Teacher education in the USA is composed of both defenders and critics of the current system of teacher preparation. Some critics of college and university-based teacher education who describe themselves as "reformers" have referred to the non-university programmes as "teacher preparation 2.0" in order to emphasise the…

In 2011 to 2012, 48 schools in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland participated in the Principals as Literacy Leaders with Indigenous Communities (PALLIC) project. Central to this project was the establishment of positive working relationships between school principals and Indigenous community leaders in order to improve…

This research engaged with how secondary schools in Christchurch framed sustainability through web based interfaces. The key focus of the research was how schools are engaging students in sustainability through their web-site messaging. While some research has been done around whole-school approaches to sustainability, no research has been done…

Few student teaching programs offer opportunities to live in the same communities in which they teach. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of White Urban Student Teachers (USTs) in an immersive program. Findings are represented via analytical portrayal and thematic analysis. This study calls for dedicated USTs and continued…

The University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education (Penn GSE), and the School District of Philadelphia (SDP), have a researcher-practitioner partnership called "Shared Solutions." They consider Shared Solutions to be a hybrid of the "place-based research alliances" and "design research teams" described by…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Accountability and Civic Engagement and includes: (1) Will States Use ESSA [Elementary and Secondary Education Act] to Undermine…

When schools, families, and communities work together, student outcomes are better. This brief focuses on the ways family and community engagement can enhance schools' efforts to improve outcomes for ELLs and highlights specific strategies schools can use to more effectively engage families and communities.

Recent passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), coupled with recognition of rising inequality in American society, has rekindled debate about how U.S. schools might address long-standing disparities in educational and economic opportunities while improving the educational outcomes for all students. This paper enters that debate…

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

In an effort to leverage students' positive community engagement experiences as they transition to and become alumni, Portland State University (PSU) embarked on a pilot "Continuing Engagement Program." This article provides a rationale for this effort, an overview of the programmatic elements, lessons learned, and future engagement…

Service learning methodologies provide students of information systems with the opportunity to create and implement systems in real-world, public service-oriented social contexts. This paper presents a case study which involves integrating a service learning project into an undergraduate Computer Information Systems course entitled…

Most mathematics teachers know that students can be a great source for understanding what they need as thinkers, group members, mathematics learners, and future citizens. Thus, listening to students is an important teacher practice. But listening takes time, something that not all teachers feel that they have. And many attempts to listen to…

As a descriptive case study from Western Carolina University (WCU), this article describes the development of a measuring, monitoring, and tracking system (the WCU Community-based Activities Survey) for faculty engagement in, adoption of, and impact through community engagement practices both internal and external to their courses. This paper will…

In the 1920s, John Dewey and Walter Lippmann both wrote important books examining whether the public was capable of playing a constructive role in policy, particularly when specialized knowledge was involved. This essay uses the Lippmann-Dewey debate to identify new challenges for science education and to explore the relationship between science…

This article draws on three case studies, which illuminate a number of practical, ethical and intellectual issues that arise from "engaged" teaching activities within the curriculum. Projects from the disciplines of Architecture, English and Journalism Studies illustrate the possibilities offered by learning and teaching projects which…