This essay brings together three intergenerational colleagues, two RECE founders, and a mid-career colleague, engaged in reciprocal mentorship, collaborative projects, and research focused on child care, critical policy studies, and global childhoods. We explore our encounters with RECE and how we have engaged with, been influenced by, and found…

Co-constructing a long-term sustainable vision on the future of teaching is a policy priority for many countries as society rapidly changes. There is a need to create space in the teacher debate to look forward for inspiration and to learn from contemporary change in other professions, such as the concept of "connective professionalism".…

This article presents the results from an empirical qualitative study of the challenges faced by teacher leaders in their attempts to work directly with their colleagues to change instructional strategies and improve student success. Additionally, it offers a challenge to the utility of a naïvely espoused theory of distributed leadership, which…

Nation states around the world, including Singapore, are endeavouring to reform their education systems in order to successfully compete in the global economy (Carnoy, 1999). With human capital as Singapore's primary resource, it is unsurprising that the state has placed great emphasis on strengthening the economic-education nexus. This tight…

State funded preschool programs were constantly faced with the need to change in order to address internal and external demands. As programs engaged in efforts towards change, minimal research was available on how to support continuous improvement efforts within the context unique to state funded preschool programs. Guidance available had…

School reformers hope that converting comprehensive high schools into collections of small schools will produce results similar to those realized in freestanding small schools. Three themes--personalization, professional community, and shared decision making--exemplify the early successes in conversions. But the challenge of sustaining these gains…

School change efforts to develop schools as learning communities result in schools that are constantly learning and thus changing. This collective case study of four schools involved in a 4-year reform effort begins to examine the ongoing sustainability of a learning community. The study draws insights about the sustainability of learning…

In a policy climate driven by tests and external mandates, theories of school reform that place teachers, their knowledge, and their relationships at the heart of school improvement have garnered attention as promising alternatives. Yet little exists in print about how such theories actually work or what these approaches look like in practice.…

This article explores the social and professional dynamics "when teachers face teachers" seeking to impact colleagues' instructional practices to improve student learning. Specifically, it examines a group of 40 teachers leading staff development sessions at their schools in an effort to bring more literacy strategies into the pedagogies of…

A recent study conducted by a midwestern university research center surveyed 47 school districts who were members of a university-school district collaborative. Respondents indicated that the changing roles of teachers and principals were an important issue. This paper presents findings of a subsequent study based on indepth interviews with the…

Findings of a study that explored the impact of shared governance on the principal's role are presented in this paper. Methodology included two telephone interviews and one onsite observation with 15 principals from 10 elementary, 1 middle, and 4 high schools in rural and suburban communities in Georgia. The schools participated in shared…

Many schools across the United States are attempting to implement some form of decentralization and shared decision making. This paper identifies some of the challenges associated with implementing school-based decision making and describes ways in which some schools and their principals have dealt effectively with them. Three particular…

This publication examines the situations in which school-based management has worked and, conversely, those in which it failed to meet expectations. It attempts to identify exactly what school-based management (SBM) is and what it is not. Information was obtained from interviews with researchers and practitioners, a review of literature, and a…

This report contains findings of an evaluation of the first phase of Tayside Region's (Scotland) Devolved School Management (DSM) scheme. The evaluation sought to evaluate the first phase of implementation and to suggest ways in which the scheme and accompanying training might be improved. Sixty schools chose to participate in the first phase,…

Among several innovations in public school curriculum and financing, the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) also included a school-governance provision. School-Based Decision Making (SBDM) Councils include administrators, teachers, and parents in addressing school-level curriculum and instructional issues. These groups have not had a…