This study examines preservice and in-service teachers' perspectives on their preparation in learning parental involvement strategies and explores their opinions on what kind of experiences regarding parental involvement they think teacher education programs should provide. The data from the study suggested that the preservice teachers held…

Federal courts have permitted tax credits for tuition at religious schools. Does a religious mission inhibit a school's ability or willingness to teach civic values, such as tolerance for political and religious differences? This essay examines relevant empirical research to find that religious schools, overall, do no worse than public…

In this article, literacy, which is conceived of as a set of cognitive skills, is juxtaposed with a sociocultural orientation that sees literacy as a set of social practices for the production of meaning. Cognitive, skills-based pedagogies treat literacy as universal, autonomous, and independent of context, whereas sociocultural literacy…

Theory suggests that effective teachers should possess a vision for teaching, but the reality of teaching within the current educational policy climate raises questions about teachers' autonomy of their instructional decisions and ultimately their personal convictions for teaching. This exploratory study examines 11 teachers' visions of…

Online social networks such as Facebook have changed the context and definitions of socialization. Focusing on teacher use, this article considers the size and impact of these forums and the importance many young professionals feel toward them. Themed as a common sense approach, the author uses anecdotal points and discussions with…

This article aims to clarify concerns regarding what constitutes acceptable scholarship in education at a time when such scholarship is under challenge from publications and institutions with a strong bias toward policy advocacy. This is accomplished by examining the Fordham Foundation--supported publication "Whole-Language High Jinks"…

Standards and accountability policies are central elements of school reform agendas aimed at equalizing students' access to quality education and closing the achievement gap. Yet, such policies have failed to yield the expected, large scale results. One explanation may be found in the embedded zones of wishful thinking. Two particular zones…

Over the last 30 years, teacher education has become a major area of government policy in many countries around the world. One of the key factors driving this change has been the growing significance of globalisation, "imagined" by most countries as necessitating the pursuit of neoliberal policies. But neoliberalism itself is not static;…

The publication of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 (Cosgrove et al., 2010; Perkins et al., 2010) reading literacy results heralded a crisis of confidence in educational standards in Ireland. This article examines the national and international context of teacher education reform and the politics of the policy…

Currently there are multiple teacher education reform policies being proposed, piloted, and debated at a variety of levels and by various interest groups, stakeholders, and policy-makers. Along with an unprecedented sense of urgency about these important goals, what most U.S. reforms have in common is increased accountability. Using a discourse…

Historically, New Zealand policy makers have defined quality teachers as those who form effective learning relationships with students and teach in culturally appropriate and responsive ways. Recent global emphasis on standardised test score improvement suggests that this definition is shifting, implying changes for the focus and the form of…

Given the prevailing spirit of teacher frustration regarding current educational policy, the authors perused frequently visited teacher blogs and discussion boards in the summer of 2009 to determine whether teachers are effectively using them to express professionally informed political dissent regarding educational policy. While many teachers are…

To improve quality, teacher education programs in Brunei were recently eliminated at the undergraduate level and changed to master of teaching degree courses. Prospective teachers are required to obtain content-rich initial degrees prior to applying for teacher training. This study argues that the high entry qualification to teaching may, in…

This article examines the connections between No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the Effective Schools Research Movement. Using historical methodology, the authors argue that although both were premised on building capacity, over time the reform that became NCLB evolved to focus on accountability. This shift disconnected the reform from its research…

This article examines the evidence that supports and rebuts the claims of school resegregation. By examining both types of evidence and considering them complementary (James 1986; Kelly and Miller 1989), the author gives the reader a deeper understanding of the current trends in school segregation. First, the literature on the topic of school…