A New Genre of Educators: Examining Next-Career Professionals

A New Genre of Educators: Examining Next-Career Professionals

Amanda Bell Morgan, Sandra Talbert
Copyright: © 2022 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-4089-6.ch011
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Abstract

Next-career professionals are a subcategory of alternative certification candidates that bring unique past professional experiences into the classroom. Though little is known currently about next-career professionals, scholarship does exist on alternative certification programs and the teachers who matriculate through them. This chapter engages the research to illustrate not only the key differences between traditionally and alternatively trained teachers, but also to highlight the important past-professional experiences next-career professionals bring with them to the classroom that help them connect student learning to the real world.
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Introduction

This chapter offers an examination of next-career professionals who are a subcategory of alternative certification candidates that bring unique past professional experiences into the classroom. Next-career professionals was a phrase coined in this study to refer to a specific group of teachers who embarked on a career in education after gaining experience and valuable skillsets in a different field. The definition of a next-career profession is the following: an individual who has five or more years' experience in a field outside of education, at least three years teaching experience in the secondary setting in a content area related to their previous career, and who gained access to education through an alternative certification teacher preparation program.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Next-Career Professionals: Next-career professionals are teachers who have at least five years of professional career experience outside of education and three years of classroom experience with acceptance or completion of an alternative certification program.

Alternative Certification: All post-baccalaureate teachers who enter an individual state alternative certification teaching program align by individual state with little to no experience in the classroom or pedagogical training (Feistritzer, 2006).

Attrition: Attrition is the loss of teachers from their teaching positions, including teachers moving from one school or district to another and teachers who may choose to leave the profession (MacDonald, 1999).

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