ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the research and related literature about the teaching career. School teaching is also an example of an occupation which offers an orderly career, especially for those employed in government systems. Dutch teachers of all ages are shown to be less satisfied with their work than former colleagues who have left teaching, and older teachers feel more ‘stressed’ than do ex-teachers of the same age. The structural context within which the teaching career generally occurs is clearly very different to that which typically occurs in many other areas of employment such as medicine, the law or in business, although it is similar to the situation that exists in other semi-professions such as nursing and librarianship. A teaching career may be conceived of as being the status passage of an individual through several work-related social roles over the length of their working life as a school teacher.
