In this study of 211 teacher work samples derived from a professional development programme, teachers' conceptualisations of student inquiry were revealed by examining the nature of perceived outcomes and the role of critical thinking that animated teachers' student inquiries collected over nine years. Using a schema adapted from the literature,…

The present study investigates the variety among teacher educators (TEds) related to the use of digital resources in teaching as well as the strategies they use to develop digital competence. A person-centred approach was applied to identify meaningful patterns among TEds having different levels of self-reported digital expertise, at five teacher…

Dialogic teaching has been demonstrated to be conducive to the development of such important competencies and skills as creativity, communication skills, and critical thinking skills. However, the literature confirms that teacher-student interactions in the classroom are predominantly monologic rather than dialogic across subjects, grades, and…

This research paper explores teachers' contribution to quality education in the midst of political, economic and social struggles in post-conflict Liberia. The paper adopts the qualitative research method and interviews were conducted with teachers and educational stakeholders to examine the needed contributions of teachers to quality education in…

This qualitative study seeks to explore how two university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers learned to teach critical thinking (CT) through lesson study in China. Informed by relevant literature on CT and teachers' learning to teach CT, and drawing on data from interviews, classroom observation, artefacts and research journals for one…

This article focuses on the "who" of anti-racism education by examining who the teachers are that are doing anti-racist work and what experiences influenced them to counter racism in their education practices. Taking a pragmatic approach, I use data on racism and anti-racism in schools from interviews with 27 upper secondary school…

In this conceptual article, we draw on a graded theory concept as well as two exemplary cases to discuss the role of professional theorizing in teachers' practice. We present a model that can illustrate how a non-dichotomous, graded and processual understanding of theory may help overcome a split between theory, on the one hand, and practice, on…

The article explores how space for professional agency is structured and used by teachers in collaborative professional development. Taking an ecological perspective on teacher agency and using a case study of with multiple data sets, the analysis identifies two patterns of agentic orientations. The conclusions discuss limitations associated with…

Schools have long been identified as important sites in terms of instilling values within the next generation. In order to develop our understanding of values, this paper sets out to explore how values are understood in Irish educational legislation, policies and curriculum. Irish Legislation, policies and curricula were searched systematically.…

Schools play a key role in the lives of young refugees and asylum seekers, yet it is unclear to what extent educators are prepared to effectively teach this population. In this study, we examined how educators acquire knowledge relevant to teaching refugee pupils through a survey (n = 295) and nestled case studies of 17 teachers at two schools in…

Drawing on the capability approach to human development and Bourdieuan reflexive sociology, this paper explores the interplay of teacher agency and professional practice. The paper names five facets of teacher agency. It shows that teachers with a strong sense of agency actively seek learning opportunities--inquisitive agency; think effortfully…

Conventional professional development, while still in full swing in many places, has been widely maligned for its passive approach to learning, its failure to address local differences, and its often single-event format. While the corrective move to more collaborative models of professional learning has been heralded, few empirical studies to date…

Scholars have called for new conceptualisations of teachers' learning that capture the complex, contextualised, and dynamic nature of professional growth. In this article, we describe the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI) that portrays teacher learning as inseparable from the complex and dynamic processes by which teachers form their…

The democratisation of early childhood education and care and the promotion of plurilingualism across Europe have facilitated the implementation of educational projects and research on early language learning at the pre-primary stage. However, in Spain and similar foreign language (FL) education contexts, it is not clear who should be implementing…

Although Chinese teachers commonly participate in school-based professional development activities, there is a remarkable scarcity of large-scale quantitative research into the effectiveness of teacher professional development in China, which is characterised as an institutionalised practice. Based on a conceptual framework applying recent…