Preparing candidates for the rigours of the teaching profession represents a major challenge for educational systems, begging the question of whether the opportunity for professional educators to further their own university education represents, to them, a way of developing their teaching skills (intrinsic motivation), a means of earning a higher…

Background: The front-line management role in services for people with intellectual disabilities remains rather under-researched. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of registered managers in services for adults with intellectual disability who exhibit challenging behaviour. Method: Interviews, primarily focussed upon staff…

There is widespread national debate over how to address and advocate for undocumented immigrants in the United States. Education is key to the economic, occupational, and social mobility of young unauthorized immigrants, but policies and practices can hinder or open their access to education. Educators pursue a range of activities to support…

Action-Process-Object-Schema theory (APOS) was applied to study student understanding of quadratic equations in one variable. This required proposing a detailed conjecture (called a genetic decomposition) of mental constructions students may do to understand quadratic equations. The genetic decomposition which was proposed can contribute to help…

Outdoor preschools are critical for children's play and development. Integrating observational and interview methods, this study examined four-to-five-year-old children's cognitive play experiences in an outdoor preschool with natural, mixed and manufactured zones. The observational results indicated that the natural and mixed zones offered a…

Teacher educators work diligently to prepare future teachers while navigating the surrounding political realities that challenge our schools. Demands placed on teacher educators are growing and are increasingly more complex. Well-prepared and successful teachers are exiting the profession at alarming rates in several places in the world, including…

Preservice teachers enter programs with beliefs about teaching and learning, constructed from prior schooling experiences. This longitudinal study examines preservice teachers' K-12 memories, their initial educational beliefs, and the changes in those beliefs over their teacher education program. Analysis of questionnaires, interviews, work…

This article explores the use of Biographical Narrative Interpretive Methods (BNIM) in research on motivations for trade union learning. Our use of BNIM--a new methodological approach for us--was intended to test our own research practice in an effort to get further inside the "felt world" and "lived life" of the union learner.…

In this work, we present the design, implementation, and initial outcomes of the Climate Academy, a hybrid professional development program delivered through a combination of face-to-face and online interactions, intended to prepare formal and informal science teachers (grades 5-16) in teaching about climate change. The Climate Academy was…

Whilst the role of interactive play, thought and language in children's development has been acknowledged, less is known of the role of interactive play, thought and "music." Children's early music-making is both generative and performative in nature and provides a means by which they engage with self and others. Their independent…

Since the early 2000s, reports of increased rates of mental ill health among young people worldwide have received much attention. Several studies indicate a greater incidence of mental health problems among tertiary students, compared with the general population, and higher levels of anxiety, in particular, among international students compared…

This study used the construct of "lyricism" as an instructional practice to explore the identity connections and cognitive learning potential embedded in instruction in a culturally relevant context. Through a 5-week mixed methods study of students using the principles of lyricism (e.g., metaphor, double entendre, personification,…

This paper reports on one part of a large study which attempted to identify the linguistic and hierarchical characteristics of van Hiele theory amongst grade 10 learners. The sample consisted of a total of 359 participants from five purposively selected schools from Mthatha District in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The performance of…

This qualitative study investigates high-poverty urban high school students' views of and plans regarding higher education, using Bourdieu's theory of reproduction in education as theoretical framework. Interview data from 76 students from six high-poverty urban schools in a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States were analyzed using…

Teaching sensitive and controversial issues (SCIs) is of growing interest in contemporary, increasingly heterogeneous societies. In democracies, different groups and institutions expect their values and worldviews to be conveyed at school. On one hand, there is the expectation that SCIs should be treated neutrally. On the other hand, there are…