Sociologists have long sought to understand the relationship between collective experiences and individual commitments. This article examines the short-term mission as an institutionalized religious experience, assessing its prevalence, predictors and impact on the religious trajectories of the youth who participate in them. Religiously devout…

In their longitudinal study, Kosnik, Beck, Cleovoulou and Fletcher accompanied a group of 22 beginning teachers along the critical period of their first three years in the profession. While the overall tone of this inside-the-classroom-door-study is positive and even optimistic, the findings point to seven key areas where the authors concluded…

In an exploratory study of 12 teacher education programs representing various geographic regions and institutional types according to the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, this author and a colleague (Goodwin & Oyler, 2008) learned from teacher educators across the country about the many constraints they work within, the lack…

Given the economic, political, and social conditions in the world today and the increased diversity in Canadian classrooms, schools require teachers who have a strong sense of self-awareness and understanding of global issues. This article is based on empirical research involving preservice teachers from an Atlantic Canadian university. The…

Contemporary learning research and development that is embedded in primary and secondary schooling is increasingly acknowledging the significance of a variation approach for enhancing the possibility of learning. However, the variation approach has so far attracted very little attention in higher education, but where it has, the results have been…

Do camps provide a particular kind of thinking space where learning that lasts is facilitated? The argument is built around the concept of transformative learning that involves understanding who we are or wish to be and how we grow accordingly. The nature of such learning is explored through its conceptual relationship with changes in attitudes…

Based on the theory of transformative learning (Mezirow, 1980) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1980), mixed-methods research (Tashakkori & Teddlie, 1998) of a hospital workers' union and training organization addressed the impact of a custom-designed, group-focused, results-driven professional development model with 130 participants. Employees…

In her book Borderlands/La frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria Anzaldua writes of a "Borderlands," which she describes as "a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary....a constant state of transition" (1999, p. 25). In this paper, I explore my own borderlands, between the spaces of my classroom as a…

On a small island belonging to the Alutiiq people of Old Harbor, 11 people sat around a campfire. Two community leaders, a nonprofit organizer, an academic scholar, a native filmmaker, and six young people from the Indian reservation of Taos Pueblo in New Mexico gathered after a day of interacting with Old Harbor residents--fishing, hunting and…

A Professional Development School (PDS) serves as a quality-teaching model. It is a vehicle that generates professional understanding through conversations among university professors, teachers, and teacher candidates. The author illustrates a pilot PDS program that exemplifies the many benefits of transforming the teaching model into a successful…

The purpose of this research was to study the design and implementation of a newly developed, two-semester, action research course in a Master of Arts in Teaching program. Over a four-year period, we (the instructors) used action research methodologies for analysis and evaluation of the course. Throughout this study, students expressed varying…

The Social Problem Solving through Science (SPSS) project engaged middle school-aged youth in the study of local environmental challenges with implications for human health and well-being, both globally and locally. Students considered environmental risk factors in a series of structured activities to develop background knowledge on environmental…

Service-learning is a form of experiential learning that combines academic coursework with voluntary service in the community. There is a dearth of critical analysis of the effects of service-learning. To address this issue, this practitioner research aimed to explore and understand its effects. An inductive approach, using qualitative and…

The SOTL project was based on the goal of developing learning tools that would help students think and act outside the narrow circles of relatives and friends and develop the potential for broader associations through participating in nonprofit organizations and philanthropy. This was done by having students work in groups to invent a charitable…

This phenomenological study describes seven stages of learning to teach at the university level. Through the use of narratives, twelve Canadian university professors reveal their beliefs and attitudes about teaching and learning as they struggle to become better teachers within various academic settings. The purpose of the study was to develop a…