CHAPTER 1

ON TEACHERS’ CAREERS:
ONCE OVER LIGHTLY, WITH A BROAD BRUSH

MICHAEL HUBERMAN

Faculte de Psychologie et des Sciences de l’Education, Universite de Geneve,

1211 Geneve 4, Switzerland

Abstract

Life-cycle research has only recently become a subject of scientific study, through the combined
influence of Freudian and sociological theory and of an interest in longitudinal phenomena.
Work on teachers’ professional life-cycles is even more recent, but is currently undergoing a
virtual explosion of interest. After the first few generations of research, one can tease out a
plausible and compelling ‘stage model’ of teaching, but its facets have more of an heuristic than
a prescriptive value, given the imperfectoins and diversity of studies in this emergent field.

Introduction

Philosophers, poets, novelists and playwrights have studied the human life cycle from time
immemorial. The theme, in fact, isone of the most archetypical in Western civilization. As
a scientific object of study, however, life-cycle research is not more than SO-years-old, and
has taken on various guises depending on the field of study.
For example, there is a discernible stream of psychodynamic research and theory,
beginning with Freud and Jung, traversing the seminal work of Henry Murray and Gordon
Allport, and culminating in Erikson’s normative life-crises (1950) and in Robert White’s
landmark Lives in Progress (1952). Many of the more recent, popularized studies, such as
those of Gould, Valliant and Levinson, are set in this tradition.
There is also the influential stream of the ‘Chicago School’ (Park, Mead, Cooley,
Thomas, & Blumer), with its restitution of the oral history method, the development and
refinement of symbolic interactionism and the first empirical work in adult socialization.
These three contributions have become staples in life-cycle research of a
phenomenological nature. It is worth noting that Becker’s (1970) study of Chicago
schoolteachers, combining these approaches, was the model for the next generation of
researchers interested in teachers’ professional careers.
Finally. the continuing series of studies in ‘life-span developmental psychology’, begun
34x MICHAELHUBERMAN

in 1970, has expanded progressively to include biological, sociological, physiological and

historical perspectives and, in so doing, has become the falcrum of longitudinal research
on adulthood (cf. Baltes & Brim. 1984).
Taken together. these contributions have formed the backdrop for the rcccnt interest in
biographical or longitudinal studies in general and for work on the teaching career more
particularly. This work has flourished in the lY7Os and IYXOs, in several countries: in the
USA (Newman, IY7Y; Cooper. lYX2; Adams, lYX2; Burden, 1YXl). in England
(MacDonald & Walker. lY74; Ball & Goodson, IOtiS; Sikcs c’t (I/.. IYXS). in the
Netherlands (Prick, 1986). in Australia(Ingvaraon LYL
Greenway, lY83), in France (Hamon
Kr Rotman, lYX4). in Canada (Butt c/(11., IY85) and in Switzerland (Huberman crrrl.. IYXY;
Hirsch & Ganguillct. 1988). Until this phase. few studies had looked beyond career entry;
WC‘now have a far better fix on the contours and dctcrminants of the teaching career as a
whole.

General Trends in the Literature

Conceptually. thcrc are myriad ways of construing the professional life cycle of
teachers. Perhaps the most common is that of the ‘career’ (Super. IYS7). with its series of
‘sequences’ or ‘maxicycles’ that traverse not only different individuals within the same
profession, but also individuals across professions. For example. career entry can be
described as an ‘exploration’ phase, followed by a ‘stabilization’ phase. ‘Exploration’ has
to do with making a provisional choice. feeling out the configuration of the profession,
trying out one or several roles. If this phase is positive. one then moves to a ‘stabilization’
or ‘cngagcmcnt’ phase, in which OIIC tries to master core aspects of the job, seeks out an
arca of focus. tries for better working conditions and, in many casts. goes after
responsibilities which are more prestigious, powerful and lucrative.
Empirical studies show that such a sequence is faithful to a great number. even the
majority, of career profiles, but not of all (cf. Phillips. 1982). For example, Super (IYXS.
p. 407) has noted aptly that some people ‘stabilize’ early, others later, others never, and
still others stabilize and then destabilize later on. The evolution of a career is a process, not
a series of events. For some, this process may appear linear; for others, there arc plateaux.
regressions, dead ends, discontinuitics. So careers may well begin without an exploration
phase (for example, farming for children of farmers) or, if they do. may not include 21
sequence from ‘exploration’ to ‘stabilization’.
Still, the ‘career’ construct has several advantages. First, it allows for comparisons
between people in different professions. In addition, the construct is more focused than
that of a ‘lift’. Finally. it integrates variables of both a psychological and sociological
nature, by studying the interactions of individuals and their work settings over time. The
professional life cycle of teachers. for example, allows us to track the effects of schools as
institutions on the commitments. activities and perceptions of teachers spending their lives
in different, but fairly homogeneous, work settings.
Given these caveats. what do we know empirically about the career cycle of teachers?
Are there discernible ‘phases’ or ‘stages’ in classroom life’? Do these ‘cycles’ and their
 Research on Teachers’ Professional Lives 340

progression correspond to those depicted in the classic studies of adult development and
adult socialization?

