Rivers2Lake helps teachers learn to provide watershed educational experiences for students through a summer institute followed by mentoring. Teacher focus groups were conducted to investigate the impact of mentoring, as well as toward understanding what was influential in bringing about those impacts. Mentoring impacted teachers in affective ways…

This study was designed to explore how the electronic learning community (eLC) process at an established state virtual high school (SVHS) supported new and veteran online high school teachers through the communities of practice (CoP) framework. Specifically, this study focused on the institutionally-driven nature of the eLC process, using Wenger's…

To fully understand teaching presence and its implications for the intellectual climate of an online classroom it is necessary to explore the phenomenon from the perspective of the instructors who experience it. Informed by the theoretical perspective of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, the actions, intentions and perceptions of instructors…

Faculty members from five years of an annual Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) development program were invited to participate in a study about the impact of SoTL on their teaching, scholarship, and career trajectory. During semi-structured interviews, many expressed feeling discomfort during their journey into SoTL. A qualitative…

This paper reports on Phase Two of a small-scale qualitative research project. Phase One (2015-2016) focused on pre-service student teachers' perceptions of observation and feedback in relation to their developing identity as teachers. In Phase Two, two previous participants reflected on the research findings as qualified and beginning teachers.…

Neo-liberal educational policies that are being implemented globally work to foster competition among schools and teachers, as well as among children. In this situation, teachers must often come to accept the dominant representations of curricular policy developed by higher authorities. In this study, a case study design is used to describe how…

Teachers cross boundaries when they collaborate with out-of-school partners to provide more authentic learning experiences for students. Using the framework of boundary crossing, the study draws on interview data from schools and their out-of-school partners to examine the research question of how the research participants viewed the beginning of…

This study examined how one academic framed the enablements and constraints to her project of being and becoming an academic. Complexity facilitated reflection in that it provided a visual representation of data, which was used to generate a concept map, which represented as equal all the component parts of her landscape. Five spaces with…

In order to be effective, professional development efforts are most promising if they are context specific and focus on supporting collaboration. Increasingly, schools initiate professional development with small groups of teachers, with the intention that the effects of the initiatives will spill over to other school personnel. This study follows…

This study focuses on the impact of a sustainability leadership development program (SLDP) designed to develop staff members as leaders who encourage sustainability practices within institutions of higher education (IHE). Using the framework of community of practice (CoP), we explored the program's contribution by interviewing 16 staff members who…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider an expanded vision of professional development for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) in a higher education institution. Through an exploration of a community of practice at the University of Tasmania, this paper examines how collaborative peer learning can sustain and promote continued…

Many teachers, after having worked in isolation for so long and a business capital model of education reform, do not understand the concept of professional capital and its impact for transforming education. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary teachers' perception of professional capital within their community of practice. The data…

The purpose of this qualitative Action Research Study was to describe eight elementary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers' perceptions of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The teacher-participants' opinions about the PLC were used to improve the existing PLC to promote a more reflective and collaborative environment where ELA teachers…

This study investigated the willingness of 14 English-speaking EFL instructors living and working in South Korea to invest in practices connected with learning and using the Korean language. A model of investment for the "new world order" (Darvin, R., and B. Norton. 2015. "Identity and a Model of Investment in Applied…

The Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Project was a professional development initiative that sought to improve the teaching and learning of Grade 9 Applied mathematics by encouraging teachers to work collaboratively. The project brought together Grade 9 Applied mathematics teachers from 11 schools across four neighboring public school boards in the…