Teachers at Work: Achieving Excellence in Our Schools

Professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, Johnson here views school as workplace, ``composed of a constellation of features, each of which contributes to or detracts from teachers' satisfaction and productivity.'' Her study focuses on the context of teaching rather than on the instructional dynamics and techniques that are also essential to school reform. Interviews with over 100 private and public school teachers rated as superior suggest the nature of the rewards and satisfactions that keep teachers in the workplace despite their feelings of frustration. Providing a wealth of information and insights into schools in terms of traditions, purpose and personal fulfillment, Johnson also indicates that most schools fail their teachers. The blueprint presented here, however, yields hope for improvement. (May)