Teacher professional identity is a concept defined and researched in a multitude of ways (Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). This manuscript approaches teacher identity formation from the foundations of situated cognition, social learning, and identity in community practice. Focusing on a unique teacher development intervention designed to…

The authors of the three papers in this issue discuss and analyze the practice underlying "critical exploration," a research pedagogy applied in common within their separate art, science, and teacher education classrooms. Eleanor Duckworth developed critical exploration as a method of teaching by involving students so actively and reflectively…

A teacher educator and student of Duckworth's critical exploration approach to teaching shares three episodes taken from science methods courses she teaches for preservice teachers in graduate and undergraduate programs in elementary education. The episodes reveal the pedagogy of critical exploration to be particularly well suited to the…

By following their wonderful ideas or critical exploration, three eighth graders learned how to do traditional Chinese painting, which is taught by copying old masters' work from the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The standard manual, which most learners have been using for these three hundred years, is the "Mustard Seed Garden Manual of…

A teacher narrates from activities and discussions that arose among undergraduates and herself while doing critical explorations of mirrors. Surprised by light's behaviors, the students responded with curiosity, losing their dependence on answers as the format of school knowledge. Inadequacies in how participants supposed light works emerged in…

This study examines the experiences of ten first-year English teachers in various school contexts in two Northeastern states. Through a phenomenological approach to in-depth interviewing, teachers were interviewed at the end of their first year of teaching. Commonalities in teachers' experiences include former teachers' influences on their teacher…

For new educators, the obstacles of high-stakes testing, curricular mandates, and their own inexperience and self-doubt can render teaching for justice and equity overwhelming, seemingly impossible ideals. However, as students are increasingly tied to prescriptive curricula and academic performance standards, the goals of social justice and…

The Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools provide literacy-rich, summer experiences for both the K-12 children they serve and the servant-leader interns who serve as teachers. In this article, the author expands upon the scholarship of preparing teachers to be culturally responsive pedagogues of language arts instruction by illuminating…

Induction support for new teachers is widespread, particularly in the form of mentoring, but research evidence of effectiveness is limited. The majority of existing research has focused on the impact of induction on teacher retention. Of greater interest is the potential impact on student achievement, and on which forms of support are the most…

Drawing upon data from case studies of four teachers conducted over the course of eight years, this research examines the role that teachers' visions--their images of ideal classroom practice--play in teachers' career paths. This paper demonstrates the ways in which teachers' decisions to "leave" schools were often made for personal reasons, while…

The author begins with an extended account of the manner in which popular accounts treat the topic of mentoring or coaching. This treatment is contrasted with the problems of coaching described in other articles in this issue, especially in connection to the National Board portfolio assessment. The distinction between "mediated" and "unmediated"…

This exploratory study represents an analysis of 15 exit portfolios of students enrolled in a program to prepare teachers for urban schools. Portfolios were analyzed holistically across entries to determine the degree to which students integrated multiple concepts related to teaching in urban schools, including: asset/deficit perspectives,…

Children's rights to early care and education raise a fundamental issue to be grappled with in the free market fundamentalism that shapes a 21st century American childhood. The discourse about child care for children in poverty is largely instrumentalist, and focused on a cost-benefit analysis of outcomes, not on children's existential well-being.…

Reform-minded teachers encounter formidable challenges, especially in the difficult conditions of typical urban settings. Maintaining an online web log (or "blog") has been suggested as a powerful tool to support their practice and continuing professional development. To further articulate how and why blogs can provide teachers with unique…

This article describes some of the complexity embedded in mentoring relationships among teachers and analyzes them through the lens of ethical tensions. The author draws on three instances from a larger collection of cases of mentoring dilemmas situated within the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards portfolio-based assessment…