Introduction

Over recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of career-changers entering graduate teaching programs.  Here in Australia, that figure has risen to almost 50% of primary teaching graduates are now career changers^[1]. Career changers benefit the overall education system through their diversity of capabilities and personal qualities drawn from prior careers and life experiences and strong commitment to the teaching profession^[2].  While teacher resilience is a critical capacity for all teachers^[3] it appears that career-changers need to demonstrate resilience not only in learning to teach, but also in navigating issues of transition to teaching. These would include adapting to the complexity and intensity of teachers’ work and learning to balance the emotional energy they invest in caring for others with developing adequate and ongoing self-care strategies^[4][5]

The QUT authentic case study explores how career-change teachers draw on their individual and networked resilient behaviours to navigate their professional experience in schools.  Using scenarios developed from previous research into career-changers^[4] this project seeks to explore the variety of ways that one cohort of career-changers considers activating and accessing their available resources.

1. ^McKenzie, P., Weldon, P. R., Rowley, G., Murphy, M., & McMillan, J. (2014). Staff in Australia’s schools 2013: Main report on the survey. Retrieved from http://research.acer.edu.au/tll_misc/20
2. ^Tigchelaar, A., Brouwer, N., & Korthagen, F. (2008). Crossing horizons: Continuity and change during second-career teachers’ entry into teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(6), 1530-1550
3. ^Gu, Q., & Day, C. (2013). Challenges to teacher resilience: Conditions count. British Educational Research Journal, 39(1), 22-44.
4. ^Crosswell, L. & Beutel, D.  (2017) 21st century teachers: how non-traditional pre-service teachers navigate their initial experiences of contemporary classrooms. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education.   http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1359866X.2017.1312281
5. ^Williams, J. (2010). Constructing a new professional identity: Career change into teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 26(3), 639-647.