When Teachers Stay: Cultivating Resilient Teaching Communities

Why do some schools have high levels of teacher turnover, but others don’t? This powerful book explores the question of what makes a resilient teaching community in which teachers want to stay and thrive. Author Michelle Hughes embarks on a journey, including school visits and conversations with teachers and school leaders, to uncover the cohesiveness, continuity, community, and deep sense of belonging for adults and kids that occurs in some schools.

In Part 1, Hughes describes the conditions that foster such a community, including trust, belonging, collaboration, and a culture of ongoing growth and shared decision-making. Part 2 explores the essential role leaders play in providing those conditions. In Part 3, you’ll learn the roles teachers play in building collaboration, autonomy and community, conflict, and shared mission or vision. Part 4 focuses on the impacts of resilient teaching communities on the child’s educational journey from pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade. It also explores the obstacles faced by the leaders and teachers who are invested in cultivating their own resilient teaching community. And finally, at the end of each chapter, you’ll have opportunities for reflection and action so you can bring the ideas back to your own school.

From rural Indiana to New York City, teachers have shared the same conditions that matter most to their feeling of community and longevity in their roles. Find out how your school can be a powerful place of belonging too.

Michelle Hughes, M.Ed, is a teacher-leader and writer with more than thirty years of teaching and leading in public and independent schools with diverse groups of learners. Certified by the Institute for the Habits of Mind, Michelle works with schools and teachers to integrate Habits of Mind into classroom practices. She is a writer on educational topics as well, and has written two books, described below, and maintains a blog, Inside Voices.