There are few conversations about teaching these days that do not include talk about teacher quality. Yet, within the conversations about improving teacher quality, the dialogue is often political--consumed with one-dimensional solutions for improving teacher quality, such as linking teacher pay to student performance. Absent from the pervasive…

This article introduces the process of inquiry-oriented mentoring as an appropriate tool for developing the knowledge, skills, and abilities of mentors who work with prospective teachers within the professional development school. The process shows promise as a tool for capturing the knowledge of what constitutes powerful mentoring practices, by…

Investigated the experiences of first-year teachers who learned to teach in a Professional Development School and completed an inquiry-oriented, full-year internship. Interviews conducted during the internship and first teaching years indicated that these teachers surpassed the traditional survival stage of novice teachers, had strongly developed…

Consistent with educational reform efforts, this study examines traditional roles of teacher educators, university researchers, and public school personnel and addresses the following questions: (1) What role can the university play as change is initiated within public schools? (2) In order to create a culture for change, how must the traditional…

Explores the evolution of inquiry into a Professional Development School (PDS) context. Teacher educators hoped to cultivate inquiry as a stance into the PDS culture. This required time for teachers to understand inquiry and embrace it as a powerful tool for reflective teaching and educational change. Mentor teachers gained space to understand…

Focusing on the emerging nature of teacher voice in educational change, this ethnographic study examined the process of teacher-initiated change through collaborative research in an elementary school. Four elementary school teachers, their principal, and a university professor were involved in the research. Qualitative data was collected through…

This study was conducted to explore the process of teacher and principal change initiated by elementary school teachers who wished to replace the school's culture of isolation and seclusion with a culture of collegiality and caring. Their vision of change and the change process itself was intertwined with the development of a sense of teacher…

This paper describes a collaborative action research project conducted by a university researcher and a group of elementary school teachers. It examines the role the researcher plays when educational change is initiated by practitioners and the nature of the relationship that develops between researcher and practitioners throughout the change…