Career Entry

There are a multitude of empirical studies bearing on the choice (or choice by default)
of teaching as a career, and a large number that focus on the first 2-3 years of classroom
life. On the other hand, work is more sketchy when it comes to describing career entry in
the perspective of a sequence of career phases. In these latter studies (e.g., Fuller, 1969;
Field, 1979; Watts, 1979; Adams, 1982; Huberman et al., 1989), the leitmotif is one of
‘survival and discovery’ -a leitmotif consonant with research limited to the first few years
of teaching (e.g., Veenman, 1984). The ‘survival’ aspect renders what is commonly called
the ‘reality shock’ of the initial year - the initial confrontation with the same complexity
of professional work that the most experienced members of the profession contend with -
and its attendant dilemmas: continuous trial and error, preoccupation with oneself and
one’s sense of adequacy, wide discrepancies between instructional goals and what one is
actually able to do in the classroom, inappropriate instructional materials, wide swings
from permissiveness to excessive strictness, concerns with discipline and management that
eat away at instructional time, recalcitrant pupils, and the like.
On the other hand, the ‘discovery’ theme renders the initial enthusiasm of teaching, the
sharp learning curve, the headiness of having at last one’s own pupils, one’s classroom,
one’s program; the pride of collegiality and of ‘place’ within a profession. Quite often, in
fact, empirical studies show that these two aspects occur in parallel, and that the
excitement and challenge of ‘discovery’ is what brings many teachers through the attrition
of day-to-day ‘survival’. But there are also beginning phases stressing one or the other
aspect, and accounts that highlight other themes: ‘indifference’ or ‘passing the time’ for
those with no intention of staying, ‘serenity’ for those with easy classes or with a good deal
of prior experience as substitutes, ‘frustration’ for those unhappy with their initial
assignment.
In looking for an aggregate leitmotif for this period, one sees the appeal of an
‘exploration’ phase highlighted in the literature on careers, especially in those aspects
having to do with ‘discovery’ and ‘experimentation’ with the parameters of classroom
teaching. At the same time, one can see the limits of the leitmotif. For example, there are
few opportunities to ‘explore’ other roles than that of classroom teacher, other institutions
than the school to which one is assigned, other work assignments, other peers and
supervisors.

Stabilization

In the ‘classic’ life-cycle literature, the phase defined as ‘exploring’ or as ‘making a

provisional choice’ typically gives way to career concerns having to do with ‘commitment’
or ‘stabilization’ or with ‘becoming responsible’. In the psychoanalytic tradition (cf.
Erikson, 1950; White, 1952), the choice of a professional identity is an important step in
the consolidation of ego identity; postponing such a choice is seen as leading to role
dispersion and, thereby, to a more unstable, diffuse sense of self. In more recent work
350 MICHAEL HUBERMAN

(e.g., Levinson et&. , 1978), this passage is seen as a critical transition between two distinct
phases of life.
What does ‘stabilization’ consist of in the teaching career? Generally speaking. there is
the juncture of a personal commitment (the decision to make a career of teaching) and an
administrative act (the granting of tenure). One is now a teacher, both in one’s own eyes
and in the eyes of others - not necessarily forever, but for a good block of time. Some
autobiographical accounts (e.g., Sikes rtal., 1985; Ball 61 Goodson, 1985) suggest that this
decision is often difficult, especially for teachers in the upper-secondary streams, whose
credentials can lead to other jobs, or for teachers in artistic or athletic areas who dream of
a professional career. But there is also the more general difficulty, highlighted in the
psychoanalytic literature, of choosing a professional identity that excludes others - of
giving up, at least for now, other possibilities, other desirable lives. This is the classic
dilemma of transition from adolescence, when all appears still possible, to early
adulthood, when decisions close off other possibilities and, at the same time, bring on new
responsibilities.
Stabilization in teaching has other meanings. For example, there is the informal
induction into a professional guild. There is also the leitmotif of ‘independence’, a strong
one in many European studies. Teachers in the Swiss samples, for example (Huberman et
al.. 1989; Hirsch & Gangillet, 198X), spoke openly of ‘liberation’ or ‘emancipation’ from
the status of student teacher. when one had to put up with strict supervision or demands for
conformity on the part of teacher trainers or school directors. Once granted tenure, these
teachers spoke of ‘asserting themselves’ towards administrators or s&or colleagues. ot
insisting more on their prerogatives, on the soundness of their instructional choices and on
the privacy of their classrooms.
There is, finally, the pedagogical dimension of ‘stabilization’. Virtually all empirical
studies associate the period of 3-5 years into the career with a growing scnsc of
instructional ‘mastcry’. Earlier studies spoke of a scnsc of assurance or ‘comfort’ (e.g.,
Fuller, 1969; Burden. 19X1), along with a greater ‘decentering’ in the scnsc of a lessened
concern with self and a greater concern with instructional goals. More recent work (e.g..
Sikes, 19X5; Lightfoot. 1985) has a similar tone. With greater cast in more complex or
uncxpcctcd classroom situations. teachers describe themselves as consolidating, then
refining, a basic instructional repertoire on which they can, finally. rely. Across these
studies and in more anecdotal accounts (e.g.. Watts, 1979; Field, 1979), the same thcmcs
recur: greater confidence, mot-c success with getting one’s preferred style of teaching
across in the classroom, longer-term objectives for pupils’ greater flexibility in
instructional management, greater relativism (“I no longer feel personality responsible for
everything that’s imperfect in my classroom.“).
The teachers in Lightfoot’s (1985) sample, for example, speak of grcatcr pleasure.
suppleness, humor as they settle down into teaching. One finds phrases such as “1 didn’t
hide my weaknesses any more” “I let myself go” “I made more of the moment” _. “I
listened more to the pupils” “I laughed much mot-c”. They also report fewer problems
of discipline; one set limits more easily, was better able to have those limits respected,
could enforce them with self-assurance, even with spontaneity. In most instances, these
pcrccptions are associated with the consolidation of instructional routines. of codes of
behavior for pupils. of varied formats and materials for lessons and self-dircctcd activities
(cf. Newman, 1979).
What is striking here is the concordance across studies conducted in diffcrcnt settings at
 Research on Teachers’ Professional Lives 3.51

