Teaching is emotional work. This is especially the case in the first years of teaching when new teachers are particularly vulnerable. By understanding changes in teacher emotions in the early years of teaching, we hope to identify strategies that might ultimately reduce teacher attrition. As part of a larger study of the transition of new teachers…

We address the nature of mindfulness and its salience to education generally and to science education specifically. In a context of the historical embeddedness of mindfulness in Buddhism we discuss research in social neuroscience, presenting evidence for neuronal plasticity of the brain and six emotional styles, which are not biologically…

Classroom emotional climates (ECs) are interrelated with students' engagement with university courses. Despite growing interest in emotions and EC research, little is known about the ways in which social interactions and different subject matter mediate ECs in preservice science teacher education classes. In this study we investigated the EC…

Few studies have focused on understanding how teaching and learning in classrooms are mediated by other dimensions of the organizational systems of which education is an integral part. Our 7-year ethnographic study of an urban high school shows how time and temporality constitute key practical and theoretical resources to the actors in the…

For almost a half century David F. Treagust has been an exemplary science educator who has contributed through his dedication and commitments to students, curriculum development and collaboration with teachers, and cutting edge research in science education that has impacted the field globally, nationally and locally. A hallmark of his outstanding…

Neoliberalism has spread globally and operates hegemonically in many fields, including science education. I use historical auto/ethnography to examine global referents that have mediated the production of contemporary science education to explore how the roles of teachers and learners are related to macrostructures such as neoliberalism and…

This ethnographic study of teaching and learning in urban high school science classes investigates the ways in which teachers and students talk, gesture, and use space and time in interaction rituals. In situations where teachers coteach as a means of learning to teach in inner-city schools, successful teacher-teacher collaborations are…

Approaches to research in the social sciences often embrace schema that are consistent with positivism, even though it is widely held that positivism is discredited and essentially dead. Accordingly, many of the methods used in present day scholarship are supported by the tenets of positivism, and are sources of hegemony. We exhort researchers to…

The study examines how social and cultural factors mediate the teaching and learning of science in an Australian high school. Grade 10 students, many of them new migrants, often transient and from circumstances of economic hardship, were taught a 5-week unit on chemistry by a teacher with social and cultural histories similar to those of most of…

In coteaching, two or more teachers take collective responsibility for enacting a curriculum together with their students. Past research provided some indication that in the course of coteaching, not only the teaching practices of the partners become increasingly alike but also do unconsciously produced ways of moving about the classroom, hand…

Early science educators need a gradual introduction to peer review activities. Employs cultural sociology and activity theory to identify patterns of coherence and coexisting contradictions that create tensions to catalyze improvements in science education. (DDR)

Consists of a metalogue between two authors in which critical issues associated with peer review are identified. Highlights theory and practices that are salient to the continued improvement of science education. (DDR)

Describes the author's difficulties in teaching students who were ethnically, culturally, and socially different from himself. Emphasizes the significance of connecting the enacted curriculum to the interests and extant knowledge of students. Suggests some implications for teaching science, enacting and appropriating science curricula, and…

Observes an eighth grade science class in two overlapping perspectives: an action orientation and a discourse orientation. Reports that the teacher's actions encouraged univocal discourse between students and their reproductive understanding of scientific concepts. Concludes that before a class can become more like a scientific discourse…

Introduces a special issue that focuses on teachers and other practitioners undertaking research on their professional praxis. Discusses some experiences as a teacher-researcher, outlines the studies presented in the special issue, and considers questions of voice in the presentation of teacher-researcher studies. Contains 25 references. (WRM)