Education is a field of dreams, and so is educational research. Educators dream of schools that can improve the lives of students, solve social problems, and enrich the quality of life; educational researchers dream that their studies will enhance the effectiveness of schools in achieving these worthy goals. Both fields draw recruits who see the…

To the author, the question of "Whither scholarship in the work of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning?" means "To what degree and in what place does scholarship have in teaching and learning and specifically in teacher education?" Arizona State University's Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College thinks not only about the role of scholarship…

Whither Scholarship in the Work of Enhancing the Quality of Teaching and Learning? This is an important query because it acknowledges, embraces, questions, and challenges the role of scholarship in enhancing teaching and learning. Interestingly, these four verbs help the author categorize her perspectives on the use of scholarship. Drawing from…

Scholarly research is crucial to teaching and learning because it keeps the work of teacher educators and the teaching and learning in schools of education dynamic. Research fosters habits of critical reflection, encourages teacher educators to learn throughout their careers, and ensures that concepts in teacher education adapt to current…

The standards that currently define a quality teacher or teacher education program derive their authority from the consensus of experts, who negotiate and craft statements that codify their views of best practice. In education, these consensus statements are rarely rooted in the field's established scholarship (as is the case for many standards in…

"Teaching practice" refers to the professional discourse, knowledge, skills, tools, and habits of mind underlying the interpretive processes that characterize expert teaching practice. Such expert practice is located within and responsive to micro- and macrocontexts and situations. In a well-articulated vision, learning teaching practice is…

In response to the question "Whither scholarship in the work of enhancing the quality of teaching and learning?" everyone must begin by thinking about the importance of understanding the teaching and learning process because this is at the core of what we do as educators. The author believes that it is through the research they conduct on teaching…

If educational research stemming from colleges of education is sometimes out of touch, scholarship engaged by school districts and state boards of education is often dangerous in its distant view but arms-length reach. Teaching and learning are enhanced when members of the school community engage in collective grounded efforts to make real change.…

Up ahead, a foreboding wooden door showing wear from passage of earlier travelers is spotted. As the old porch light emits a pale yellow glow, a key ring emerges from deep inside the coat pocket. Searching for just the right key, the voyager settles on one that also shows age. As the key enters its receptacle and begins to turn, a clicking noise…

Despite years of controversy about what counts as rigorous educational research and significant amounts of taxpayers' support for related reform of U.S. public schools, serious inequities in U.S. K-12 education remain. The authors of this essay bring the perspectives of two tenured university teacher educators who share a background of over 40…

Teacher education has been engrossed in an eternal quest of seeking appropriate, relevant, and effective strategies to enhance teaching and learning quality over many decades. Teacher educators, teacher trainees, and teachers (including early and midcareer to late career professionals) continue to this day to focus their energies, passion, and…

Educators addressing humanness helps bring into focus a concept that developing a broad, liberal, critical, cynical, skeptical, and tolerant mind leads to truth seeking, personal freedom and autonomy, improved pedagogy, and ultimately, higher-quality living. It is not enough for teacher and student to come together in dialogue to gain knowledge of…

The relationship between scholarship in education and the practice of teaching and learning is complex, ambiguous, and doubtful. Still, there persists an underlying belief that the study of education might yield the basis for designing and implementing educational practices. What could be ways of approaching scholarship in education that might…

Neoliberal and biopolitical ideologies have had an insidious impact on the field of teacher education, with disturbing implications for the future. Instead of "going along to get along," the field needs (1) critical analysis of the impact of neoliberalism and biopolitics on policies and practices of teacher education; (2) scholarship that assists…

Social science is fundamentally about humanity and human relationships. Humans, alone and in interaction with one another, are situated--in a context, a time, and a place. Their action and interaction has potential for unpredictability, agency, growth, change. As a science, it rests uncomfortably in the positivistic framework: the social always…