Teacher professional learning communities provide environments in which teachers engage in regular research and collaboration. They have been found effective as a means for connecting professional learning to the day-to-day realities faced by teachers in the classroom. In this article, the authors draw on survey data collected in primary schools…

This article presents a study exploring the beliefs, knowledge, and practices of four middle and secondary science teachers participating in a collaborative curriculum action research project. Using a case study methodology, the views and practices of these teachers were described and analyzed as they investigated novel ideas about scientific…

This paper describes diverse language learners' use of dialogue journaling in an elementary school setting. The author, a teacher researcher, conducted a qualitative research study with eight participants, ranging from fourth to sixth grade; all were learners adding English to their language repertoire. Through an in-depth analysis of student…

Purpose: Although teacher educators have worked on improving pre-service teachers' diversity awareness, researchers still face the challenge of pursuing a better approach to achieve the goal. In an era when educators are calling for evidence-based practice, the purpose of this paper is to explore various ways in which both teacher-education…

Background/Context: Discussion in classrooms has been cited as an activity integral to active participation in a democracy. Much research into classroom practice reveals that recitation, not discussion, is the most common form of classroom discourse. How teachers conceive of discussion, what they actually do when they attempt discussion with…

This article reports on a study that aimed to explore general classroom music teaching and learning via video-conferencing between pre-service music teachers in the USA, and students at an elementary school for underprivileged children in Mexico. This study examines the challenges, progress and lessons learned as interactions within this…

The purpose of this study was to explore how critical pedagogy, culturally relevant curriculum, and student centered instruction impacted student engagement in reading for struggling high school readers, including first- and second-generation immigrants. The researcher/practitioner (r/p) chose to highlight Latinas in the study to understand the…

Educational researchers are accustomed to institutional review board (IRB) requirements (e.g., protecting participants) with students often identified as the only "vulnerable population" for IRB purposes. However, as practitioner research has gained more prominence, the vulnerability of teacher-researchers themselves has begun to…

Several authors (e.g., Mcniff & Whitehead, 2006; Wallace, 1998) defend the idea that teachers' own involvement in research has the potential to encourage professional growth. Journal writing, teacher logs, written narratives and stimulated recall are some examples of methods that have been used by researchers to encourage and support teachers'…

This directory of specialists and institutions involved with Anthropology and Language Science in Educational Development (ALSED) aims primarily at providing the foundation for an international ALSED network of scholars, qroups, and agencies actively dealing with the socio-cultural and linguistic adaptation of the content and methodology of…

Although action research in education offers researchers and practitioners a clear and philosophically appealing way of making improvements, fostering learning, and developing the individual and the organization, adherents sometimes find themselves defending this type of research because it has been practiced without appropriate rigor. This book…

Highlights problems concerning the ways that researchers' assumptions about the world color their treatment of students and schools, outlining three ways students are commonly viewed (as inputs, aliens, and rebels) and recommending a more reflexive approach to research that is more sensitive to its own assumptions and limited uses. (SM)

This article describes an alternative methodology for conducting research that is intended to bring about institutional change. This process involves developing deeper awareness among faculty members, administrators, or counselors, of a problem that exists in their local context. In some instances these individuals may be unaware that the problem…

This contribution is set in the context of the burgeoning of practitioner inquiry in Australia, taking account also of various European and North American initiatives, against the background of the notion of action research as an emancipatory project. Practitioner inquiry, under these conditions, requires that the work move beyond a utilitarian…

Instruction and assessment need to be understood and thought about within the cultural context in which they occur. Educators and educational researchers may make assumptions that apply in their home culture but not elsewhere. And even different subcultures within an overall mainstream culture may have different views on instruction and…