"Fairness" and "justice" are, according to Gallie (1964), essentially contested concepts--concepts for which there are common understandings in the abstract, but disagreements over the application of these concepts to specific instances. Contested terms are often critical in ethical dilemmas--those times when practitioners are…

Despite broad recognition that teaching excellence requires meeting students' intellectual and social needs, teachers struggle to manage--and learning theory struggles to explain--the interplay between the academic and social dimensions of classroom life. Drawing from research on parenting and child development, the author offers parenting style…

Few social science theories have a history of conceptual and empirical study as long as does the diffusion of innovations. The robustness of this theory derives from the many disciplines and fields of study in which diffusion has been studied, from the international richness of these studies, and from the variety of new ideas, practices, programs,…

While much has been written about the implications for "literacy" of practices surrounding digital technologies, there has been surprisingly little research investigating new literacies in primary classrooms. This review examines the kinds of understandings that have been generated through studies of primary literacy and technology…

In this conceptual paper, an exploration of the leadership gap between theory and praxis, which manifests itself in three different kinds of fissure in current thinking and research in the field of educational leadership, management and administration, will be undertaken. It is argued that there is a public image/communication gap, which current…

US administrators must meet the demands of accountability while maintaining a balance and the joy of learning in their schools. Accountability comes with the US laws No Child Left Behind (2002) and Title II Reauthorization (2002). Increased accountability has had a major impact in several other countries as well. This paper is largely conceptual…

Although constructivist career theory is routinely discussed in the literature, links between theory and practice in education are lacking. The current study focused on the potential of a constructivist curriculum to empower at-risk culturally diverse college students by increasing career self-efficacy and reducing dysfunctional career thoughts.…

This article describes a structure to help preservice teachers get invaluable field experience by aligning theory with practice supported by the integration of elementary school children into their university mathematics methodology course. This course structure allowed preservice teachers to learn about teaching mathematics in a nonthreatening…

It is 40-plus years since the upstart Professional Development Program was initiated at Simon Fraser University. Among its many audacious innovations, the program offered opportunities for practicing teachers to play leading roles in the professional development of student teachers. Seconded (temporarily released) to the university for two-year…

In the United States, there are approximately 244 Catholic colleges and universities that together form an "incomparable centre of creativity and dissemination of knowledge for the good of humanity." These societies of scholars and learners are not cloisters removed from civic life; they are apostolic in nature, called to "an institutional…

School counseling is a relative newcomer in the landscape of helping professions. Although the school counseling profession has roots in Davis' "guidance" curriculum introduced in the Grand Rapids, Michigan public school system's curriculum in 1907 and Parson's Vocational Bureau Movement of 1909, much has changed over the last 100 years.…

In this paper we present an application of statistics using real stock market data. Most, if not all, students have some familiarity with the stock market (or at least they have heard about it) and therefore can understand the problem easily. It is the real data analysis that students find interesting. Here we explore the building of efficient…

This article examines "currere" (a method for autobiographical reflection proposed by William Pinar) as a helpful framework for reflecting on religious educational experiences from a subjective and narrative perspective. The author suggests that this process is important for contemporary religious education as it provokes reflection on the…

This interview with Dr. Szapocznik reveals the importance of building an intervention on the foundation of empirical evidence and family systems theory. Szapocznik is the director of the Center for Family Studies and professor at the University of Miami. He is a chair of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse. Szapocznik is also the…

Making research count in the education sector is often difficult to achieve as people, quite properly, question its relevance, purpose and impact. One of the significant barriers to research supporting practice in the lifelong learning sector is that funded research carried out in higher education institutions is frequently privileged above…