The need for more collaboration and co-teaching emerged from the standards-based and accountability movement as a result of legislation such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA). This study sought to identify the skill sets perceived as necessary by elementary general and…

Through a rigorous selection process based on special education performance over four years, this study identified eight unified districts in California that showed unusually strong academic performance for their special education population compared to similar districts in the state. Researchers conducted interviews with these districts' special…

The authors provide a case study of how a group of faculty members was able to initiate transformation in student learning and institutional structures at a small university in the Midwestern U.S. through the introduction of collaborative feminist organizing and pedagogy. It details faculty-led initiatives that set the stage for innovative…

This classroom narrative describes the transformation of one beginning English/language arts (ELA) teacher's perspective and practice as the teacher enacted multimodal inquiry activities that were the focus of both traditional and action research projects. Drawing on field notes, transcripts of classroom discourse, and student-produced artefacts,…

Drawing on agency literature, this paper demonstrates how teachers' professional agency emerged when seemingly conflicting strategies were imposed on them in policy reform. Policy discourse is often linked to performance and accountability measures, which teachers respond to in a number of ways. Some education researchers identify tensions caused…

This paper reports on a partnership approach preparing pre-service primary teachers to teach science. Partnerships involving pre-service teachers and volunteer in-service colleagues were formed to teach science in the classroom of the colleague, with support from the science education lecturer. Each pre-service teacher collaboratively planned and…

Despite widespread acknowledgment of the power of professional collaboration, the norm in most schools is teachers working in isolation. Our study examined the impact of multiple layers of professional collaboration intentionally integrated into a one-year preservice teacher education program working in two elementary schools. Analysis of 23…

Increasingly school change processes are being facilitated through the formation and operation of groups of teachers working together for improved student outcomes. These groupings are variously referred to as networks, networked learning communities, communities of practice, professional learning communities, learning circles or clusters. The…

One of the aspects of the combination of educator and historian that has not been thoroughly researched is the actual interaction of the instructors themselves. How do they approach this blend of content and pedagogy? How do they construct the purposes of the course? This study addresses these questions. Rather than focus on the student outcomes,…

In this article we describe the challenges of transdisciplinary teamwork involving four faculty members from dissimilar epistemological traditions in the process of developing a manuscript on the lessons learned in our teaching collaboration. Our difficulty originated in implicit mental models and assumptions that caused incongruence between our…

A rural middle level school had stalled in its third year of a district-wide differentiation initiative. This article describes the way teachers and the leadership team engaged in collaborative practices to put a spotlight on formative assessment. Teachers learned to systematically gather formative assessment data from their students and to use…

This paper explores the authors' experiences as an early career teacher educator and English-language instructor in an English-medium university in Turkey. The theoretical framework shaping their collaboration draws upon a narrative view of teacher knowledge as an embodiment of teachers' experiences in schools in close relationship with their…

Brown, Collins, and Duguid (1989) described cognition as "situated"--"a product of the activity, context, and culture in which it is developed and used" (p. 32)--and outlined the "cognitive apprenticeship" approach to teach "what" something is, as well as "how" knowledge can be used in order to help children create their own understanding. Similar…

As a discipline, environmental education (EE) has been criticized for lacking empirical evidence on the behavioral outcomes of its programs. While the behavioral outcomes of EE activities are often associated with the youth learner, teachers are one target audience of EE training programs who have received increasing attention with regards to…

It is widely recognized today that a teacher's surrounding professional community inevitably affects the kind of teaching that students are offered. However, until recently, it has been difficult to quantify and systematically study the nature of professional relationships in schools and districts. The articles in this special issue provide a…