This qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews examines the metaphors new teachers use to describe their professional identities and compares metaphors chosen immediately following graduation with those suggested part way through their first year of teaching. Findings indicate that new teachers make a shift from seeing themselves as…

Debate around the use of ability grouping in schools, resonates across national boundaries as concerns rise around the possible negative impact on young people, particularly those in already disadvantaged groups. In this paper, a survey focussing on primary schools in Scotland established the extent to which some form of ability grouping has…

The article is based on a follow-up study of a research and development work project with school leaders and teachers conducted in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The purpose is to present an understanding of "what the practitioners find they have learned" during the project and "how they experience the situation with regard to development…

The present study explored the perceptions of Greek general and special primary teachers regarding the role and the professional characteristics of special needs coordinators (SENCOs). According to the responses of the 466 participants, each school should have a fulltime SENCO, who should have both teaching experience in general schools and…

This study examines student workload after a change in teaching style from lecture to Problem Based Learning and Cooperative Learning, and its relationship with student outcomes. Results show that the change clearly overloads students if it is not adequately planned and monitored. Marks, drop-outs and attendance were markedly better with the new…

Effective teachers are often creative ones, yet an examination of creative teaching is largely invisible in the North American creativity literature. Even within education there is little about teachers' own creative practice. Nonetheless, there are benefits to studying creative teachers: in education it can explicate ways of enhancing teachers'…

This study explores how entering female preservice teachers position themselves-the plotlines, obligations, responsibilities and duties they are prepared to enact, the expectations they hold for students, and the implications these have for teacher education. Using positioning theory, the authors analyze application letters of 20 elementary…

This paper examines critical literacy narratives of bi/multilingual preservice teachers across contexts in the United States. It draws upon empirical data from two studies--a narrative inquiry with Latino teacher candidates in the Midwest and a participatory action research project with bilingual preservice teachers in Hawaii--to examine…

This paper investigates how an EFL teacher negotiates her identity to adapt to the "new work order" in an English education department at a university in China. From a narrative inquiry perspective, it aims to illuminate the complexity of teacher identity in the context of a reform where teachers must reconcile conflicting selves in order to…

Two decades ago academics based at the University of Arizona brought the anthropological concept of Funds of Knowledge into the educational realm, providing a new conceptual framework to counter deficit theorizing of Latino students and their families. The growing body of literature evidences the belief and hope of academics in the potential of…

Motivations for choosing teaching as a career were investigated in 200 pre-service teachers from Canada and Oman. We used a novel structured qualitative approach and two theoretical models to analyze how pre-service teacher career-choice motivation varied according to cultural context. The results of the study showed that Canadian participants…

In this paper, we consider the difficulties that a group of internationally educated female teachers (female IETs) encountered in the process of seeking certification in the Canadian Maritimes. We read their experiences in the context of neoliberalism, in particular how they are positioned in the labour force and also the teaching profession. We…

Human goal-processes are conceptualised in an action-theoretic model of motivation, in line with discourse on self-directed teachers. Eighty-eight pre-service teachers reported ideographic professionally-related goals "and" concerns, future-time extension of the goals, and well-being (self-esteem and depression). Thirteen goal and fifteen concern…

Teacher trainees are questioned about their strategic and emotional relationships with a key area of their future activity, learning. Characteristics of German teacher trainees are identified through comparisons with German students on a related course of study (educational science), and through comparisons with Swedish teacher trainees. N = 875…

Internationally, schools acknowledge their responsibility in guiding students not only in their academic growth, but also in their lifelong career development. In relation to this development, vocational schools in the Netherlands are implementing integral career guidance in which teachers receive a new task in guiding students in developing their…