This book chronicles the challenges, truths, and lessons of teaching and leading in a traditional high school today: the bureaucratic red tape, the fight for inclusivity, the mental health and safety concerns, and the urgent need for teacher support and wellness. From active shooter drills to digital distractions, from closing achievement gaps to…

Recent discussion indicates that the initial enthusiasm of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) teachers can be undermined by the demands of foreign-language mediated education. However, there is a lack of research on the resources and tensions that respectively support or limit the professional agency of CLIL teachers. By means of…

We extended the research on autonomy-supportive teaching to universities and examined the relationships between autonomous motivation to teach and autonomy-supportive teaching. Autonomously motivated university instructors were more autonomy-supportive instructors. The freedom to make pedagogical decisions was negatively correlated with external…

Sharing the findings from two qualitative case studies, analyzed together, this article examines various ways educators, both elementary teachers and teacher educators, exercise agency in their interpretation and implementation of Arizona's model of Structured English Immersion (SEI), a 4-hour English Language Development (ELD) block, which…

Over the past few years, there has been an ever-growing chorus of those who grumble that teachers are unhappy with their lack of control and freedom and have grown to deeply dislike their jobs. This article asks if teachers really lack autonomy and freedom, and wonders if as a nation, whether or not we have reached the right balance of…

Despite the research evidence on the effectiveness of collaborative learning (CL), the implementation of this teaching strategy has not yet found a profound place in teaching practice. As a consequence, several studies have investigated teachers' motives regarding and experiences with the use of CL. Most of these studies concern however senior…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliability and validity of a newly developed survey instrument, the "Primary Practices Questionnaire" ("PPQ"), designed to measure first, second, and third grade teachers' perceived use of developmentally appropriate practices. The initial item pool was reviewed for content…

Teachers in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms work in highly charged contexts where policy, curriculum, student backgrounds, equity issues and pedagogical expertise provide both resources and constraints. Often, these classrooms are in underachieving schools in low socio-economic areas. This study investigated one school in…

This article presents results of a study of 229 kindergarten teachers who completed a survey designed to gather information about the current state of Michigan kindergartens. In addition to detailed data that reveals teachers' literacy instructional practices, teachers provided written responses to the following open-ended questions: What are the…

Hierarchical educational structures employ a standards-driven decision-making atmosphere that challenges teachers' autonomy. This situation represents a critical issue for teacher educators who must consider how they will teach candidates to respond to these settings. We argue that teacher empowerment represents a moral issue that teacher…

During the last two decades teachers in many countries have found themselves facing new demands and changes. In his "intensification thesis" Apple made a powerful attempt to conceptualize and explain these changes: the growing economic and management oriented perspective on education leads to intensification of teachers' work, implying deskilling…

For a variety of reasons, including overemphasis on professional autonomy, many classroom teachers experience disillusionment and feelings of isolation. This paper explores teaching clinics as a way to break down barriers and foster dialogue among teachers. The Schenley High School Teacher Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, developed a teaching…