This chapter provides background theory and practical steps for a possible selves approach to career development in adult education settings. It also identifies methods to foster development, enhance motivation, and manage setbacks.

This paper explores the conflicting philosophies within the widening participation debate. Two categories of inclusive educators are identified, "meritocrats" and "democrats". Among the democratic educators, a subgroup, "transformative" educators, exists, which seeks to invoke changes in society and the education…

This article reports on the authors' experiences as researchers finding out that working with an advocacy organization helped to address the lag between analyzing and drawing conclusions from research and ensuring that relevant findings had an impact. For many in the world of advocacy or those in the world of research, the partnership that is the…

Transformational learning as presented by Jack Mezirow has been critiqued for its Western, rational, and cognitive orientation. This qualitative study was conducted in the African nation of Botswana and examines how that culture shaped the process. In-depth interviews were held with 12 adults who acknowledged having an experience that had…

The focus of this article revolves around democratic learning communities and the work of P-12 teachers and educational leaders as spatialized practice. Through a critical pragmatic lens, we explore what is necessary to transform the social space of contemporary schools into democratically practiced places of learning for teachers: democratic…

This article is a reply to Gewirtz and Cribb's argument for ethical reflexivity, presented in a previous issue of this journal. These authors compared their views with mine, suggesting a way in which the differences between our positions could be overcome. I argue that, while there is certainly substantial agreement, there are also some…

Based on an ongoing qualitative case study in Costa Rica, this article presents the participatory work that the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) is doing with farmers to protect watersheds from erosion and contamination. Specifically, it includes a description of ICE's Watershed Management Agricultural Programme and how farmers…

In this article, a contribution is made to the discussion of reflection on the part of teachers. The discussion to date has shown that reflection must be broad and deep. However, just what constitutes broad and deep reflection and the relations between the two remain unclear. After consideration of the characteristics of broad and deep reflection,…

This narrative acts as an articulation of a journey of many routes. Following Part I of the same research journey of rootedness/routedness, it debates the nature of transformation and transcendence beyond personal and political paradoxes informed by neoliberalism and related repressive globalizing discourses. Through a more personal, descriptive,…

The core empirical basis of this paper is based upon my recent participatory action research case study, sponsored by my university, conducted in a rural school in one of the most disadvantageous districts of Sindh, Pakistan. The paper argues that the current climate in most of the schools across the country reflects "apathy" and…

In this article, the author responds to the Modern Language Association's report, "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World" (2007) by arguing for an explicit and interdisciplinary transformative world language learning approach toward environmental and cultural sustainability and economic and political…

This article discusses a unit of work, developed by this author, that encouraged students to "express themselves" by using language to make a difference (i.e., to protest an issue of particular concern.) While the culminating task for this unit was a spoken task requiring students to reflect upon what they had done and how successful…

The National Professional Qualification in Integrated Centre Leadership (NPQICL) is a programme that supports children's centre leaders to develop their own leadership capability. This research highlights the effect the particular constructivist teaching and learning methodology has had on individual tutors' and mentors' professional development.…

In many teacher training courses, reflection upon practice plays a very important role in learning to teach. A number of strategies have been developed to help student teachers learn to reflect. Current reflection strategies often focus on problematic instead of on positive experiences. Ideas from positive psychology and solution-based therapy…

For the most part, faculty preparing teachers and leaders for tomorrow's schools would agree that educators, regardless of their role, need to be sensitive to the diverse cultures represented in our schools. Leaders need to be sensitive to and understanding of different cultures, while working to ensure the success of all students regardless of…