Minority teacher candidates' capacity to connect with diverse students in preK-12 settings is a driving force behind the demographic imperative to diversify the teaching professions (Achinstein, Ogawa, Sexton, & Freitas, 2010; Banks et al., 2005). Teacher candidates of color have great confidence in their abilities to relate to students…

The aim of this self-study was to critically consider the authors' individual thinking and practices as they worked toward a shared understanding of connecting science and literacy during instruction. As teacher educators from different disciplines, this work required them to carefully and recurrently examine their individual understandings…

The general premise of the student teaching abroad experience being that it will provide future teachers with experiences that will enable them to interact effectively and productively with the increasingly diverse student population that comprises U.S. schools (Martines, 2005). It is understood that teacher preparation programs must provide…

This article reports results of research on whether there are clinical and statistically significant differences in the effectiveness of three pathways to teacher preparation on a single campus, Yosemite State, a member of the California State University (CSU) System as rated by graduates and employment supervisors. The independent variable is the…

Implicit theories of intelligence (i.e., individuals' beliefs about the nature of intelligence, such as whether it is fixed or changeable) are important because they are related to individuals' behaviors and their beliefs in other areas (Sternberg, 2000). Implicit theories of intelligence are especially important in educational settings because…

Lasting change in teacher practice is difficult because it expects that teachers challenge and reconstruct deeply embedded practices and beliefs. Less research has examined teachers' change process to better understand what professional spaces foster teachers as they construct their own transformation. This qualitative study examined the following…

The United States is a diverse country with constantly changing demographics. The noticeable shift in demographics is even more phenomenal among the school-aged population. The increase of ethnic-minority student presence is largely credited to the national growth of the Hispanic population, which exceeded the growth of all other ethnic minority…

This study explores the role that participating in a critical inquiry project (CIP) played on the development of new educators who aspire to teach from a social justice perspective. The study also examines how relationships between the first- and second-year teacher participants shaped their development as social justice educators, learners, and…

This article examines the experiences of a cohort of seven urban educators who conducted action research over a two-year period. Of the seven participants, six were teacher-researchers ("TRs") and one was a bilingual coordinator. The author provides an analysis of focus group discussions conducted after the completion of the action research…

This article explores how 12 classroom teachers, enrolled in one of the author's graduate social studies methods course, used service-learning as an instructional tool to help students practice active participation in their community and beyond, while also recognizing the relevance of academic coursework as they applied their knowledge and skills…

This article examines teachers' perceptions of parent involvement through the narratives of 15 racially and linguistically diverse teachers who worked together at Jefferson Elementary, an inner-city school in Northern California composed mostly of African-American, Latino, and Asian students. One overarching research question framed the…

Some research on new teachers suggests that new teachers feel "lost at sea" when confronting the complexities of planning curriculum (Kaufman et al., 2002). In the tradition of self-study and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), this article describes a pedagogical approach that has met with some success in the author's own work with…

With shifts and changes in the social and professional context of 21st century education, beginning teachers are especially challenged by conflicts between their personal beliefs and the reality of teaching, in addition to the struggles first-year teachers often encounter. While there is an established body of literature in teacher education that…

In this analytic conceptual essay, and from her standpoint as an African American woman teacher/researcher, the author presents a rich description of a personal sensibility and promising professional practice for literacy educators and those who prepare Reading/English/Language Arts teacher candidates for service among students who are…

This article presents a study of the Collaboration Centers Project (CCP), which is a pseudonym for a three-year, federally-funded program that focused on helping in-service teachers better address the needs of English language learners (ELLs) in their classrooms. The CCP is important to study because of its clear intention to integrate real…