This article offers a description of critical literacy practice and/as professional development as it evolved in a teacher inquiry group investigating critical literacy. The authors describe this professional development experience as an instance of critical literacy in practice. The entirety of this article is a collaborative product in which the…

Practitioner research is defined as systematic inquiry-based efforts directed towards creating and extending professional knowledge and associated understandings of professional practice. A review of "primary research" articles published in the "Australian Journal of Early Childhood" revealed that only a small number involved…

Intercultural education is a familiar concept to many involved with education, as it underpins the school curriculum in an increasing number of countries in the world. Distinctly separate to intercultural education is intercultural language learning (IcLL), a specific set of principles currently at the fore of what is occurring with languages…

In the author's research, she studies the professional identities of music educators. Through her ethnographic studies of elementary school general music teachers, she has come to better understand the ways that elementary general music teachers express and enact their identities. It is often said that academics study themselves when they conduct…

This article reports on a project to establish taiko drumming groups in schools throughout the southwest of England. The project is funded by the National Foundation for Youth Music (YM) which aims to increase access to music-making activity for young people in the UK. Taiko is a relatively new phenomenon in the UK. In the southwest, Kagemusha…

Whether staff members are working in urban, rural, or suburban branches, for many years national organizations have been committed to preparing them to work effectively with young people. Over the past couple of decades, national organizations have sought and received strong funding to develop targeted, comprehensive professional development…

As a formal observer of youth development work for the last fifteen years, the author is pleased to say that the field in the United States has made great progress in creating and institutionalizing the basic elements of a mature professional development system and in becoming purpose-driven. Topics such as youth worker competencies, links to…

This article distills what teachers at six diverse, urban schools came to know as a consequence of engaging in school portfolio development from a teacher knowledge perspective. Grounded in a narrative method and form, the work highlights the asking of hard questions, the concept of powerful learning, the idea of high quality professional…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to propose a model for holistic professional development as an alternative to practices that have been piecemeal and curriculum focused ignoring, in particular, the critical dimension of management development. Design/methodology/approach: A conceptual framework for considering professional development needs…

A teacher's scientific understanding has a dramatic impact on students' ability to learn science. This article describes the results of administering the Astronomy Diagnostic Test to 142 science teachers in Wisconsin. The results show that these teachers are lacking a deep, coherent understanding of astronomy concepts. Implications for these…

The Eisenhower Professional Development Program's primary goal is to support professional development for teachers that will improve classroom practice and, ultimately, student achievement. A multiyear evaluation of the Eisenhower Program sought to provide information to help the Eisenhower Program, and other professional development efforts,…

Objective: To examine the knowledge, approaches and attitudes of fitness instructors dealing with clients seeking weight loss advice. Design: A qualitative project whereby semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten fitness instructors representing a range of qualifications, work settings and years of experience. Setting: Interviews were…

Although many studies examine benefits to the mentees, this study examined the growth and development of the mentors in the context of a particular teacher induction program, the University of Missouri Teaching Fellowship Program. This program is unique in that mentors are released from classroom duties to mentor two fellows, conduct professional…

In this article a teacher/researcher and an academic mentor explore the potency, possibilities and tensions of the mentoring relationship from personal perspectives. The concept of mentoring as described in this article uses the model of mentor/mentee relationship as portrayed in Homer's epic narrative the Odyssey. In the examination of the…

In this article, we report a study of professional culture and professional development in Jewish schools based on surveys of teachers and other staff and interviews with principals. We first introduce three key constructs: professional culture, professional development, and professional learning communities. We then describe research that has…