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03 April 2023

Key resource for new teachers now updated with contemporary issues in education

The sixth edition of Becoming a Teacher – Issues in Secondary Education has been published, now including new chapters on recent educational issues.

BAT book launch coeditors

Becoming a Teacher, a key textbook for all educators, written and edited by King’s academics since its inception in 1997, sees its sixth edition tackling issues that have been at the top of the educational agenda over the past few years.

The editors of the sixth edition, Dr Simon Gibbons, Dr Melissa Glackin, Dr Emma Towers, Dr Richard Brock, and Dr Elizabeth Rushton, found it critical to cover topics such as wellbeing and mental health, using data in schools, and decolonising the curricula in new chapters, and ensure updates to chapters concerning social justice, environmental and climate change education, and safeguarding. 

They shared findings from their research project on teacher identity, retention and wellbeing during Covid-19 to delve into how to develop teacher identity when starting a career. Taking stock of the step change in the use of online tools and virtual spaces brought about by the pandemic, the editors ensured that the theme of digital pedagogy now runs through the core of the book.

Dr Gibbons, one of the co-editors, and Director of Teacher Education at King’s College London, said: “I am incredibly proud of the work that all the authors and editors have done to produce this new edition of Becoming a Teacher. The book remains a – now up-to-date – primer in the core areas of teaching policy, assessment and curriculum planning, which are so crucial to PGCE students and new teachers."

It also goes beyond that and prepares educators and students for the future of our education system, a system which has rarely faced such upheaval as that encountered in recent years.

Dr Simon Gibbons, co-editor of Becoming a Teacher, and Director of Teacher Education in the School of Education, Communication & Society

A comprehensive ‘must have’ for every new teacher entering the profession: a wide variety of short chapters, packed full of key, research-evidenced ideas, brilliantly articulated by a team of expert authors… Fantastic!

Mark Winterbottom, Professor of Education, University of Cambridge, UK

In this story

ECS_Gibbons

Reader in English Education Director of Teacher Education

Melissa Glackin

Reader in Science & Environmental Education

Emma Towers

Lecturer in Education Policy

Lizzie Rushton2158

Former Lecturer in Geography Education

ECs_Brock

Senior Lecturer in Science Education

Meg Maguire 850px

Professor of Sociology of Education