2022 Spring Journal of Scholarship and Practice

Using key words from Editor Ken Mitchell’s editorial, we get to the heart of this volume: stress, unprecedented events, political reactionaries, contested spaces, race, equity, gender identity, ban of classroom or library books, morally offensive. Says Mitchell, “Superintendents and their leadership teams, mindful of these changes, must find ways to support their teachers and manage the culture within their organizations to ensure that students are learning in an intellectually open and safe environment.”

The Spring 2022 volume examines a few aspects of these problems beginning with the first article that looks at the issue of teacher attrition: How do we keep teachers from leaving the profession? What do we know about why they are leaving? Kelly Hall and Mary Anne Gilles article is titled “Reasons for Teacher Attrition: Experience Matters.” They write that “Notable differences for leaving the teaching profession exist among teachers with varying levels of experience. Differences can be used to implement targeted policies to retain teachers at various levels of decision-making.”

In the next article, Corinne Brion examines the relationship between culture and learning and introduces a model for bridging the connection.

Lee Westberry and Tara Horner studied how principals influence a culture of learning in “Best Practices in Principal Professional Development.” Does that professional development create the change needed?

The issue concludes with Art Stellar’s review of Soo Hong’s book, Natural Allies: Hope and Possibility in Teacher-Family Partnerships.

Mitchell concludes that “as the political battles rage within and beyond the schoolhouse gates, successful district leaders must continue to find ways to protect and enhance a culture of learning to support, engage, and retain our teachers and principals. We hope this issue’s researchers provide our readers with a few ideas.”