Invested Stayers

Invested Stayers: How Teachers Thrive in Challenging Times features chapters co-authored by PK-12 teachers and postsecondary teacher educators from across the U.S. that reflect how they persist, remain, and thrive in the teaching profession. Premised on the idea that co-authors are colleagues and mentors to each other, this book conceptualizes contributors as invested stayers in the education profession. Chapters feature how particular catalysts, or landmark changes in education, have been productive sites for growth, agency, and even resistance across the arc of contributors’ professional lives. The book recognizes that teacher educators and teachers persist because of multiple and overlapping factors between our professional and personal lives, including the relationships we develop with each other as colleagues and mentors in our professional learning. In the public sphere, PK-12 educators increasingly face challenges that limit their ability to initiate their own professional learning. In this book, we considered what might occur if educators had space and time to write together and reflect on how they’ve persisted. These authors narrate themselves as invested stayers who invite personal and professional growth through inquiry, creativity, and innovation.

From new educators to veterans, this book is a practical resource for teachers of all content areas. It offers an honest look at our profession and provides insight on the changing classroom culture that impacts daily connections with students. The authors are tireless advocates for all learners, while offering relevant ways for teachers to persist and thrive in the classroom. This book is a welcome addition to my professional library!, This is an important book in that it provides teachers with examples and strategies for persistence as well as strategic resistance...In the teaching profession, remaining is a pre-requisite for thriving, because when teachers go they cannot grow as educators. But thriving teachers are a pre-requisite for thriving students--through innovation, collaboration, and transformation--and this is the book's ultimate take-away.

Terri L. Rodriguez, PhD, is professor of education at the College of St. Benedict & St. John’s University. Her work focuses on teacher preparation for diversity, equity, and social justice.Heidi L. Hallman, PhD, is professor of English education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at the University of Kansas. Her research focuses on how prospective teachers are prepared to teach in diverse school contexts.Kristen Pastore-Capuana, PhD, is assistant professor of English education in the English Department at Buffalo State College. She is the assistant director of the Western New York Network of English Teachers (WNYNET).