Background: Social media provides new opportunities for teachers to learn, communicate and develop professional relationships. It has been proved to be a valid and helpful resource for teachers' professional learning purposes. Objectives: While previous studies pursued questions like how participants feel, how to support interaction and why…

The authors work with practicing teachers learning to become coaches in graduate programs and through professional learning initiatives in multiple school districts. They are also engaged in an ongoing research study of new coach development. Over the last five years, they have observed some common patterns in coaches' learning (Ortmann et. al,…

Life in academia can be difficult. Studies of faculty show high levels of stress leading to impaired productivity, exhaustion, pessimism, and disillusionment. Methods for addressing workplace stress including mentoring, professional/social interaction, and work-family enrichment have been well documented. This co/autoethnographic study examined a…

An arts curriculum director of an urban, Pre-K-12 school district north of Boston, Massachusetts researched literature about feelings of connectedness and professional learning among itinerant, art teachers. The study employed a framework of communities of practice for itinerant art teachers. The strands found across the literature were the state…

Given their multifaceted roles, mentors provide many benefits. They make themselves and their experiences available to others. They share their knowledge, expertise, skills, and insights. Mentors pay attention, and they help to strengthen one's abilities. Through their teaching and role modeling, their mentees develop leadership, communication,…

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…

As an educator for thirty-four years, the author describes several great changes she has seen in the field of education since she started in the 1970s. The author gives advice to educators just beginning their careers. Old and new ways of receiving professional development are explained along with the limitations and benefits of these options.…

Purpose: This article aims to explore the concept of amateurism as a form of critique and addition to the concepts of professionalism, professional work and education. Design/methodology/approach: This is a theoretically driven article based upon a review of the historical and sociological literature on amateur-professional relations in various…

Part of a larger qualitative study to better understand how teachers learn to exercise informal leadership in the schools and districts where they work, this article illustrates dispositions of emerging teacher leadership by identifying and describing three possible teacher leadership prerequisites through lived experience examples. Eight…

Leadership by teachers is essential to serving the needs of students, schools, and the teaching profession. To that end, the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium has developed Teacher Leader Model Standards to codify, promote, and support teacher leadership as a vehicle to transform schools for the needs of the 21st century. The Teacher…

During the last 20 years, faculty have faced rising workloads, increasing amounts of top-down accountability and oversight, mounting publication demands, decreasing numbers of tenure-track positions, and an increasingly dismal job market. The current recession has exacerbated the pressure by requiring departmental budget cuts, faculty layoffs,…

Perhaps getting advice seems a clearer-cut task than giving it. But at a time when budding academics seem busier and more distracted than ever, it is all the more important to understand how to learn from a mentor, and that being a good protege has its own strategies, techniques and responsibilities. The mentor relationship is alive and well in…

This mixed methodology study was designed to examine the factors and the process by which mainstream university faculty members adopt and implement technology in teaching and learning. Data were collected through a survey administered to faculty from 3 academic colleges (N = 117) and interviews of selected survey respondents (N = 9). Path analysis…

The role of the school principal in a community of learners is discussed. A "community of learners" refers to a group of individuals with common interests who share ideals and learn from each other. The principal must work with teachers, providing support and receiving support in helping students achieve optimal results. A community of learners…

This article proposes that the success of student affairs professionals is more closely tied to their ability to construct and manage essential relationships during their careers than any other activity. The author discusses essential principles and skills in developing and managing professional relationships. (GCP)