different periods with widely different instrumentation, all relying on perceptual (self-
report) data. The Swiss studies (op. cit.), perhaps the most recent exemplars, contain
virtually all these themes. A full third of the teachers asked to ‘carve up their careers’ into
‘phases’ or ‘moments’ produced a second, mostly positive, phase with a theme identical or
related to the ‘stabilization’ motif and with at least two of the three dimensions mentioned
earlier: commitment to the choice of teaching and a career, a more assertive professional
autonomy, and instructional mastery. When one considers that no prompts were given for
this exercise, the data are compelling. What is uncertain, however, is whether the majority
of the sample, if cued, would acknowledge a distinct ‘stabilization’ phase with the same
components and, if so, would put it at the same point in the career sequence.

Diversification and Change

If both the career literature and the research bearing on stages in teaching can make
strong claims for an ‘exploration’ and ‘stabilization’ phase among a sizeable proportion of
the samples studied, the evidence is more equivocal beyond that point. Apparently,
individual trajectories later in the career cycle are very diverse.
There are, however, some streams in the research literature that appear across studies
and that typify subsets of teachers. One of the common ones involves a phase
characterized by experimentation and diversification. For some analysts (e.g., Feiman-
Nemser, 1985; Cooper, 1982), the consolidation of an instructional repertoire leads
naturally to attempts to increase one’s effectiveness within the classroom. There then
follows a series of modest, largely private experiences, during which one experiments with
new materials, different pupil groupings, new assignments, different combinations of
lessons and exercises. In a sense, these attempts compensate for the uncertainties of the
first years of teaching, which translated into a rigid, rudimentary, no-risk set of lesson
plans and activity formats.
In other work, especially in the European context, this phase has a more ‘activist’ flavor
(cf. Sikes, 1985). The desire to increase one’s impact on pupils brings a sharper awareness
of the institutional constraints limiting that impact. Having ‘stabilized’ one’s classroom,
one then takes aim at the aberrant practices or inadequate resources within the system by
joining or mobilizing groups of peers, signing on for reform, lobbying or joining key
commissions. This was the case for a sizeable subset (3540%) of the Huberman et al.
(1989) sample (n = 160), but far more so for the earlier phases of older teachers than
for the accounts of teachers with less than 10 years experience. Members of this latter
group tended to describe themselves - and to be described by their elders - as more
conservative or more private. This suggests that trends in the larger social or political
trends - ‘period effects’ - play a larger role than a more psychological, stage-oriented
perspective normally accommodates.
It is also difficult to sort out the quality of ‘activism’ that has teachers volunteering for
task groups or for major structural experiments from motives having to do with career
advancement. Here also, increased responsibilities and higher visibility can be construed
as vehicles for promotion to administrative positions, rather than as the desire for more
consequential change in the classroom (cf. Prick, 1986).
Finally, some studies evoking a ‘diversification’ phase suggest that its origins lie, at least
in part, elsewhere. Having worked with 67 yearly cohorts of pupils, having associated
351 MICHAEL HUHEKMAN

with peers in one or more buildings, one begins to repeat the yearly cycle and to find, this
time, that it lacks variation. Thus the quest for stimulation, for new ideas, challenges and
engagements. In Cooper’s (1982) study, for example, engagement in more ambitious.
collective projects had to do both with the desire to use one’s newly-acquired sense of
instructional mastery in a more consequential way, and with a latent fear of stagnation.
Such a fear is far more present in other accounts (cf. Watts, 1980; Newman, 1979). In the
Huberman Edal. study (1989), the fear of stagnation was fairly strong for teachers with I I-
19 years of experience, who often cited older peers in their building as examples of what
they feared becoming. More intriguing, perhaps, was the sense among several that the fear
of routine came upon them suddenly, from one month to the next, then grew gradually
more intense.

