Discusses how child development research, social policy design, and human service delivery for children and families reflect three separate yet related cultures. Argues that transmitting knowledge from the academy to social policy and practice could be facilitated by a simple taxonomy differentiating established knowledge from both reasonable…

The quality of existing teacher education programs is currently being debated in many countries and at many educational levels. This article examines the nature of teaching and challenges the common mechanistic approach to teacher education design. If teaching is a complex profession, then a more integrated and dynamic approach to designing…

This article is about conflict in an educational workplace setting. It reports on a case study investigating the emergence, development, and management of conflict among diverse native English speakers working as language instructors within a Japanese university. The example of conflict presented, which deals with divergent assumptions about the…

This article draws on a wider body of research that explores whether art and design teachers (art teachers) and museum and gallery educators (gallery educators) hold conflicting conceptions of "critical and contextual studies". The data analysis focuses on what interviewees said about each other in relation to crossing boundaries between…

This paper explores dilemmas and tensions between two models of school based inter-agency meetings to prevent disciplinary exclusion from school. The first model is characterised by innovative practice developed through long established professional relationships and addresses both individual and strategic issues in supporting young people who are…

A two-year qualitative study of mathematics and English teachers in two urban comprehensive high schools investigated how teacher community serves as resource for teacher development and school reform. A school engaged in whole-school reform sustained high teacher commitment and school-level community by constituting professional community…

The systemic approach to reform recognizes that schools are part of a complex system of expectations and that reform plans must recognize the diverse interests at play in any reform. While systemic approaches understand that the interaction among factors influencing change are complex and that piece-meal change is problematic, there is a danger…

The Great Khan's atlas contains also the maps of the promised lands visited in thought but not yet discovered or founded: New Atlantis, Utopia, the City of the Sun, Oceana, Tamoe, New Harmony, New Lanark, Icaria. Kublai asked Marco: "You, who go about exploring and who see signs, can you tell me towards which of these futures the favouring winds…

People are often driven to become "independent" as part of the desire to go out on their own. Independent evaluation consultants, however, frequently collaborate with others on evaluation projects. This chapter explores such collaborative relationships from both sides: those leading evaluations with subcontracted consultants and those who work as…

"Child Care Health Connections" is a bimonthly newsletter published by the California Childcare Health Program (CCHP), a community-based program of the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing, Department of Family Health Care Nursing. The goals of the newsletter are to promote and support a healthy and safe environment…

A study examined the attitudes of nurses in three hospitals toward non-native-English-speaking physicians. The subjects, 156 medical-surgical nurses, listened to three anonymous audiotaped physicians from different ethnic backgrounds: American, Japanese, and Persian. The physicians were recorded in two contexts: in a formal context, reading a…

Despite a steady increase in the number of internship programs in educational administration, there is little empirical evidence with which to determine how internships affect both the intern's learning and the mentor-administrator. This paper presents findings of a study that investigated the intern-mentor relationship. The sample included 18…

Trust, respect, and caring are crucial components in achieving or maintaining school effectiveness. This paper presents findings of a case study that examined the ways in which one urban school manifested particular characteristics of community--those of respect, caring, and trust. The one-year case study at an elementary school in Los Angeles…

In recent times, sociological constructs have been used to examine school culture, viewing schools as learning communities rather than formal organizations. This paper describes use of the School Cultural Elements Questionnaire (SCEQ) to investigate the culture of schools in Western Australia. The SCEQ was first administered to 422 teachers in 8…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined forms of parent involvement in a restructuring middle school. Data for the 18-month case study were obtained through observation, interviews, and document analysis. The paper focuses on the relationship of the Parent Council, a parent group attempting to influence school decision making, and…