with joy.
Teaching is hard work. Teaching is rewarding work. An abundance of research on teachers' mental health, teacher burnout, and attrition in the profession has proven the truth of the first claim. And, without reading a word of academic research, teachers know the truth of the second: there are numerous challenges and complexities involved in this noble profession. Teachers also know the truth of our second claim-that teaching is immensely rewarding work.
The editors and authors of Joyful Resilience as Educational Practice: Transforming Teaching Challenges into Opportunities argue that the reciprocities of teaching keep them and countless other teachers in the profession. While teaching is one of the most demanding professions on earth, it is also one of the most rewarding professions. Editors Michelle C. Hughes and Ken Badley hope readers and teaching colleagues alike will be reminded of the rewards and the unexpected paybacks found in teaching. Joyful Resilience as Educational Practice is offered as a love letter, a "hang-in-there, you've got this" message to teacher colleagues everywhere.
May readers be reminded that teaching is a calling. The editors invite readers to wrestle with, take courage, and find joyful resilience in the professional challenges named in this book.
Teachers know the difficulties inherent in their profession, we live them daily. Hughes and Badley describe this book as a love letter for the difficulties and the joyful moments of teaching. Indeed, this is a letter of love to our labor of love as teachers. This volume brings together a wide assembly of educators whose stories will inspire and challenge teachers while revealing the joy of teaching. Each chapter describes the work of teaching as immensely challenging and rewarding. Teachers do find hope in the struggle. This book affirms that reality and invites the reader into a community of hope, not in avoiding the struggle, but in recognizing the challenges and accepting the realities while flourishing in the midst of it all.
Scot Headley
Professor of Educational Leadership
George Fox University
Newberg, Oregon
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This is an inspiring collection, full of the joy that its title promises. Hughes and Badley have assembled these essays as a "love letter" to teachers at a time when so many pressures can drain educators' energies or ideals. Quite admirably, the writers face the current challenges squarely, but they avoid overworn platitudes and offer a valuable blend of seasoned wisdom and recent research to help teachers renew their spirits and their strategies. There are some rousing words here, yet the writers also respect that teachers are at their core learners themselves and will welcome new ideas to revitalize their craft. They will find all that in this thoughtful panorama.
Mark Sargent
Former Provost, Westmont and Gordon Colleges
Santa Barbara, California
For teachers who have become dismayed by the myriad of challenges encountered in education, Joyful Resilience in Educational Practice will lift their souls. The authors have thoughtfully reframed the deficit model of teaching to reveal how the great rewards of the profession are most often hidden within the challenges. This insightful compilation is the perfect gift to inspire and encourage your favorite teachers!
Stella Erbes
Divisional Dean, Humanities & Teacher Education
Associate Professor, Teacher Education
Pepperdine University
Malibu, California
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Not since Parker Palmer's The Courage to Teach has there been such an inspirational book on teaching as a calling. Authors in this book describe the positive energy they experience when they resolve challenges with attention to the animating forces that first drew them to the profession.
Jodi Nickel
Past-President, Canadian Association for Teacher Education
Professor, Mount Royal University
Calgary, Alberta
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I very much appreciate the heart and the expertise of the editors and chapter authors of Joyful Resilience. Many of us who have been involved in education for more than just a few years are very concerned about its direction, especially as it relates to the life (or lack of it) of the teacher. This book includes many personal accounts from those who are obviously passionate about the education enterprise and the future of education. The result is a hopeful volume that not so much prescribes as encourages, providing timely inspiration and refreshment for its readers.
Paul Shotsberger
Professor of Graduate Faculty at Southern Wesleyan University
Central, South Carolina
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In the midst of a global pandemic, Joyful Resilience as Educational Practice, challenges teachers, who operate in one of the most difficult professions even in the best of times, that joy and resilience are matters of choice. This collection of essays from a wide range of experienced professionals at all levels of the teaching profession, explores the rich treasure of resources for self-renewing flourishing that surrounds them in their daily work if they only have eyes to see, and the courageous discipline to receive them as gifts.
Shirley A. Mullen
President and Professor of History
Houghton College
Houghton, New York
