Introduction I met Michael Huberman only once, in Boston, on a chilly afternoon in April of 1990. His article, "The professional life cycle of teachers" (1989) then had been in print for a few months. Already, phrases like, "easy beginnings" and "painful beginnings" and terms like "stabilization" and "reassessment" were making their way into talk about teacher development. His influence on my thinking has been profound. The first recipient of the Huberman Award, Ivor Goodson, also has profoundly shaped my thinking, beginning with his seminal work, "Life histories and the study of schooling," published in 1981. I still find myself referring to the essays in Teachers' Lives and Careers (Ball & Goodson, 1985), which was published in 1985. It was a bad day when I went to the shelf to check a reference from Teachers' Lives only to find a space where it had been. I thought I knew who borrowed the book, but when asked he said he did not have it. For me this was no ordinary loss. I actually purchased a hard back copy and the back pages were filled with copious notes. Months later it turned up with an apology attached. That was a good day.
