Drawing on portraiture methodology and using data from a case study on teacher morale in an urban high school, this study advances a theory about the emotional rules of teaching in a “feminized” profession in a neoliberal era.

This research investigates the experiences of educators in one metropolitan high school over the course of one school year. In particular, the research questions include: (1) How is the morale of exceptional urban teachers affected by the contextual factors of a neoliberal school climate? (2) How does their morale relate to teachers’ reports of their pedagogy? Findings share how teachers were making sense of a climate that felt like a “sinking ship” over which they had no control and how a “vicious cycle of disempowerment” influenced the way they believed they were performing in the classroom.

This article explores the new phenomenon of teachers’ public resignation letters, including the reasons that teachers leave and how those reasons are connected to neoliberal reforms and policies.

This commentary discusses what teachers' metaphors reveal about current struggles in urban schools. The author argues for a reconceptualization of metaphors of teaching and a better understanding of teachers' challenges stemming from contemporary policies and politics.

This essay presents a dialogue between a new teacher and a former professor, generated when the teacher decided to leave the classroom after two years. Contextualized within the literature of teacher attrition and offering implications for teacher education, the essay explores what it means to be (a) a novice educator in the era of accountability and (b) a teacher educator tasked with preparing new teachers for this challenging climate. The authors share their perspectives in the hopes of starting a discussion about an important issue that remains relatively unexplored in the research literature: the stories of teachers who leave and their former professors who watch them go.