This self-study describes the development and use in a preservice literacy course of the first author's narrative of her own schooling. The introduction to that narrative is included in this paper. The full text of the narrative also describes the impact of school readiness, resource placement, transience, poverty, and teachers' responses and…

Schwab (Schwab, J. J. (1970). "The practical: A language for curriculum." Washington, DC: National Education Association, Center for the Study of Instruction) named the teacher, learner, subject matter, and milieu as the desiderata essential for curriculum making. In our research, the teacher commonplace has formed the entry point of inquiry.…

This paper, an exploratory case study, examines how students' preferences and motivation to learn English are influenced by their perceptions of teaching practices--both of native English teachers and local English teachers. To better understand the context of this research question, this study adopts a method of triangulation in collecting data:…

In the age of globalisation, it has been understood that teachers' beliefs revolve between old--new and local--foreign ideas of teaching and learning. The purpose of this study is to identify the domains of the various ideas that influence teachers' beliefs in globalisation, compare them to the strengths of influence, and explore the meanings of…

Background/Context: A person's socioeconomic class is not a stagnant category based on her income level, but is rather an ongoing lived identity that includes a dynamic process of political struggle. In our self-study, we unpack both our poverty and upper-middle-class experiences and in so doing examine our intergenerational cross-class identity…

The number of homeless children in the United States is increasing. The National Center on Family Homelessness (2010) reports that on average one in 50 children in the United States have experienced homelessness, defined as unstable housing. The needs of this student demographic are varied and complex. For the purpose of this study, the homeless…

This six week study investigated six urban elementary teachers' educational beliefs in regards to teaching writing, comparing their personal histories as writers with their self-reported beliefs on writing and teaching writing, with that of their teacher practices. A further analysis examined how closely aligned their teacher practices were to…

Software Engineering (SE) education has been reported to fall short in producing high quality software engineers. In seeking alternative solutions, Case Method (CM) is regarded as having potential to solve the issue. CM is a teaching and learning (T&L) method that has been found to be effective in Social Science education. In principle,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify which of the motivators of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) present in the literature are reported as applicable to community college faculty and to examine the nature of those motivators. Methodology: A mixed-methods design was selected for this study. Emphasis was on the qualitative…

This study identifies the kinds of problems teachers pose when they are asked to (a) generate problems from given information and (b) create new problems from ones given to them. To investigate teachers' problem posting, preservice and inservice teachers completed background questionnaires and four problem-posing instruments. Based on previous…

The Alaska Statewide Mentor Project (ASMP) is a joint effort of the University of Alaska and the Alaska Department of Education & Early Development to address the persistently low teacher retention rates in the state, especially in rural districts that predominantly serve Alaska Native (AN) students. Over six years, teacher retention in rural…

In the past 20 years, the number of international faculty members at American universities has continued to increase rapidly. This growth is evident in data showing that the proportional representation of foreign-born faculty easily surpasses that of domestic underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. The increasing presence of international faculty…

This qualitative study was based on the challenges of today's urban schools and highlights the work of teachers in these schools who have achieved increased successes in student achievement. Demographic changes in today's urban schools have fueled an increased gap in the backgrounds of the students and their teachers. Many teachers also lack an…

Faculty contribute to the campus racial climate for all students, but particularly for students of color, and play a significant role in shaping intellectual, social, and behavioral standards through their pedagogical practice (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Petersen, & Allen, 1998; Solózano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000; Rankin & Reason, 2005).…

This qualitative study describes members of the Liberal Arts/English adjunct faculty at one mid-Atlantic urban community college (MAUCC), their perceptions of the organizational climate of their program, and their satisfaction and motivation patterns. The study was designed as a case study focusing on one MAUCC department. Adjunct faculty members…