This qualitative study reports on what was learned from two former teacher candidates, who engaged in self-affirmation writing exercises in an education seminar during their final semester in a teacher education program. Self-affirmations, as presented here, are brief psychological interventions designed to enhance the self-integrity of teacher…

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have historically, and continue today to encounter barriers to accessing health services. This has been attributed to the well-documented heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia that shape all health and social institutions. In this paper, invitational theory offers insight into the…

The study described in this paper explored the understanding pre-service teachers' have of PK-12 student needs (i.e. Belonging, Mastery, Independence, and Generosity) and the importance of meeting these needs in a climate of Invitational Education. 71 undergraduate teacher education candidates enrolled in a Classroom Management course at a…

The present study utilized the Inviting School Survey-Revised (ISS-R) (Smith, 2005b, 2013) based on Invitational Theory and Practice (Purkey & Novak, 2008) to examine the school climate of a public primary school in a low urban socio-economic setting in Kenya. School climate was defined as the perceptions of primary school teachers and pupils…

Teacher education serves an important role in preparing teacher candidates to engage with diverse student populations. This study supports a need for candidates to practice Invitational Theory and Practice when teaching students from diverse backgrounds. To assess candidate growth, we used Schmidt's (2007) Six Elements of Diversity as a lens for…

Providing services to special education students has been fraught with controversy concerning the appropriate setting (Yell, 1995). This quasi-experimental study compares the progress of developmentally delayed preschoolers after two school years of schooling in two environments using the Brigance Inventory of Early Development (IED-II) (Brigance,…

This study describes the process of creating an Invitational Learning environment to improve the writing competence of middle school students in two special education classes. Teacher-student interactions were coded according to Purkey and Novak's (1996) Intentionality/Invitation Quadrant with levels corresponding to intentionally disinviting,…

The purpose of the present study is to examine the role of Invitational Education and intelligence beliefs in the academic performance of high school students. The research population comprised all male and female students studying at high schools in the academic year of 2009-2010 in Kashmar, a city in Iran. Selected through multi-stage random…

The purpose of this inquiry was to examine the effectiveness of male and female educational leaders who made use of the invitational leadership style of leadership in their k-12 school settings. Study participants consisted of 14 principals (7 female and 7 male) and 164 teachers. While quantitative findings revealed a statistically significant…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of self-reported job satisfaction and motivation among teachers in the Bahamas and Jamaica. A total of 168 Bahamian (n = 75) and Jamaican (n = 93) teachers completed the Teacher Motivation and Job Satisfaction Survey. Overall results indicate that teachers in the Bahamas reported higher levels…

By focusing on one student, this case study illustrated ways that successful teachers invited success and may help other teachers create connections with students. This study chronicled one student's responses to her teachers' efforts to engage her during a teaching activity. Data from interviews, observations, and work samples showed how the…

This article is a follow-up on a previous quantitative study (Steyn, 2007) which explored key aspects that influenced the effective implementation of Invitational Education (IE) in schools in the United States of America (US) and Hong Kong (HK). This is a qualitative study in which an appreciative inquiry (AI) is used to explain staff's positive…

The purpose of this study was to examine teacher dispositions within an undergraduate and graduate education course aimed at helping students gain a better appreciation for lifelong multicultural education. Education majors (N = 202) from a Midwestern metropolitan university were asked to rate the viability of 13 dispositions as a training and…

This case study demonstrates how the Osborne-Parnes Creative Problem-solving Model (CPS) can be used to enhance teacher creativity through the collaborative and inviting processes found within Invitational Education, which counter the individualistic and product-oriented enterprises often associated with creative endeavors. Conclusions indicate…

Over 15,000 military dependent students attend Hawaii public schools, about 8% of the total student population. The transition to Hawaii schools has been identified by many military families as a challenge and one more difficult than other transitions their families have made. A generally acknowledged negative perception of Hawaii public schools…