This article contextualises the Higher Education in Italy from the outset by describing deeply rooted but accepted practices, such as the long-term dominance of academic groups in decision making--baroni and their "court"--and also the widespread custom of "Raccomandazioni" as the means to lead mechanisms of recruitment among…

Innovation is a key goal of many tertiary education and distance learning providers. This research explores how teachers and educational designers across three New Zealand tertiary institutions worked to innovatively achieve teaching goals. A longitudinal design using the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) framework explored the influence…

In the wake of a White Paper on Education Reform, published in 2014 by the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, the minister launched a national initiative to improve literacy education in Icelandic compulsory schools. The White Paper and the national initiative came as a reaction to the disappointing performance of 15-year-olds…

The aim of this philosophical and historical position paper is to discuss the ways in which Popular Education--folkbildning--has contributed to the social transformation of Sweden through self-directed and collaborative educational practices. One of our premises is that individual transformative learning, fostered by folkbildning, has contributed…

The Teacher Learning and Leadership Program (TLLP) has given us an excellent example of what happens when the conditions for learning are created for teachers, rather than teaching them in the traditional professional development way from the "outside" in. For 7 years, the Ontario Ministry of Education and the Ontario Teachers Federation…

This article reports on the findings of a planned workplace health promotion intervention, and the aim is to identify conditions that facilitated or restricted the learning to promote health at an emergency care department in a Swedish hospital. The study had a longitudinal design, with interviews before and after the intervention and follow-up…

Teachers constantly question their own practice. Often, their questions remain unexplored. Collegial observation provides one way to see teaching differently and understand the tensions involved in incorporating new theoretical understandings into practice. Gebhard (1999) argues that conversations preceding and following such observations are…

This paper outlines an academic development process based around a two- or three-day workshop programme called a Course Design Intensive (CDI). The CDI process aims to foster collaboration and peer support in curriculum development and bring about pedagogic innovation and positive experiences for both tutors and learners. Bringing participants…