Singapore Teachers

Narratives of Care, Hope and Commitment

The narratives and analysis included in this book were written by and derived from teacher participants in a post-graduate course that the chief editor, Dr Fang, has taught at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. Narrative inquiry has been used in the course to help teachers and school leaders make meaning of their personal and professional growth and learning trajectory. Narratives give them their own voice, which leads to a deeper understanding of their work and lives and informs teacher educators, researchers, and policy makers on ways to better support their professional learning and development.

More than being a mere summary of teacher narratives, the overviews of each of the six parts of the book, written by the editorial team after many rounds of reading and re-reading, tease out patterns to usher readers into the narratives contained in each part in more informative and reflective ways. The final part with two reflective essays and one research paper explores more systematically the narrative experiences of the course participants, while the epilogue records the author's own journey in developing a narrative inquiry pedagogy in teacher education. The book is expected to benefit future course participants and local teachers as a resource for professional development, and inform researchers and policymakers who are interested in understanding the lived experiences of teachers in Singapore and creating better teacher engagement in schools.

Contents:

• Working with Students: The Calling of Teachers' Work
• Working with Colleagues — Source of Energy or Wear or Tear?
• What Shapes a Teacher?
• What Shapes a Leader?
• Teacher Identity and Self
• Research on the Narrative Inquiry Practice of Course Participants and Instructors

Readership: Researchers, teacher educators, policy makers and the general public.
Key Features:

• Since this will be the first collection of teacher-authored narratives and research on teacher narratives in Singapore, there will be no competing titles in the market
• The contributors are uniquely teachers themselves writing about their daily work and life experiences in a most authentic voice, appealing to educational circles as well as the general public who are eager to know what is inside teachers' mind and heart and their struggles as well as professional satisfaction in their learning and growth
• The course instructors share insider knowledge about how the course was designed and taught to help teachers write their narratives and reflect on their personal and professional trajectories. In addition, they systematically study the teacher participants' course participation to inform the improvement of their teaching and examine those narratives to produce evidence-based research on how teacher narratives are a powerful avenue for promoting teacher learning and growth in their workplace