‘Stock- Taking’ and Intwrogations at Mid-Career

Several of the studies mentioned earlier report a distinct phase, corresponding roughly
to 12-20 years of experience and to 3245 years of age, which informants describe as
problematic. There are some indications that male teachers are more affected than
women, and, in studies of both types, that full-time teachers are more afflicted than part-
time teachers. In some instances, this phase follows a ‘diversification’ period which, for
various reasons, has proved disappointing or exhausting. In others. we move directly from
‘stabilization’ to ‘interrogations’ about one’s future. ‘Symptoms’ can vary from a nagging
feeling of routine to a full-fledged crisis over the wisdom of having become a teacher and,
once locked in, of trying to break out. As one of Huberman et al.‘s (1989) teachers put it:
“I wondered if I was doomed to die in front of a blackboard with a piece of chalk in my
hand”.
In several studies reporting a distinct period of self-questioning or ‘crisis’ (e.g., Adams.
1982; Sikes, 1985; Prick, 1986; Hamon & Rotman, 1984; McDonald & Walker, 1974;
Newman, 1979). teachers report some of the reflections and behaviors that have come to
be associated with the ‘mid-life crisis’ (see later), especially the experience of reviewing
one’s life and career and contemplating, with a certain sense of urgency, other careers
“while it’s still possible”. Several informants talk explicitly of “assessing what I’ve done
with my life”, especially with regard to their original ideals or objectives, and of playing out
both the scenario of remaining the rest of their professional lives in teaching and that of
taking on the uncertainties - but above all the insecurities-of a career shift.
No study has suggested, however, that the majority of informants traverse such a phase
or, for those that do, that these moments constitute a ‘crisis’. In the Huberman et al. study
(1989, op. cit.), however, there were indications that those teachers who described such a
phase in these terms were more likely to relive another episode some years later, i.e., that
a period of radical self-questioning did not usually lead to a reconciliation with oneself 5,
10 or 15 years later. That study also suggested that men who were heavily invested in their
careers were more prone to a severe, debilitating phase of self-doubt at mid-career than
men with outside interests or than women, many of whom said explicitly that commitments
to the family or to other sectors of their life were important sources of equilibrium: “My
highs may not be so high, but my lows have never been too low, either. There are other
places in my life that count” (see also Huberman, 1989).
But there were also strong signs from this research that a purely psychological model of
 Research on Teachers’ Professional Lives 353

the teaching career is untenable. Many moments of reported reassessment or ‘crisis’ were
attributed to changes within the school system, to poor institutional conditions, to family
events, to intractable classes, to heavy investments in structural change that come to little.
While mid-career may well be a period of increased vulnerability, of increased
reflectiveness, there is no strong evidence in empirical studies of teaching that it brings on
necessarily the perception of a ‘crisis’.

‘Serenity’ and Affective Distance

Here again, we have trends in studies of teaching as a career that correspond to more
‘classic’ studies of the human life cycle. While no study has most teachers reporting a
distinct phase of ‘serenity’ later in their careers, several have subsets of informants moving
at 44-55 years of age from a highly activist, energetic period to a more reflective, self-
accepting phase; and some research shows groups of teachers emerging into this period
from a phase rife with episodes of self-doubt.
Peterson’s (1964) study of secondary school teachers is a good example. The modal
sequence in this sample is that of an active, almost overheated period of investment in
one’s work which gives way gradually at 5&55 to a sense of “working more mechanically”,
yet feeling more effective in the classroom (“I can anticipate practically everything that’s
going to happen, and I know how to respond”). Peterson’s sample also describes itself as
generally less vulnerable to external judgments, whether they come from pupils, peers or
administrators, and as better able to “accept myself as I am, not as others want me”. In a
few instances, informants speak explicitly of having achieved a greater measure of
‘severity’.
In more recent empirical work, the modal profile for teachers with 2&30 years of
practice has many of the same characteristics (e.g., Prick, 1986; Lightfoot, 1985; Rempel
& Bentley, 1970; McDonald & Walker, 1974; Huberman, 1989). Generally, the level of
career ambition decreases, as does the level of investment, but the perception of
confidence, effectiveness and serenity appears to compensate for it. One no longer feels
one has something important to ‘prove’ to oneself or to others, and one reduces the gap
between one’s career goals and one’s achievements by setting more modest objectives for
the coming year.
Another leitmotif appearing among informants recounting or recalling this period of
their career is that of increased distance vis ci vis pupils. Some of Peterson’s (1964)
informants describe the passage from ‘big brother’ to ‘father’, even to ‘grandparent’, while
noting less intimacy with pupils. To a great extent, of course, it is the pupils who age-
distance their teachers, refusing the ‘elder brother’ role to adults of their parents’ age. One
of the many paradoxes in teaching, in effect, is that one grows older while one’s pupils
remain the same age. Other studies (e.g., Prick, 1986; Lightfoot, 1985) have reported
similar findings, while accounting for the sense of affective distance by the inter-
generational and ‘subcultural’ differences between teachers and pupils.

