Lesson study has been implemented as a viable approach to support teachers' professional development. Yet, this approach has not been thoroughly examined in relation to key micro-political power relations that are arguably endemic to the use of this collaborative learning model. Accordingly, this paper discusses post-structural concepts that might…

Teacher research is increasingly described as an important aspect of professional development. In response, teacher education programs incorporate teacher research in their curricula. We report on the collaborative research processes of two groups of student teachers in a university teacher education program, focussing on elaboration and decision…

In a world where governments increasingly attempt to impose regulation on all professional activities, this paper advocates that professional standards for teachers be developed "by the profession for the profession". Foucauldian archaeology is applied to two teacher standards documents recently published in Australia, one developed at national…

The work of teacher education during student teaching typically takes place in two distinct "spaces": placement sites and college/university settings. The program featured in this article is structured in ways that clearly mark out those two spaces. Yet this configuration led our university supervisors, whose work primarily took place in the…

Video case studies are commonly used in teacher training programmes, usually to develop one specific area of competence. The need for an integrative model that meets diverse learning objectives and competences led to a study on how to effectively use videos to guide student-teachers towards professional development. The analysis of case studies…

The richness and complexity of video portfolios endanger both the reliability and validity of the assessment of teacher competencies. In a post-graduate teacher education program, the assessment of video portfolios was evaluated for its reliability, construct validity, and consequential validity. Although video portfolio facilitated a reliable and…

The article describes the newly developed Teacher Cultural Beliefs Scale (TCBS). The TCBS assesses multicultural and egalitarian beliefs about diversity, both of which reflect favorable attitudes toward immigrant students, but differ with regard to how cultural diversity is believed to be best accommodated in schools. Results from a first study…

Teachers need to develop the ability to adapt curriculum materials. Two elementary teachers, Maggie and Catie, were asked to write narratives about their use of and changes to particular reform-oriented science lesson plans. Maggie drew on her knowledge of and experiences with students, as well as other knowledge, experiences, and resources, to…

This paper describes and interprets the career experiences of four veteran secondary teachers and their ability to resist plateauing. Three areas of veteran teacher research informed this study: career stages, plateauing, and resiliency. In-depth phenomenological interviews were conducted to investigate and depict the meanings these teachers…

Messy collaboration refers to complexity, unpredictability and management dilemmas when educators work together. Such messiness was evident in a Hong Kong English Learning Study, a structured cyclical process in which teachers and researcher-participants from a teacher education institution work collaboratively on effective student learning. This…

This four-part story is about one teacher educator's attempt to embody praxis as a form of academic work, emphasizing the importance of the corporeal in learning and teaching. I describe the inter-related context (1) of my embodied self, the teacher education course I constructed, and theory employed in mediating course practices. Evidence of…

Teacher professional development is a key factor for transforming professional and school culture. This article describes a case study undertaken in a Spanish school during the 2007-2008 academic year. Our aim is to explain how action research methodology was applied to encourage professional and school culture towards an intercultural and…

This paper outlines the professional development of pre-tenure teacher educators through the establishment of a self-study group. Through reflecting on three significant events, a discussion is offered as to how members contributed to the self-study of teacher education practices and experienced enhancement as a community of scholars. Evidence is…

"Capoeira", the Brazilian dance and martial art, is taught across the world. Learners acquire vital knowledge and are socialised as "capoeiristas" through legitimate peripheral participation, in particular when watching games in the "roda". The "roda", the circle within which the "capoeira" game is played, is a classic place for learning by…

This article is based on ethnographic work with two "crews" of young graffiti artists in southern Mexico City. The crews share certain characteristics with gangs or urban tribes, but more with "communities of practice": they live in the "figured world" of graffiti, a community of practice at the local and global level. Through participation,…