This study investigates the experiences of a group of classroom teachers who transitioned into administrative roles as vice-principals in a rural schoolboard in southwestern Ontario. We included both elementary and secondary former teacher leaders who moved into the school administration and explored the aspects of their leadership experience that…

ESL programs at post-secondary institutions must often generate revenue in addition to teaching students English. Institutions often impose explicit expectations on these programs to generate profit, creating unique challenges for those who administer them. This qualitative case study investigated challenges faced by ESL program directors at one…

Academic librarians have always played an important role in providing research services and research-skills development to faculty in higher education. But that role is evolving to include the academic librarian as a unique and necessary research partner, practitioner, and participant in collaborative, grant-funded research projects. This article…

Associate (mentor) teachers are essential partners in guiding teacher candidates into the profession; however, little training is offered for this critical role. This study explored, through the lens of self-determination theory, types of support and delivery most useful for successful mentorship during practicum. Online surveys and invited…

Purpose: Although there has been increasing optimism about the potential for social media platforms such as Twitter to support educators' professional learning, it is yet unclear whether such promises hold true. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to explore school administrators' use of Twitter for professional learning.…

The health promotion laboratory (HPL-Canada) is a public health professional development program building on a collaborative learning approach in order to support long-term practice change in local health services teams. This study aims to analyse the collaborative learning processes of two teams involved in the program during the first year of…

This paper explores understandings related to teacher professionalism amongst a sample of highly engaged members of the Alberta Teacher's Association (ATA). Highlighting the many ways in which the Association supported members in their bid to embody roles as leaders, learners, advocates, and policy actors, I argue that the ATA serves as a platform…

Nurses in Canada face diverse challenges to their ongoing educational pursuits. As a result, they have been early adopters of courses and programs based on distance education principles and, in particular, online learning models. In the study described in this paper, nurses studying at two northern universities, in programs involving online…

This study involves the program evaluation of the "Conversations About Education" pilot, developed as a community collaboration to offer professional development involving participants from a Faculty of Education, local school partners, and community organizations offering programming to Newcomers to Canada. The program sought to provide…

In 2012, Canadian media coverage on Bill 13--an Ontario legislative proposal to require all publicly funded schools to support Gay-Straight Alliances as a means of addressing issues concerning bullied lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students--instigated a divisive exchange among representatives of the Ontario Catholic school sector.…

Background: There is growing interest in identifying changes in ways of practice associated with the growth of professional expertise. Research on highly experienced or expert teachers and therapists (i.e. occupational, physical and behavioural therapists) can provide insights into how they approach practice, providing guidance for new…

This paper reports on a research study of 28 literacy teacher educators (LTE) in four countries: Canada, the USA, England and Australia. It identifies three main forms of professional development: informal, formal and communities of practice and four spheres of knowledge: research; pedagogy of higher education; literacy and literacy teaching; and…

Since the first Circle of Trust retreat was offered in 2005, the Center for Courage & Renewal (CCR) and other individual facilitators across the United States, Canada, and Australia have continued to offer many cross-professional retreats, as they have proven extremely popular. They are designed for people from any profession who want to…

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple-case study was two-fold: 1) to describe, analyze, and interpret the experiences of school principals and superintendents who use multiple social media tools such as blogs, microblogs, social networking sites, podcasts, and online videos with stakeholders as part of their comprehensive communications…

This article reports observations of teachers' collaboration within an inner city elementary school located in western Canada. The study traces the school's development as a learning organization, focusing on the interplay between individual--the level at which learning and action actually occur--and social learning--a conceptual tool for…