Encounter between second-career teachers and their school:A marriage without romance

This contribution documents the professional integration of novice second-career teachers working in technical and vocational schools. We studied the experiences of this particular population of teachers through a qualitative study design with seven participants. The results highlight the harshness, difficulty, and complexity of this process. They experience institutional, organizational, and individual difficulties. In particular, the familiarization with the school as a new workplace is experienced as a complex process. The conclusions of the study provide insights on the consequences of the legal framework regulating access for second-career teachers to the teaching profession and the necessary training and support for these kinds of teachers.<br/

Coaching and Mentoring: A critical Text

This book is written for coaches, HR practitioners, trainers, management educators, students and academics participating in coaching and management development programmes. Through a critical lens, the author wants to offer a broader scope on the field of coaching and mentoring and question some of the normative assumptions of coaching in the existing literature. The author begins with an introduction in which the core aims of the book are described and the coaching phenomenon is presented. Coaching is positioned between the “wounded self” and the “celebrated self”. In coaching sessions, a bridge is made between these two selves by focusing on positive change, transformation, self‐discovery, improved performance while at the same time working on the hidden parts that appear of the wounded self. Similarities and differences between coaching and mentoring are discussed and the diversity in the typology of coaching and mentoring landscape is described. In order to better understand the micro‐practices of coaching, the macro‐social influences should be examined first, according to the author, to gain a clearer picture. Therefore, this book on coaching and mentoring contains an in‐depth analysis of the historical, social and cultural background of coaching. The reader is taken through three historical periods: pre‐modernity, modernity and post‐modernity. Each historical period is analysed from three perspectives: friendship, the soul healer and the work realm. The way coaching has emerged as a distinct, new and hybrid practice is elaborated. Thus, the author's retrospective examination helps to shed new light on contemporary practice. The book reveals four dominant discourses within coaching: the soul guide discourse (describes how coaching works as a “mirror to the soul”, the coach focuses on human experience), the psy expert discourse (reveals how coaches work as “technicians of the psyche”, the coach focuses on personal performance), the managerial discourse (describes how coaches work in the discourse of managerialism, where the coach focuses on productivity) and the network coach discourse (which situates the individual in the network of work and society to realise interdependencies, where the coach focuses on connectivity). Coaching and mentoring will depend on which discourses dominate in each coaching context. The author discusses each of these discourses in terms of strengths and challenges and how they influence and shape the coaching practice. Finally, the author sets out a theoretical outlook for future coaching practice. In so doing, the author develops a meta‐theory of coaching which includes a micro and macro perspective and describes a pedagogy aligned to the four discourses. A coaching process and pedagogical guidelines are set out for future coaching and mentoring

Predictors of self-directed learning for low-qualified employees: A multi-level analysis.

Purpose – This study aims to examine which variables at the level of the individual employee and at the company level are predictors of self-directed learning in low-qualified employees. Methodology – Results were obtained from a sample of 408 low-qualified employees from 35 different companies. The companies were selected from the energy sector, the chemical industry and the food industry. Multilevel analysis was applied to examine which variables are significant predictors of perceived self-directed learning. Findings – At the company level, the economic sector in which the employee is employed in particular played a striking role in the prediction of self-directedness, as did presence of a participatory staff policy. At the level of the individual employee, a proactive personality (a disposition to take personal initiative in a broad range of activities and situations), striving for knowledge work, past learning initiative, task variety and the growth potential of the job were significant predictors of self-directed learning. Originality/value – Research on the predictors of self-directed learning has primarily focused on correlational studies examining the relation between individual variables and level of self-directedness. There is little research available that systematically traces the extent to which individual as well as company factors play a role in level of self-directed learning. Nor is it clear which category of variables should be considered as the most critical. In addition, earlier research on this subject has mainly focused on a higher-qualified group of workers (employees with at least a diploma of secondary education). Factors that are predictors of self-directed learning and their relative weight might differ for certain groups of employees. This issue has hardly been addressed up to now