Conservatism

In Peterson’s (1964) study, secondary-school teachers of 50-60-years-old are strikingly

354 MICHAELHUBEKMAN

negative. A large number bemoan the new cohorts of pupils (less disciplined. less
motivated, ‘decadent’), the negative public attitude toward education the confused or
spineless policies of administrators, the laxity or arrogance of young colleagues. In the
same vein. female teachers in Prick’s (1086) sample complain of apathetic or surly pupils
and men tend to favor the idea that “changes rarely result in an improvement of the school
system”. In the Huberman et ul. (1989) study, slightly less than half the sample described
itself as ‘more prudent’, but most had become far more skeptical towards attempts at
structural reform, On the other hand, there was only one, definable sub-group of older
teachers corresponding to the profile in the Peterson study or to the central tendencies in
Prick’s research. These people had been brought kicking and screaming through earlier
periods of change in the local system, and continued in their later years to be critical and
embittered.
It is noteworthy in Peterson’s study that ‘conservatism’ is depicted as a ‘phase’ arising
out of a prior. more ‘serene’ period. Other empirical studies are either lacking or mute on
this issue. In the Huberman etaI. study, the family of highly conservative teachers bypasses
the ‘serenity’ phase. moving directly from a self-questioning. dissatisfied period at mid-
career to a final phase of bitter disengagement (see below).
Intuitively, of course, the relationship between age and conservatism is typically taken
for granted, buttressed both by a folk literature and by several empirical studies (e.g.,
Lowenthal etul.. 1975; Ryff & Baltes, 1076; Rileycjful., 196X; Neugarten 81 Datan. 197.3).
Modal trends in this research point to gradually increasing levels of rigidity and
dogmatism, to increase prudence and resistance to change. to nostalgia for the past, etc.
On the other hand, these studies do not identify a sequence. nor do they take into account
social or contextual factors.

Discngugernmt

As we shall see shortly. the mainstream life-cycle literature points to a progressive

‘internalization’ and withdrawal towards the end of the professional career cycle. The tone
is generally positive: a gradual detachment. with few regrets, from investment in one’s
work, in order to devote more time to interests outside the school and to a more reflective.
oftentimes more philosophical mode of expression.
Does this trend hold true in studies of teachers at the end of their careers? To sonic
extent. it does. simply by virtue of extending trends found earlier in teachers’ professional
lives. With the so-called phase of ‘serenity’ there begins a gradual process of
disengagement. both on the personal and institutional levels. Periods of ‘conservatism’
imply a disagreement with prevailing politics and practices and. thereby. a functional
marginality within the school or school system. Other studies (e.g., Becker. 1070; Nias.
1985) identify subsets of teachers who. unable to progress as far as their ambitions.
disinvcst professionally at mid-career. or who, disappointed by the results of structural
change within their school, channel their energieselsewhere. One thinks here of Voltaire’s
talc of Candide, who, after a series of frightening, disheartening advcnturcs. retreats from
active life to cultivate his garden. Thus the older men in Pricks (1986) cohort ten&xi to

discount new educational reforms less by disagreement than because they wanted to cm1
their careers ‘in trnnquitlity’.
On the other hand, the existence of a distinct phase of disengagement has not been
 Research on Teachers’ Professional Lives 355

demonstrated clearly for the teaching profession. Intuitively, there is no reason to believe
that teachers behave differently than other professionals undergoing the same
physiological evolution and subject to the same social pressures (to ‘hand the reins over’
to younger colleagues, to prepare for one’s retirement).
There is evidence of such a phase, however, from the Huberman et al. (1989) study (see
also Huberman, 1989) of 160 secondary-school teachers. Virtually the entire subsample of
older teachers (> 30 years of experience) described itself in terms consonant with the
‘disengagement’ hypothesis. For some, this gradual withdrawal was serene: a
rechannelling of energies outside the school or toward classroom work of a more modest,
specialized nature. For others, unhappy with the evolution of pupils, administrators,
parents and politicians, disengagement was more bitter, more extreme and began earlier
in the career cycle. Finally, there were those who had invested heavily in structural change
and had been, in their words, ‘betrayed’; they took their energies elsewhere, often outside
the school, and practised strategic minimalism during school hours. In all cases, however,
there was a disinvestment in concerns outside the classroom. Seniority had bought for
them a convenient schedule, favorable class assignments, freedom from unwanted
intrusions, and their goal was both to preserve these privileges and to fend off solicitations
to increase their levels of investment.

