Developing Teachers: A Necessary Condition for Quality Retention

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue provides an exciting opportunity for the global research community to submit timely, high-quality and original papers that aim to advance the theoretical and empirical knowledge base on teacher learning, professional development, and retention. timely high-quality research findings. 

Building and sustaining the quality of teachers is not only an agenda for the future (Day, 2017; Madalińska-Michalak, 2023), but equally importantly, for the wellbeing, learning and achievement of the children who attend schools today. A central task for all concerned with enhancing quality and standards in schools is not only to have a better understanding of what influences teachers’ quality over the course of a career, but also to identify the means through which the necessary teacher quality can be nurtured in the contexts in which they work. Promoting and cultivating healthy individual and collective learning and achievement cultures in schools is essential to how teachers perceive themselves as professionals. 

The question of how to retain the hearts, minds and effectiveness of teachers who work in intellectually, emotionally and physically challenging places called ‘school’ (Goodlad, 2004) has been a subject of contemplation across various countries for many years. In essence, this is a quality retention question (as opposed to teachers’ physical retention). In confronting this question, we encounter more fundamental issues of what constitutes teacher learning and professional development, why teacher learning and development matters to retention, and what schools and systems can do to enable them to learn to live new lives in which they are able to sustain their capacity to teach to their best over time. 

We welcome submissions of papers firmly grounded in original empirical investigations. They may represent a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives and approaches and explore a wide range of issues and topics relevant to teacher professional development and retention. 

Thank you for considering this invitation, and we look forward to your valuable contributions to this vital discourse. 

Prof. Dr. Qing Gu
Prof. Dr. Joanna Madalińska-Michalak
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• teacher professional development
• teacher learning
• teacher retention
• teacher quality
• teacher change