Lessons to plan, meetings to attend, bulletin boards to keep up on, and students to educate are just a few of the challenges encountered during the first year of teaching. For many teachers, it is not the hours or workload that cause the most stress, but rather the very people they are trying to help. These people are the parents of the students.…

This study focuses on teachers' perceptions of the problem of underachievement in elementary schools in Kuwait. Five hundred and twenty elementary school teachers participated. Teachers thought that the main reasons behind the problem of under-achievement in school could be attributed to family factors. They also indicated that the most related…

In this essay, we consider four approaches to research on teacher knowledge: the scholarship of teaching, action research and teacher research, narrative inquiry, and critical-cultural teacher research. Similarities and differences among these four approaches are highlighted. The most salient difference lies in the way each approach identifies…

Demography, distance, and the expansion of settlements created problems for the State Department of Education in Western Australia and other Australian states in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Educational administration in Canada and parts of the United States faced similar issues with regard to the provision of schools. A common…

This study investigates an assumption used to legitimate charter school legislation, namely that such schools will reduce regulatory constraint burdening schools and school personnel. Reformers and policymakers have argued that charter schools will increase teacher empowerment and enable teachers to better carry out their education functions.…

This article explores congregational studies as a valuable teaching tool for contextualizing theological education across disciplines. As a form of pedagogy, congregational studies situates learning in a particular local ministry context. In addition, such a pedagogy apprentices learners within a particular "community of practice"--namely, that of…

This article presents an account of how the author has made cultural diversity a powerful pedagogical resource for teaching rather than a burden. It is suggested that such an approach can deliver real educational benefits, rather than simply being a protocol to meet the requirements of "political correctness" or commercial imperatives. The issues…

In this article, the author discusses the ways that she experiences and encourages her students to experience selfhood, diversity, and community. She reflects on the strategies that she has used to help students articulate, affirm, and share their experiences; how she uses the knowledge they gain in the process to become cross-culturally…

Many teachers in Guatemala City had grown up under an oppressive government. They were educated in a culture of silence, in which it was dangerous to voice any ideas. Guatemalan educators are working to change the approach to education in their public schools, but in many ways it has not changed. Most teachers only know the methods by which they…

In the current era of accountability for achievement, school principals play the pivotal role of instructional leader. In a high-stakes testing environment, leadership preparation programs in universities and school districts need to be positively related to academic outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between…

Despite their interconnectedness, teacher education, teacher development, and teacher retention are often treated as discrete domains of inquiry. This article and the research on which it reports resist such compartmentalization and instead focus on relationships between teachers' pasts, presents, and futures. In particular, this qualitative study…

Schools have a specific purpose and have been constructed to fulfill the expectations of the larger society. The beliefs, values, and practices of teachers and administrators guide the actions that take place within, shaping the identities of the young as they grow into productive members of society. Classrooms are the primary setting in which…

Recent studies have used increasingly complex methodologies to estimate the effect of peer characteristics--race, poverty, and ability--on student achievement. A paper by Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin using Texas state testing data has received particularly wide attention because it found a large negative effect of school percent black on black math…

State and federal accountability systems are pressuring public schools to improve the performance of low-achieving students. To respond, schools must be able to recruit and retain high-quality teachers, strengthen curricula, and take other steps to provide struggling students with the help they need. But such efforts are expensive and, as the…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the perceptions of technology integration by 90 entry level students in a teacher education program. During their field experience placement, candidates observed teachers' integration of technology in the classroom. During the final week of observation, the candidates completed a modified…