Classic Studies of the Life Cycle: Expansion and Contraction

In general terms, the normative sequences suggested in empirical studies of teaching are
supported by work of a more psychological nature in the tradition of life-span
development research. Given the methodological weaknesses of this work (see later), in
fact, the overlap with life-span research is by far the strongest source of construct
validation for studies of teachers.
At the most global level, we can discern in both literatures what Kuhlen (1964) has
called “a curve of expansion and of withdrawal” in the course of professional career. The
initial phases represent an active exploration of the profession, and are followed by
periods of ‘mastery’, ‘power’ or ‘advancement’, depending on the contours of the
profession. There then follows a moment of ‘stock-taking’, giving way gradually to a
process of disengagement.
The nature of such a ‘disengagement’ is, however, a subject of some controversy. The
principle hypothesis, of a psychological nature, is that of a progressive ‘internalization’ (cf.
Neugarten, 1967; Neugarten & Datan, 1974), notably after the mid-40s and among men
who have not interrupted a professional career. The indicators in this line of research
include increased introspection, greater emotional sensitivity, and more openness to
unconscious or preconscious forces. This evolution (Jung wrote of a change in values, a
‘transvaluation’) is accompanied by what Neugarten (1964) has called a ‘letting go of
external investments’ in favor of more immediate and more contemplative sources of
satisfaction. Along with others, Neugarten attributes much of this evolution to
physiological changes (in hearing, sight, metabolic level) with increasing age.
For some analysts, this ‘internalizating’ process is resolutely psychological. Several life-
span developmentalists have referred to Heidegger’s (1926) discussion of middle
adulthood as a gradual change from a preoccupation with objects ofexperience to one with
modes ofexperiencing, i.e., less concern with the accumulation of ‘things’ of this world and
356 MICHAEL HUBERMAN

more with ways of relating or expressing oneself, often on a more contemplative or

symbolic plane. But it was Jung above all who, in his analysis of the ‘phases of adulthood’
(1930), developed this line of thought. In the Jungian construct of ‘individuation’, the
‘healthy’ adult comes gradually to integrate his temporal ‘self’ into his ‘primitive, more
archetypal ‘self’ as he becomes aware of those dimensions of his personality which have
been suppressed during his active professional life. One finds a similar, albeit less mystical,
progression from an activist, egocentric orientation to a more contemplative and
disinterested mode of activity in the work of neo-Freudians (cf. Erikson, 19.50; Sanford,
1966).
Others have outlined a similar evolution from a sociological perspective (e.g.,
Friedman, 1970), by insisting on the social pressures exerted.on individuals in their early
or mid-50s to disengage or to make way for others. The landmark study of Cumming and
Henry (1961), for example, where the ‘disengagement’ hypothesis was first elaborated,
makes a strong case for both intra-individual and social influences.
Finally, some authors (e.g., Maehr & Kleiber, 1981) have introduced the argument that
‘success’ has different meanings at 25 and at 55. Later in life, one would invest in activities
more unhooked from material accomplishments, but which would be no less active. Here
again we have the image of Candide cultivating his garden, with as much care and
engagement as in his earlier adventures, but at another level of activity, in another mode
of expression -much like the older teachers who disengage serenely in channelling their
energies toward more modest, qualitative changes within the classroom.

Stock-Taking and Serenity

The life-span literature also highlights two leitmotifs found in longitudinal studies of
teaching: the ‘stock-taking’ at mid-career and the sense of ‘serenity’ at a later phase of the
career cycle.
Jung (1926) was one of the first to marshall empirical evidence for what he called a
‘dangerous period’ around 3745 years of age, when a first ‘assessment’ was made of one’s
achievements at work, of one’s social relationships, of one’s emotional self more
generally. For Jung, as for more recent psychodynamic analysts (cf. Gould, 1978), this
‘crisis’ has more to do with the acknowledgment of hitherto suppressed unconscious forces
within one’s psyche than with one’s achievements in the world. On the other hand, a more
sociological analysis (e.g., Burns, 1970; Sofer, 1970) construes such a ‘stock-taking’ phase
as the fruit of a comparison between an individual’s accomplishments and those which that
individual ‘should’ have achieved by then according to the social norms in the
environment. For example, male teachers in their mid-30s or early 40s in some of the
studies reviewed earlier (Sikes, 1985; Prick, 1986; Nias, 1985) ‘expected’ to be promoted
to department head or school headmaster; those who were not saw themselves as ‘failures’
in the ‘normal’ progression of their careers.
For others (e.g., Kimmel, 1975; Levinson et al., 1978), stock-taking is simply the
moment when one contends seriously with the decision to spend the rest of one’s career in
the same profession or to change before it is too late. For example, with 1.5-20 years into
the teaching career, the number of alternatives begins to shrink. Having been through 15
yearly school cycles, one imagines easily that the next 15 years are unlikely to bring any
major changes; one observes that many older colleagues have lapsed into stagnation or
 Research on Teachers’ Professional Lives 357

