This study explores the development of professional identity as a teacher of nature of science (NOS). Our research question was "How can a teacher develop a professional identity as an elementary teacher of NOS?" Through a researcher log, videotaped lessons, and collection of student work, we were able to track efforts in teaching NOS as…

The objective of this study is to explore the perceptions of intern teachers and mentor teachers regarding the determinants of learning from success during the internship year. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 37 teachers: 17 mentor teachers and 20 interns. Data analysis brought up the following themes: communication…

The 2013 study, "Incentives, Selection, and Teacher Performance: Evidence from IMPACT" examined the effects of "IMPACT," a teacher evaluation system used in the District of Columbia Public Schools, on teacher retention and performance. "IMPACT" assigns each teacher a single performance score based on classroom…

How to teach about difference is critical to education. This paper discusses teaching about difference in locations or contexts where the majority of teacher candidates were of the dominant culture. As a teacher educator, I have worked with teacher candidates on becoming aware of the relationships between their subject positions and the subject…

Despite its chequered history in relation to human rights issues, South Africa has been playing host to peoples displaced and dispossessed by geographies of anger and war, poverty, economic meltdown and other human rights atrocities. Perceiving South Africa as a sanctuary, there has been a steady wave of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees…

Developing an identity as a researcher and negotiating the expectations and responsibilities of academic life are challenges that many beginning education faculty face. Mentoring can provide support for this transition; however, traditional forms of mentoring may be unavailable, limited, or lack the specific components that individual mentees…

In this address, the author builds the case that a new political economy of education, dominated by what Pauline Lipman calls the "neo-liberal social imaginary," is changing the moral context in which educators imagine their professional roles. The author argues that educators are placed in relation to others in rather complicated…

Communities play a critical role in helping teacher candidates understand the social and historical aspects of community and their impact on schools, students and families, particularly in urban communities. Communities should be integral and equal partners in preparing teachers for today's diverse schools. This paper focuses on utilizing the…

Community colleges in the United States are facing a shortage of leaders because many current leaders will retire within the next 10 years (Weisman & Vaughn, 2007). Student diversity, technological advancement, and increased accountability have expanded the required skill-set of community college leaders. To aid the next generation of leaders…

In this paper, I explore the experiences of secondary teachers in four London schools [UK] who participated in Teacher Learning Communities, defined as meetings in which professional learning was supported as they learned about Assessment for Learning (AfL). The claim for these communities is that they lead to sustained improvements in teaching…

In 2011 England's career guidance profession lost its "own" public service organisation and its former dedicated stream of public funding. The immediate causes lay in decisions by the government of the day, but this article revisits the profession's history to seek explanations for its later vulnerability. It is argued that decisions…

Research on professional identity places various emphasis on the influence of internal or external components (Beijaard, Meijer and Verloop 2004; McGillivray 2008; Osgood 2010), which can create tension between the normative and subjective view of what it means to be a particular type of professional. This small scale research sought to uncover…

Teachers want to capitalize on their students' desire to to be virtually connected outside of the classroom and part of a participatory dialog shared with others interested in art and teaching. Blogging offers a way for students to connect with each other and maintain that connection across the miles of cornfields, wind-swept prairies, country…

Current theories of novice teacher learning have not accounted for the varied influences of pedagogical training, subject matter knowledge, tools, identity, and institutional context(s) on the development of classroom practice. We examined how 26 beginning secondary science teachers developed instructional repertoires as they participated in two…

This article explores the various elements of Canadian educational entrepreneurialism as manifested yesterday, today, and tomorrow and in relation to the social and political influences of the time. This discussion is informed by the findings of the International Study of the Preparation of Principals (ISPP) and represents an expansion of the…