Since the Communities of Practice (CoP) concept has been adopted in various learning environments, visualizing its development in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms is complicated. Thus, based on the CoP concept, this study investigates the changes in learners' degrees of participation and CoP elements in EFL writing/reading classes…

This paper aims to show how the Goffman frame perspective can be used in an analysis of school and education and how it can be combined, in such analysis, with the frame factor perspective. The latter emphasizes factors that are determined outside the teaching process, while the former stresses how actors organize their experiences and define…

This article employs narrative analysis to examine how the media in 12 different countries characterize the "Teach for All" (TFA) teacher. Examining mass media narratives in these 12 countries illustrates that there are some remarkable commonalities in the narratives and character portraits co-constructed and propagated by the media. At…

Many countries whose economies are in transition have initiated ambitious education reforms intended to modernize their education systems to better respond to the needs of new social and economic realities. Albania is a good example of a society that is emerging from a closed planned socialist system and moving fast to an open society and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different dimensions of instructional leadership on student learning in Hong Kong secondary schools, whose broader institutional contexts are critically characterized by high accountability policy environments. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes standardized test scores…

In this paper, we consider our use of activity theory to examine empirical data from a study of reform in England--the implementation of the mathematics strand of the Key Stage 3 Strategy in two schools. Our concerns are largely methodological--we consider the aspects of reform that more traditional activity theory methods and foci were able to…

This paper examines: (1) events leading to the present concern over student's rights; (2) a summary of the author's theoretical assumptions concerning school change; (3) recent work in developing change processes in two Ontario secondary schools; and (4) moral and ethical considerations regarding student rights in the process of planned change.…

Innovation processes in the Swedish Higher Education System are described and related to a general theory of innovation. Using the theories of Kurt Lewin, characteristics of higher education as a social system and factors which determine the nature of the forces towards a certain type of change are defined. (JMF)