With the hope of facilitating discussions of social justice among educators, the intent of this essay is to sensitize readers to the multiple meanings of social justice at play within the educational community by comparing and contrasting its use across modernist, interpretive and postmodern perspectives. Much confusion exists among educators as…

The work of Lave and Wenger (1991; Wenger 1998) sets out a view of thinking about the development of professional expertise. In the case of novice teachers this considers them to be participating increasingly centrally in communities of fellow practitioners or "communities of practice". Lave and Wenger's view is that teachers, on joining schools,…

This self-reflexive personal narrative charts the autoethnographic journey of an adult educator, exploring her own practices, values and beliefs about teaching. Drawing upon postmodern scholarship in reflexive literary methodologies, the author uses personal memoirs as a research text for engaging in a process of interpretation and…

Every teacher wants to do the job well, but opinions vary over the qualities and competence required to be successful. In this article, the author explores the nature of the teaching profession and current government priorities in quantifying effectiveness in teaching. He argues that the use of evidence to support teachers' claims about…

Drawing on a number of fields of educational research this article argues that girls come to school better prepared to meet its demands than boys. Parents encourage different skills in their children, as a result girls have more sophisticated communication skills, and are more likely to have been encouraged to participate in intellectual tasks…

Improving professionalism and teachers' professional image is beginning to figure highly on the educational policy agenda of a number of countries facing teacher shortages. This article probes and questions the language of education and educators and reasons that so much focus has been placed on expectations of teachers and teacher development…

In this article a teacher/researcher and an academic mentor explore the potency, possibilities and tensions of the mentoring relationship from personal perspectives. The concept of mentoring as described in this article uses the model of mentor/mentee relationship as portrayed in Homer's epic narrative the Odyssey. In the examination of the…

Questions the philosophy of past and present humanistic notions of agency, which frame practice in teacher education and development programs. Looks back over the past 10 years or so at primary and early childhood teacher education and some initiatives and eventual competent implementation of innovative teaching approaches. (Contains 21…

Engages current poststructual debates over knowledge and subjectivity for a discussion on teacher education. Explores how modern assumptions have shaped self-understanding in terms of which many educators make sense of their work. Critiques these ideas and works to reconstruct them in order to meet the challenge posed by postmodernism, drawing on…