Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behavior is used to examine continuing teachers' plans to remain or resign and the likelihood of resigned teachers to return to teaching in the next 3 years. Specifically, this study examined factors that encourage or hinder resigned teachers from returning to teaching, the importance of such factors, and the importance…

This paper examines how a group of mostly white, (upper) middle class pre-service teachers expressed resistance in one multicultural education course. We analyze how these students re-evaluated their educational autobiographies upon comparing their educational "story" with that of an "other" of a different race and social class whom they had…

Quality control policies towards Dutch vocational schools have changed dramatically because the government questioned examination quality. Schools must now demonstrate assessment quality to a new Examination Quality Center. Since teachers often design assessments, they must be involved in quality issues. This study therefore explores teachers'…

The context for this investigation was an undergraduate literacy methods course taught by Cindy, the first author of this manuscript. A central course goal was to prepare pre-service teachers to provide effective literacy instruction for children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The focus of this study was an examination of the…

This article explores whether teachers' trust in pupils in technical/vocational schools is associated with teachers' and pupils' gender. As for the teachers, besides gender, age, socioeconomic origin, and subject taught are considered and, as for the pupils, the gender composition of the school (proportion of girls at school), the socioeconomic…

Despite increased attention in professional development to building communities of teachers, few studies have investigated the development of trust in these communities. This paper presents issues related to trust in a professional development project at an elementary school. The project aimed for school-based elementary teachers and…

Teaching has moved gradually from being seen as an art or craft to an evidence-based techno-rational profession. However, within Steiner-Waldorf schools, teachers are largely autonomous and seen, like their pupils, as always "coming into being", through the development of an objective imaginative faculty. This perspective is derived from Steiner's…

A policy-evaluation study was set up of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) teacher training in Flanders, focusing on the following questions: (a) What is the validity of the content and format of the teacher training, and (b) to what extent is the ICT teacher training linked to policies of schools? In-depth interviews were organised…

Among the sources of teachers' self-efficacy beliefs, mastery experiences are postulated to be the most potent. Thus it seems likely that other sources of self-efficacy would play a larger role early in learning when fewer mastery experiences are available. Among the 255 novice and careers teachers who participated in this study, contextual…

This study chronicles a 2-year school wide portfolio initiative in a British elementary school, teacher resistance to the initiative, and factors that contributed to acceptance of the portfolio initiative. Critical components to teacher engagement in this context included teacher ownership of the process and product, a child-centred focus to the…

Drawing on extant theorizing and research on reflective teaching, this paper discusses the impact of an innovative methods course designed around the activity of student teachers' reflections on their own classroom discourse, for their understandings of the connections between theory and practice. Situated in the context of foreign language…

This paper points out that globalization has raised fundamental questions about knowing and learning and that it is essential for educators to engage in collective knowledge generation by crossing community boundaries. Drawing on the theoretical framework of Activity Theory, this paper reports on a study on the expansive learning that was afforded…

This study explores the expectations of teaching as a career held by beginning teachers who undertook a postgraduate certificate in education (PGCE) teacher training course for secondary schools at three institutions in the North of England. Over 300 student teachers completed a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of their PGCE course. A…

Our work is based on the study of learning strategies used by a group of trainee teachers in a real learning situation, and how this use of strategies influences the results of the learning process. We use a diary as a tool to assess the learning strategies and compare the results obtained with those using an inventory. Our findings indicate that…

Objective: To review the principles underlying medical student selection from the perspective of the imperatives of widening access policies. Setting: A recent government initiative has increased the number of medical school places in Great Britain. A priority is to widen access to sections of the community hitherto inadequately represented in…