When Teachers Stay: Cultivating Resilient Teaching Communities

by Michelle Hughes

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781041081845
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/01/2025
Pages:	148
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michelle Hughes, MEd, is an educator with more than thirty years of experience in teaching and leading in both public and independent schools. As a public school teacher, Michelle co-developed an integrated team approach to inclusion, which informed her work as a school leader. As an independent school leader, she began writing on topics in education and chronicling the daily life of school. As a founder and director of Learning Arts Consulting and Coaching, she now works with schools in a variety of areas including Habits of Mind. Certified by the Institute for the Habits of Mind, Michelle wrote the Habits of Mind Playbook, a guide for integrating habits of mind into classroom curricula and culture.

Table of Contents

Part 1: What Is a Resilient Teaching Community? 1. The Story of When Teachers Stay 2. Defining a Resilient Teaching Community Part 2: The Visible and Supportive Leader: Actively Cultivating Resilient Teaching Communities 3. Visible Leaders Growing and Sustaining Resilient Teaching Communities 4. Build Trust 5. Forge a Community of Belonging 6. Provide Opportunities for Ongoing Professional Growth 7. Engage in Shared Decision-Making Part 3: The Working Community 8. Foster a Collaborative Environment 9. Focus on Mission and Vision Part 4: Obstacles, Impacts, and Reflections 10. Obstacles to Resilient Teaching Communities 11. Impacts of Resilient Teaching Communities Final Thoughts

Editorial Reviews

Authentic, appropriate and timely, When Teachers Stay both validates educator voices while speaking directly to school leaders.  Through the presentation of anecdotal evidence and research, Hughes explains what can be done to address teacher retention within school settings.”

Kanoe Bunney, PhD, Professor of Education, Linn Benton Community College

“When Teachers Stay: Cultivating Resilient Teaching Communities is a wonderful contribution at a most important time.  This book is written at a time when questions of staying power and resilience are needed to meet the challenges of this ambiguous and uncertain time.  Michelle has the heart of an artist combined with the practicality of an exceptional school leader.  She provides an excellent critical analysis of the meaning of resilience as she integrates the work of others with her research in the field. She shows how to sustain the values of a school culture through agile and thoughtful processes that develop a community of educators built for resilience.” 

Bena Kallick, Co-Director, The Institute for Habits of Mind

“As life in our schools becomes more uncertain by the day, this book promotes a return to the joy we felt when we entered the education profession. Through compelling conversations with a wide array of educators, soulful reflections and invitations for the reader to reflect and act, 

When Teachers Stay elegantly unpacks a series of resilience intentions which include curiosity, collegiality, celebration and support. Hughes has provided school leaders a book for our times.” 

David Levine, Founder/Director, Teaching Empathy Institute

 

 

From the Publisher