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Abstract

Defining teacher vitality as the vigor, energy, passion, and joy teachers bring to their classroom, students and colleagues; this article describes an international, comparative, qualitative, phenomenological study of teachers’ lived experiences to determine the elements influencing teacher vitality. This is a two-country, multiple-case study of twenty-one middle and high school teachers who had taught ten to twenty years. In order to serve as a confirmation of the universality of the elements of teacher vitality, the study was not only conducted in two different schools in Idaho, but also was replicated in two different schools in Austria. In each of the four participating schools, both high and low-vitality teachers were matched for similarities, then investigated to determine why—in the same school, with the same administration and colleagues, and with the same struggles and challenges—some teachers maintain their vitality while other teachers lose their vitality and may even want to leave the profession. Data in the form of field notes, interview transcripts, categorized relevant information, composite comparisons, and anecdotal stories are analyzed to isolate patterns in teachers’ perceptions of their vitality in the classroom. The goal of this analysis is to identify common themes and to develop principles to help teachers receive life, vigor, and enjoyment from their work.

“If I could make the same amount of money doing something else, I would leave teaching,” said the teacher sitting next to me on the last day of a high-energy, informative teachers’ conference. Nicole and I visited for several minutes and her statement continued to bother me, particularly as she described dragging herself throughout each day. I thought about her students who are missing that special passion and vitality in the classroom. Based on my conviction that students need teachers who are passionate about helping students learn, I probed further, only to discover that the only thing that kept this teacher in the profession year after year in her deflated condition was retirement benefits. As I reflected on our discussion, I was saddened to think that she had been at a three-day conference and had experienced no personal renewal, no spark of encouragement, or new connections to reenergize her for her role in the classroom. If I could have taken Nicole’s vital signs that day, what would I have measured? Using the analogy of physical vital signs that doctors and nurses take to analyze health, I began a search to determine the elements of teacher vitality“If I could make the same amount of money doing something else, I would leave teaching,” said the teacher sitting next to me on the last day of a high-energy, informative teachers’ conference. Nicole and I visited for several minutes and her statement continued to bother me, particularly as she described dragging herself throughout each day. I thought about her students who are missing that special passion and vitality in the classroom. Based on my conviction that students need teachers who are passionate about helping students learn, I probed further, only to discover that the only thing that kept this teacher in the profession year after year in her deflated condition was retirement benefits. As I reflected on our discussion, I was saddened to think that she had been at a three-day conference and had experienced no personal renewal, no spark of encouragement, or new connections to reenergize her for her role in the classroom. If I could have taken Nicole’s vital signs that day, what would I have measured? Using the analogy of physical vital signs that doctors and nurses take to analyze health, I began a search to determine the elements of teacher vitality

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