cynicism; one confronts pupils who stay perenially young while one sees oneself as aging.
A resulting ‘crisis’, then, would simply follow from a hard-headed assessment of oneself
and one’s environment, leading to the difficult choice of leaving or remaining in the
profession.
As we saw in the literature on teachers’ careers, a period -or at least long moments -
of ‘serenity’ is a recurrent theme. We have the teachers in Peterson’s (1964) sample going
home after school ‘peacefully, leaving it all behind’, but with lessened enthusiasm for their
work; and teachers in Lightfoot’s (1985) sample feeling more ‘psychologically
comfortable’ in class, having integrated apparently their ‘persona’ and their ‘authentic
self’. Huberman et al. (1989) and Hirsch and Gangillet (1988) report similar findings.
These are teachers who, echoing one of Lightfoot’s informants, hear themselves telling
pupils that “‘you have to take me as I am’, and I marvel at that tranquil, even satisfied
voice”.
It is likely that, in the teaching profession, much of this serenity derives from a strong
mastery of the classroom setting. After 15-20 years, a teacher will have seen virtually every
type of pupil, every alchemy in teacher-pupil interactions, every response to segments of
the yearly program; unexpected events will be rare and, for the most part, welcome. But
the psychodynamic literature tends to make abstraction of the professional
accomplishments contributing to a more secure, relaxed sense of self. Emphasis is put
rather on what Erikson (1950) calls ‘ego integrity’ - acceptance of the ‘inevitability’ of
one’s life course - or on what Jung (1966) posits as the recognition and integration of
nonconscious impulses in the psyche. Success at this stage would then facilitate the next
phase, described as ‘serene disengagement’ in the Huberman et al. (1989) study of Swiss
teachers; lack of success would lead to the final stage of ‘bitter disengagement’.

Some Epistemological and Methodological Dilemmas

As soon as we call on a sequence of ‘phases’ in the teaching career, we open ourselves

to several classic, legitimate critiques. First, we have posited universal stages overriding
the effects of social conditions or historic influences (Blank, 1982; Dannefer, 1984), as if
career stages were predetermined, invariable, quasibiological entities. In this kind of
ontogenetic model, age becomes the key variable, determining the shape of a current stage
or the progression to the next stage.
It is obvious, however, that age is a hollow variable, a backdrop on which other,
determining influences of a psychological and social nature are played out. There is
nothing causal in the nature of time (cf. Klausner, 1973; Baltes & Goulet, 1970). There are
also a multitude of nonmaturational factors (nonphysiological) affecting individuals
throughout their lives, such that a ‘sequence’ or a ‘phase’ might result simply from social
expectations or occupational demands. For example, an ‘exploration’ and ‘stabilization’
phase has little meaning in the ‘career’ of a married woman at home with her children. It
may well be, in fact, the organization of professional life which creates, arbitrarily, the
entry conditions, the sense of engagement, the terms of advancement which then
determine the significance of a given ‘stage’ for a set of individuals. For example, the.sense
of ‘serenity’ in teaching may be more attributable to instructional mastery, tenure and
decent working conditions than to an intrapsychic evolution.
It is also worth considering that the organization of social life creates expectations which
35x MICHAEL HUBERMAN

are themselves internalized and acted upon as if they were purely psychological factors.
For instance, several analysts have followed Riley et al. (1968) in positing an internalized
‘social clock’ which dictates appropriate moments for the enactment of social roles during
adulthood: the ‘appropriate’ moment to undertake one’s studies, to be married, to change
jobs, to advance professionally. These norms, in turn, can be overwhelmed by other, more
powerful social influences resulting from unemployment, war, epidemics, natural
disasters and the like, which then transform the ‘normal’ life sequence for one or more
generations.
Thus the importance of working gingerly with a linear, deterministic, highly
psychological stage-development model. Not only because of its partial validity, but also
because it encourages us to lump individuals together whose trajectories, when examined
carefully, have many more discrepancies than commonalities. In the same sense, a new
‘phase’ can never be derived fully from the components of the previous phase. For there
to be a new phase, the configuration of these components needs to change, not only the
components themselves, which then brings to the fore new characteristics which were not
visible until then. The ‘next’ phase in a sequence is thus always underdetermined, and the
mix of components is always different for different individuals. Two teachers moving from
a ‘stabilization’ phase to an ‘experimentation’ phase are moving from and to different
‘places’ - from a different configuration of influences to new and equally idiosync~tic
circumstances of their lives. Two teachers experiencing a ‘crisis’ at mid-career are
experiencing them differently, have come to them from different routes and will probably
achieve resolution or nonresolution differently.
We should also note that teachers, like other adults, are not simple passive marionnettes
whose strings are being pulled by maturational or social forces. individual development is,
to a large extent, teleological; the human actor observes, studies, plans the ‘sequences’
which he traverses, and can thereby influence the characteristics of a succeeding ‘phase’.
Both the psychodynamic and sociological analyses reviewed here suggest a fundamental
reactivity, the presumption that uncontroilabic influences determine the content and
direction of individual conduct. To think this way is to rule out the plasticity of the
interactions between individuals acting on and adapting to their social surround (cf.
Dannefer, 1984).
Finally, the articulation of a professional life into sequences, punctuated with a distinct
phases, supposes both continuity and order. But each phase, as we just saw, implies a new
state, a discontinuity - like the shift from ‘stabilization’ to ‘experimentation’, or from
‘stock-taking’ to ‘serenity’. In both instances, informants are themselves surprised, if not
disoriented, by the shifts. Reanalyses of biographies (e.g., Elder, 1979) have shown that
lives rendered as orderly and predictable - oftentime because the narrator construed
them that way-are in fact filled with discontinuities, surprises and some utterly random
events.
It is no less true, however, that one phase lays the groundwork for the succeeding one,
and limits the range of possibilities of what can happen next. Many unexpected sequences
take on an inevitability when looked at with hindsight. Still. it is we, or the narrator, who
put the inevitability there. Other scenarios might have seemed equally inevitable.
Thus the difficulties of studying the professional life-cycle with an eye to extracting
common profiles, sequences, phases or determinants. It is particularly perilous to cluster
analytically individuals who appear to share common characteristics but whose
antecedents or social circumstances are different. There are, to be sure, intersections
 Research on Teachers’ Professional Lives 359

