Our western conceptions of knowledge still do not seem to have fully realised what Descartes had already stated in the seventeenth century, that we can no longer acquire full certainty. In education, knowledge is very often connected to that which we possess--what we know for certain. In this paper, my starting point is the argument put forward by…

This article describes the process of teaching English as a second language to members of an underprivileged local community. This initiative was developed as a result of a collaboration between a community center and a university. Three 1st-year TESOL master's candidates volunteered to design and teach curriculum to immigrant community members on…

Rhode Island is committed to ensuring that all educators receive fair, accurate, and meaningful educator evaluations that provide information that can help all support professionals improve and refine their practice. Currently, local education agencies (LEAs) in Rhode Island may submit a district-designed model for approval that complies with the…

The First Amendment Schools project holds rich lessons in how to change school cultures into "laboratories of democracy"--as well as in how to increase the odds of success for any school reform effort. School reform programs of any sort need to make sure to build in sustainability, to provide ways to spread their lessons beyond the…

Over the past decade, Cooperative Extension and 4-H professionals have been faced with the decision of whether to adopt new communication technologies such as social media. Research on social media and Cooperative Extension has identified risks and barriers to adoption; however, many Cooperative Extension professionals believe that social media…

Few faculty members are immune from the deleterious impact of neoliberal values, policies and practices that have resulted in the "corporatization" of universities, with the reduction of teaching and research to "products" and faculty to "producers," and students to "clients." The role of faculty governance in this process has been debated…

November 2012 was an anxious time for California community colleges. Proposition 30 promised to stop the bleeding of funds from the state's 112 two-year career and technical institutions--if voters would pass it. That was a big if, especially in California, where voters are notoriously tax averse. When the measure passed with 54 percent of the…

Albert Shanker (1928-1997) is known mainly for his successful struggle to obtain collective bargaining for teachers, his leadership of teacher unions, and his championship of education reform. Shanker built large and powerful city, state, and national unions of teachers and other public employees that still stand as models both for union democracy…

Leadership remains an important topic across various disciples. The continuous demonstration of effective leadership and its impact on institutions and society fuels the inquiry into the various ways, behaviors, traits, and situations in which leaders and leadership are successful (Kezar & Lester, 2011). As more African Americans advance in…

While research has documented the many ways in which student voice can enable educational change, the process of how adults can help to enable student voice is less clear. This article examines how adults new to working as advisors of student voice initiatives begin to develop partnerships with young people. Using a Youth-Adult Partnership…

Service learning strengthens all involved: Students, faculty members, the community, and higher education institutions. Benefits of service learning for students include gaining real world experiences, personal and transformative outcomes (Conway, Amel, & Gerwien's, 2009), as well as higher order thinking from reflection on the experience…

Student success is at the center of successful regional engagement. Thus, the relationship between institutional outreach through the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) "stewards of place" paradigm and meaningful student participation in the effort is fundamental to the success of regional engagement. The…

Culturally responsive leadership, derived from the concept of culturally responsive pedagogy, incorporates those leadership philosophies, practices, and policies that create inclusive schooling environments for students and families from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. In this essay I extend the tenets of culturally responsive…

The demands for improvement in educator preparation as well as the need to revamp teacher evaluation policies are both part of the ongoing dialogue on school improvement. Various reports have illuminated the need for school leaders to be more effective in evaluating teachers. However, literature on school leader preparation does not thoroughly…

The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore the stories of ELL leaders and how they negotiated local conditions of power, positioned themselves within leadership structures, and formed their identities. Using critical theory, critical race theory, and feminism as interpretive frames, this study addressed the marginalized status…