Breaking the routine: Voluntary inter-school transition and women teachers' self-renewal

Teachers' career transitions and their positive as well as negative outcomes were left relatively untouched in the literature and research on education. In an effort to fill in gaps in knowledge, this paper reports the findings of a life story study that explored inter-school transitions during the career cycle of mid-career women teachers in Israel. The study aimed at understanding the process of voluntary IST and its association with the teachers' self-renewal, as well as to unearth contextual and biographical determinants that facilitate this kind of connection in their career cycle. Based on life story interviews with eight primary and secondary teachers, the study provides insight into a positive consequence of the inter-school transition among mid-life teachers. In subsequence to the transition, the teachers reported having a sense of greater self-esteem/image, feeling energy replenishing and enthusiasm and increasing inclination to launch changes and innovations, all of which are elements of the professional's self-renewal process. Practical implications are suggested.