Background/Context: Institutional theories sometimes characterize the normative influence of institutions as diffusing like waves and as exerting uniform pressures on individuals. This article contributes to a growing literature on the microfoundations of institutions, investigating how intraorganizational networks mediate the diffusion of…

Pride, fear, and stress exist on the roller coaster that is the work-life of a graduate student functioning in the role of team member in a mixed-level, collaborative teaching team. These emotions are not uncommon to faculty/graduate student work relationships, but given the power differential, the interdependent team dynamic adds an incubator…

This paper continues the debate over TT (team-teaching) benefits and detriments. TT has been utilized extensively in Japan in English Language instructional courses at the elementary and junior high school levels over the past 20 years. Although at times satirical, the author in all seriousness discusses TT and; its advantages and disadvantages in…

Research suggests that better educational preparation is necessary to assure that health care social workers have the competencies essential for high quality interdisciplinary palliative care practice. This study is a qualitative evaluation of those elements contributing to competence and confidence in interdisciplinary practice skills of second…

As the evaluation of teachers becomes prominent in the current climate of educational reform, the details of teacher evaluation systems become important. The goal of the research was to gain perspective about a little-studied group key in education reform efforts to improve teacher evaluation--the peer evaluator. Teachers serving as peer…

A well-documented and growing problem impacting the nursing shortage in the United States is the increasing shortage of qualified nursing faculty. Many factors contribute to the nursing faculty shortage such as retirement, dissatisfaction with the nursing faculty role and low salary compensation (American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN),…

For many community college executives, working with professional unions is part of the responsibility of leading an institution of higher learning. Relationships with unions can range from productive and civil to contentious and hostile. College officials must aim to strike a balance between maintaining decorum and fostering strong ties with…

In this Viewpoint, we aim to raise questions about the positioning of teachers and teacher knowledge in professional development networks. We contend that diverse purposes across professional development configurations labeled "networks" have been glossed over in the literature, obscuring important questions about teacher learning and its role in…

The purpose of this study is to reveal the factors that affect the identification of research problems in educational administration studies. The study was designed using the case study method. Criterion sampling was used to determine the work group; the criterion used to select the participants was that of having a study in the field of…

Over the past 15 months, the Virginia Board of Education has been redesigning its public school students' high school educational experience to better prepare them to participate in the global economy. To lay the groundwork for this redesign, the Profile of a Graduate was developed. The profile in turn grew out of a broader review of Virginia's…

Collaboration is now is frequently required among representatives of myriad disciplines to intervene more effectively in complex community and public health problems. A fundamental tenet of collaboration across professions is that it is facilitated by socialization to one's own professional identity and to interprofessional collaboration with…

This article reports on research regarding interprofessional education (IPE) in child welfare conducted in 2009 and 2010. Pre service nursing, social worker and teacher education candidates participated in a workshop that "exposed" (Charles, Bainbridge & Gilbert, 2010) students to IPE in child welfare. This paper addresses a gap in…

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become increasingly popular in schools. PLCs are groups of teachers, administrators, parents, and students who collaborate to improve their practices and focus on results (DuFour, 2004). Grade-level and department teachers participate in regularly scheduled collaborative team meetings; however, many…

Research has been conducted to identify and analyze how schools are determining that the activities of their Professional Learning Community (PLC) are directly tied to student achievement as there is currently a gap in the existing literature with regards to this topic. For the purpose of this study, a "successful" PLC was defined as one…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to seek to investigate Etienne Wenger's theory of social learning in a community of practice by modeling two simultaneous aspects of teachers' collaborative learning: their engagement in close-knit internal groupings and engagement with colleagues that work externally to the core group. These two learning…