Examines the limited communication between educational theorists and researchers, on the one hand, and policy makers and practitioners, on the other. Discounts the "two cultures" thesis for explaining the communication gap, arguing that the groups are heterogeneous and overlap. Discusses six approaches to closing the communication gap,…

Many teacher educators today will find little difficulty in completing this cloze--but Bob Dylan's understanding of the outsider may not be one that we share in terms of our own experience as teacher educators. Our concern in this paper is to suggest that such an understanding may also be one that we do not often concern ourselves with on behalf…

Using a narrative inquiry methodology, this 10-year study examined the situated nature of two teachers' development. Research questions examined how the teachers situated their own learning, how they developed discourse communities for teaching and learning, and how they used tools in their work. Findings suggest that the following elements of…

Purpose: The paper sought to clarify the concept of learning organisation/community; to identify the barriers that are perceived to obstruct the creation of learning communities out of traditional schools; to identify how principals go about the task of converting their schools; and the special characteristics of leadership required to transform…

This article draws on historical and philosophical lenses and interviews with students to question some fundamental tenets underlying the practice of freshman learning communities (FLCs): that they develop community and improve students' learning experiences. The article brings to the discourse of FLCs some critical questions regarding their value…

Educators have come to recognize the importance of their efforts in building students' social and emotional skills. However, the creation of lasting programming often fails to keep pace with educators' best intentions. In this article, the authors suggest guidelines for ways in which school counselors can be involved in implementing sustained…

The purpose of the research reported on in this article was to explore how newcomer staff members to the academy experience their entry into the academic discourse community. To this end, a generic qualitative research design was implemented to understand the meaning newcomers have constructed about academia and how they make sense of their…

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to show how professional tools trigger workplace learning. The daily mundane work of Swedish police officers has been studied to investigate how the use of police tools triggers learning through discussions in police practice. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a field study consisting of…

Large universities are increasingly offering marketing courses in classes of 300 or more students. Without access to the usual verbal and nonverbal cues, instructors in these megaclasses are disadvantaged in terms of their ability to respond to learners' needs. As a result, marketing instructors have supplemented course infrastructure with…

Multiculturalism has a place in basic communication courses. At a personal level, cross-cultural communication is concerned with the way a person chooses to treat another--it is a question of communication ethics, a subject that should be introduced in any basic communication course because communicators must consider how to deal fairly and…

Examining two very different contexts, a non-pastoral Quaker meeting and an AIDS hospice, offers insight into the complex nature of writing and literacy in spiritual contexts. Such a program is unapologetically comparative, seeking not the "right" view of spirituality but rather a view of how spirituality is expressed through language.…

Recent rhetorical research in professional writing raises the issue of the absence of discussion of "resistance" in professional and nonacademic writing research. A study of a biologist working at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico suggests that ideological "resistance" occurs even in the realm of technical writing.…

A qualitative study determined the impact electronic mail (e-mail) discussion lists can have on a college classroom. The theoretical concepts explored are "community" and "roles." Community is defined by the boundaries it possesses, the dialogue exchanged, and the people interacting in the community. Roles may be defined by the interactions among…

A study explored how adolescents' negotiations and interpretations of out-of-school reading discussions were shaped by larger institutional and societal contexts that regularly influence young people's actions and interactions with peers and adults. Drawing from a theoretical framework that conceives of discourse as social practice, such discourse…

Over a 2-year period, several teacher book clubs were studied. Teachers' and preservice teachers' responses to a series of texts that focused on multiculturalism in American society were examined. Twelve elementary school teachers, representing four ethnic groups (European American, Asian American, African American, and Hispanic), volunteered to…