While School Placement is long established as a central component of Initial Teacher Education programmes, there is an increasing awareness that these placement experiences should go beyond the practical activities most directly associated with teaching. This paper considers how engagement in a school placement period with a focus on non-teaching…

Professional development programs provide an opportunity for environmental educators to develop networks to exchange ideas and practices in professional learning communities. This study investigated how diverse educators develop professional networks for exchanging information through online and face-to-face professional development activities. We…

This report provides a summary of the full "First Look" report, which presents data on students in the United States attending kindergarten through grade 12. The focus of the report is on parent and family involvement in the students' education during the 2018-19 school year, as reported by the students' parents. It includes the…

Performing City Resilience is a collaborative research project that investigates interrelations between theories, practices and strategies of city resilience, and those of performance. In this essay, the authors explore ways performance might conceive of and contribute to practices of hazard mitigation strategy to better understand how these might…

The purpose of this paper is to describe how and where Lesotho citizens have learned about democracy, their civic life and citizenship. The paper draws from a larger PhD study that was conducted in 2013 that focused on how Basotho people understand the concepts of citizenship and democracy with implications for civic education in Lesotho. This…

Background: Teachers' limiting conceptualizations of students influence students' learning opportunities. We analyze teachers' professional conversations to understand how dialogues can expand teachers' conceptualizations. Methods: We examine professional dialogues from nine whole-school intervention meetings. Drawing on discursive psychology and…

There is a growing body of action research on school improvement and development. Many of these studies have found the use of critical friendship valuable in relation to teachers' or principals' practice. Yet, little attention has been paid to critical friendship at the school district level. This study explores how a superintendent and three…

Purpose: This paper presented the learning process of a group of primary mathematics teachers who participated in two iterations of lesson design, enactment and reflection in a Chinese Lesson Study. Design/methodology/approach: An expansive learning theory was employed to examine the teachers' learning process in lesson study (LS) on representing…

The Individual With Disabilities Education Act mandates that parents should be active participants in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting. This qualitative study looked at the IEP process from a critical lens that focused on diverse participants' experiences at their child's IEP meeting. What distinguishes counterstories from a…

Early childhood professionals are sometimes referenced as caregivers and other times as educators. In order to empower them as professionals, it is important to provide professional development opportunities that deepen teachers' knowledge. This qualitative case study explores the impact of Lesson Study on four early childhood teachers with no…

This paper presents recommendations for faculty mentors interested in conducting a study abroad program in the social sciences. The recommendations discussed in this paper aim to support faculty in pre-departure planning, during the study abroad experience, and after the study abroad experience concludes. The strategies presented in this paper aim…

Brian Martin describes a difficult committee meeting he once attended which consisted of one representative from each department. When the meeting ended it left a bitter taste for many who participated. Having learned from this experience, Martin became a chair of the committee and tried a new system that overcame many of the previous problems.…

Research about Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting outcomes indicates special educators are unprepared and uncertain about practices designed to encourage meaningful IEP team participation. In response to these challenges, we crafted a simulated IEP (SIEP) project for preservice special education teachers as part of their licensure…

It is generally agreed that it is difficult for schools to bring about lasting changes in classroom practice. This paper gives an account of an action research group of 21 practitioners in an upper secondary school in Iceland, where a new model, the Change Room, was introduced to enhance changes in classroom practice. The aim was to increase…

This applied research study seeks to improve principal capacity as instructional leaders. The need for principals to increase their instructional leadership capacity became evident with the ever-changing requirements of state accountability and student achievement. Using four elements in this study, cohort-based professional development for…