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…

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…

In the early 1980s, process-product research to determine effective teaching practices was replacing efforts to "teacher-proof" the curriculum. Now 30 years later, although both these efforts did not lead to hoped-for changes, scientifically based research and data-driven instruction dominate the improvement discourse. Given the current…

While there are obvious benefits of summer school for students and faculty alike, summer teaching/learning poses some unique challenges. Summer class meeting periods often have fewer contact hours but are longer and more frequent than sessions during the regular academic year. Thus, there are shorter periods between formative and summative…

This article reports descriptive findings of a qualitative investigation of early-career teachers' perceptions of their preparedness to teach diverse learners in high-need, high-potential urban schools. Interviews revealed new teachers' insights into their teacher preparation programs and the challenging expectations involved in teaching diverse…

The purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices of an ESL (English as a second language) teacher with regard to middle school English-language learners' participation in classroom activities. Findings suggest that the teacher's approach based on the students' sociocultural needs--more so than their linguistic needs--promoted their…

Mentoring and support of beginning teachers is a key element of reducing teacher attrition. Most schools have implemented an induction program with assigned mentors for inexperienced teachers. However, the problem of attrition begins before the induction year of teaching, given that many certified teachers never enter a classroom. This…

We draw on the philosophical works of Aristotle, Gadamer, Arendt, and Sockett to argue for a return to the rough ground of reason and deliberation in teaching. We offer a conceptualization of teaching and teacher development within a framework that honors the technical and practical nature of knowledge, experience, and practice. Through examples…