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The recruitment and retention 'crises' in US and UK teaching have major and negative implications for the future of education. This pilot study uses extended conversations with Asian and African teaching staff to examine the role of values in helping teachers sustain positive contributions to children's lives and world. In five elementary schools, the researcher asked: "What is the role of personal values in recruiting, retaining, sustaining and building the creative capacity of teachers?" The study found that a close alignment of institutional and individual values generated strong positive impacts on teacher fulfillment and resilience. It further suggests that by using their own autobiographical 'values-stories', teachers could advance personal values and build their capacity to contribute. The article proposes implications for all education departments, universities and schools seeking to address declining rates of teacher recruitment and retention. Recommendations include greater attention to the values that bring individuals to education, a steer towards using values-stories across the curriculum and a focus on 'Big Issues' in Initial Teacher Education.

Introduction: Malawi is one of the world's poorest countries with very limited healthcare spending and a lack of post-graduate training for healthcare workers, including in critical illness management. Critical illness simulation courses have been shown to be an effective training tool and form a key part of training for healthcare professionals in the developed world. However, these courses can be difficult and costly to set. We therefore developed an affordable and simple to run programme for use in a regional hospital in Malawi. Methods: We delivered a series of lectures alongside a simulation course based around critical illness management, including cardio-pulmonary-resuscitation. The course was taught by a visiting physician who trained a local clinical officer to continue running the course in the future. Feedback on candidate confidence in managing acutely unwell patients was collected before and after the course. Results: All staff in the unit attended the course. Median candidate confidence across all seven assessed areas increased significantly. Conclusions: Despite the basic equipment used in our course, we received very positive feedback and feel that this highlights that significant improvements in staff skillset, and therefore patient outcomes, can be achieved using a relatively simple and low cost intervention that can also easily be continued by local members of staff, ensuring sustainability. Introduction of similar courses in other resource poor settings may help improve patient outcomes without the significant financial outlay and lack of future-proofing seen with many healthcare initiatives that are deployed, and are often unsuccessful, in the developing world.

Resilience is essential to the good teacher. This paper summarises research on factors that have sustained one life in education and compares them with narratives from nine other long-serving and fulfilled teachers. It identifies some elements that build teacher resilience and discusses how this knowledge might apply to teacher education and the school experience of children. An original method of auto-ethnography is used to discover sources of the personal values, attitudes, experiences and passions that contribute to resilience. An interpretivist paradigm and multiple perspectives are argued as necessary to discover what builds, preserves and strengthens the ability to withstand the multiple and continuous challenges of the teaching life. The literature review re-analysis writings that directly influenced a single life. Other auto-ethnographic sources include six contrasting personal autobiographies, diaries, letters and transcribed biographical conversations with nine close friends in teaching. The research suggests that teacher resilience is associated with (a) a work-life closely aligned to personal values, (b) plentiful opportunities to develop friendships, and (c) frequent chances to use lifelong interests in creative contexts. The process of research changed the researcher's practice in education. A sample of four teacher education projects founded on the research conclusions, provide evidence for its recommendations: that autobiographical and biographical activity, creative explorations of lifelong interests and personal values should be part of all teacher education programmes. Incorporating these recommendations would, it is claimed, widen inclusion and directly benefit the lives and learning of children.

This article surveys the state of the humanities in English primary schools drawing on evidence from serving head teachers, current literature and policy documents. The findings suggest that whilst the humanities are highly valued in schools, there are serious challenges which threaten the "broad and balanced" curriculum. It is suggested that a greater focus on spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) education and engagement with subject associations and alternative learning environments can help to rectify this imbalance. Such an approach recognises looming social, cultural and environmental threats, which have the potential to support children's psychological health and well-being.