Administrative demands, crisis management, and political challenges often strand superintendents miles away from the day-to-day work of teachers and students in the classroom. Even when superintendents strive to focus their work on the instructional core--the interactions among student, teacher, and content--those same commitments and crises…

Incidents of workplace violence are becoming all too common at colleges and universities. Generally, one thinks of shootings and assaults in relation to campus workplace violence. However, mobbing and bullying of faculty by other faculty are types of workplace violence that, while very common, are rarely discussed or reported. This article raises…

Attempts to promote collaboration among teachers conflict with a long tradition of teacher isolation. Defenders of this isolation often argue that such collaboration should be voluntary. However, because the preponderance of evidence suggests that collaboration is better than isolation, professionalism demands that all teachers be required to…

The Durkheimian concept of the density of social relationships may prove more fruitful than the historical materialist notion of a social hierarchy for thinking about the social location of epistemic agents in science. To define a scientist's social location in terms of the density of her professional relationships with other scientists permits us…

Wouldn't it be great if all your teachers were as good as your best? Teaching is often an isolated profession in which teachers work behind closed doors, doing their own thing. Peer coaching is a collaborative, ongoing process that can increase the effectiveness of all your teachers. This "Focus On" is designed to lead a faculty into the…

Even though introductory educational psychology is a widespread feature of preservice teacher education, instructors of this course generally learn to teach the course in isolation from each other--a circumstance that limits the effectiveness of this course. The traditional strategies of professional development are conducting research about the…

Educational researchers are accustomed to institutional review board (IRB) requirements (e.g., protecting participants) with students often identified as the only "vulnerable population" for IRB purposes. However, as practitioner research has gained more prominence, the vulnerability of teacher-researchers themselves has begun to…

Physics education reform movements should pay attention to feminist analyses of gender in the culture of physics for two reasons. One reason is that feminist analyses contribute to an understanding of a "chilly climate" women encounter in many physics university departments. Another reason is that feminist analyses reveal that certain styles of…

Studying one's profession, especially when done in community with others, where the learning is richer and deeper, has not been the norm in the education community. Educators typically have been physically isolated from each other because of the structure of school facilities and the schedules that dominate the school day. This physical isolation…

Describes the context, format, and goals of the Professional Carers' Group, a professional network designed to support a centralized treatment project for young people who have sexually abused others. Ways that group-based work with potentially isolated local professionals may help a treatment program maintain a systemic perspective is discussed.…

A discussion of the professional isolation of college administrators, particularly presidents, presents several views of the phenomenon, examines sources of leadership isolation, and suggests ways of avoiding and removing barriers to it. Focus is on relationships between individuals, group dynamics, and establishing organizational systems that…

Account of one woman's climb to full professorship after over 20 years of teaching. Greeted with an icy reception at a midsize southern college, this Ivy League graduate was reluctantly hired in 1973. Recounts various specific instances of sex discrimination endured by the only full-time female professional in the music department. (LSR)

Because of the difficulty of finding time for professional and personal development, many family child care (FCC) providers are isolated in their work environment. This practicum study developed a provider-initiated support network to reduce this isolation. The local FCC association provided advertising about the formation of the network. A group…

The Hofstra University New Teachers' Network offers a multifaceted approach to university-based support for new teachers that also enhances the experience of students in its preservice teacher education program. This model is rooted in relationships that develop during preservice teacher education programs and has been successful at recruiting and…