between their trajectories, but also large zones with no intersections, and fuzziness as to
where these lines are to be drawn. The Greek proverb probably had it right: some men
fully resemble many others; some resemble a few others; some resemble no others.
Apart from the classic methodological canons, the best conceptual procedure is
probably that of avoiding the over-determination of any single frame, be it maturational.
social or cultural. Riegel(l978) argued compellingly that adult development is a dialectical
process; the individual is continuously in a state of tension between ‘internal’ forces
(maturational, psychological) and ‘external’ influences (cultural, social, physical). At any
given moment, one set of influences may prevail, but that moment is ephemeral, and it is
still constituted by the interactive effects of other influences. The study of development is
therefore a study of combined influences, not of unique or dominant ones.
Even assuming multiple perspectives in the study of the professional life cycle, we are
not out of the woods. More immediately, on the methodological level, many of the
difficulties are all but insurmountable. For example, most of the longitudinal studies on
teaching are perceptual; teachers are recounting their lives to researchers, with no
corroboration from observations or from independent accounts by observers. Apart from
the most obvious biases, there is the infidelity of memory. Since Bartlett’s (1932)
pioneering studies, we have been aware that memory is less a reconstruction than a
construction, an ongoing act of putting order and meaning into the events of one’s life
whose order and meaning were different when these events transpired. In this way,
recollections are selectively perceived in such a way as to align the past with one’s
perception of the present (Ross, McFarland, & Fletcher, 1981), to amplify changes at
transitional periods perceived as decisive ones (Woodruff & Birren, 1972), to construe the
past in such a way as to prepare the future (Reigel, 1978). One is reminded here of Hegel’s
dictum that one’s past is less a reality than a series of ideas about that reality, ideas that
shift imperceptibly over time.
The second knot of methodological problems has to do with the design of longitudinal
studies of teaching, which are actually cross-sectional studies from which longitudinal
inferences are drawn. One typically interrogates sub-samples with varying amounts of
experience (teachers 10, 20, 30, 40 years into their careers), and draws out the common
threads. For example, do teachers in, say their mid-40s, describe their present phase as one
of ‘stock-taking’ in the same terms as teachers in their mid-50s or early 60s recount their
previous, ‘stock-taking’ phase? There are fairly rigorous ways of doing these analyses,
using both statistical techniques (factorial invariance) and qualitative algorithms
(sequential streaming), and some studies have used them singly or in combination (cf.
Long, 1983; Cain, 1967; Huberman et al., 1989). All the same, a recounting of, say, an
earlier process of ‘pedagogical consolidation’ by a teacher in his mid-SOS and an apparently
identical account (i.e., one containing the same parameters and antecedents) by a teacher
in her late 20s are shaped by very different circumstances. Each description is, in very
important ways, only meaningful within the specific conditions in which it took place.
This renders nearly impossible the teasing out of effects attributable specifically to the
age of informants (the ‘stage’ theory), to their historical period or, within that period, to
the ‘cohort’ or peers and pupils living through a common set of social and historical events.
In effect, some studies (e.g., Buss, 1974) suggest strongly that cohorts of different
professions are far more alike than members of the same profession separated by 30 years;
the unifying perceptions of a shared cultural history appear to count more than the
characteristics of a profession or of individuals who have self-selected to that profession.
 360 MICHAEL HUBERMAN

The best, but by no means foolproof, means of resolving that dilemma is by following a
cohort of teachers in real time, longitudinally, over the 40 years of their career. For
obvious reasons (research is long but life is short), we have no such studies of teaching,
although we do have some of special groups of individuals (e.g., highly intelligent children
followed into later adulthood), followed by two generations of researchers. And we would
need separate studies, conducted at intervals of 50 years, to determine the relative effects
of maturational and social influences. In the meantime, we will have to make do with the
vagrant imperfections of each piece of research, trusting that the most compelling trends
in the study of the teaching career will override the error terms and, at the same time, will
match up with the enduring constructs in psychological, sociological and historical
research that give meaning to our findings.

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362 MICHAEL HUBERMAN

Biography

Michael Huberman is Professor of Education at the Faculte de Psychologie et des

Sciences de I’Education. He has done research in the area of individual life cycles for over
15 years, since the publication of Cycle de Vie et Formation (1972). His current research
interests are in adult cognition and learning, school improvement, qualitative
methodologies and knowledge utilization. His most recent books in French are La Vie des
Enseignants (1989) and Assurer lu R&mite des Apprentissages Scolaires (1988), and, in
English, Qualitative Data Analysis (1984) and Innovation Up Close (1984), co-authored
with Matthew Miles.