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This edited volume gives explicit attention to the influence of gender, feminism, and queer theory in self-study of teacher education practices. It builds on the self-study community's interest in social justice that has mostly been focused on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and power, as well as broad conceptions that include multiculturalism and ways of knowing. This is the time to examine gender both because our community is growing and because of the reconceptualization of issues of gender, feminism, and queer theory in teacher education. This collection of papers provides a space for members of the self-study field, from founders to welcomed new members, along with the general community of teacher educators to problematize these issues through a variety of theoretical lenses. As always with self-study the impetus of the research is on the improvement of individual practice. Readers will find innovative approaches and insights into their own work as teacher educators.

Understanding and researching professional practice is crucial both to enhancing the quality of professional learning and to improving professional education more generally. Yet professional practice remains something that is little known, theoretically and philosophically, despite a longstanding interest in what might be called the meta-field of professional practice, learning and education. The contributors to this book, drawn from fields such as education, allied health, psychology and business, explore different aspects of practice in the professions, professionalism, and research. This includes engaging with the burgeoning literature on practice theory and philosophy, including the increasingly influential neo-Aristotelian tradition, and taking account of growing interest in practice thinking across contemporary scholarship. It considers issues such as the primacy of practice, the nature of professional judgement, the role of ‘experience', ethics, context, and the practitioner standpoint. As such, it raises important and timely questions about practice ontologies, epistemologies and methodologies, and also praxis and politics. This is especially needed in a context otherwise increasingly organised by neoliberalism, economic rationality, anxious managerialism, and what some see as a general drive towards de-professionalisation and new nuances and intensities of regulation.

The intent of this book is to provide a rich and broad view of the impact of argument-based inquiry in classrooms from the perspective of the teacher. There are two important reasons for such a book. The first is that we as researchers constantly work to present our views of these experiences with the voice of the teachers only being relayed through the perspective of the researcher. We need as a community to listen to what the teachers are telling us. The second reason is that as demands grow to provide opportunities for students to pose questions, make claims, and provide evidence, that is, to think critically and reason like scientists, we need to understand what this looks like from the perspective of the teacher. This book brings together a range of teachers from several countries who have used the Science Writing Heuristic (SWH) approach to teach argument-based inquiry. These teachers have all gone through professional development programs and successfully implemented the approach at a high level.

Taking a Fresh Look at Education: Framing Professional Learning in Education through Self-Study examines the use of self-study in professional learning through justice in education, collaboration, teacher education, and the concept of a Professional Working Theory. Justice in education includes research on pedagogy in inclusive practices, on social justice issues within a doctoral program through the lens of critical race theory, and on indigenous epistemologies and experiences. Collaboration can be seen across several chapters as an integral part of teacher education, and is discussed specifically in chapters addressing research on praxis inquiry within Active Group Practice (a collaborative dynamic)—and on collaboration as a critical aspect of self-study research by teachers addressing efficacy of practice for students with significant disabilities. Included in the discussion on teacher education is research on the beliefs and practices of mid- and later-career literacy/English teacher educators. Professional Working Theory (PWT) addresses the critical aspects of teacher knowledge, experience, and ethics. Specifically, this book includes research on examining the process involved in developing a PWT, on the development of teacher identity of preservice teachers through their engagement in creating PWTs, and on the process of and reflections on developing PWTs with teacher educators and U. A. E. and U. S. A. graduate students within the context of literacy and special education. This book brings to the fore the work of Mary C. Dalmau as a teacher educator whose career embodies the values of inclusion across educational settings, the empowerment of teachers, and the importance of ethics in educational decision making.

When teachers are supported to work together in ways that allow them to deepen knowledge of their professional practice, the understandings that emerge from their conversations about quality learning and teaching demonstrate a high level of expertise. Yet such professional knowledge is often deeply embedded within each teacher's everyday teaching; the tacit knowledge that determines how and why they attend to student learning in certain ways. This book captures the professional knowledge of teachers that developed as the result of an ongoing process of school based change, where teachers began to work differently because they began to think differently about the learning that mattered for their students in their school. The explication of their knowledge of practice became possible due to the ongoing support they received from their school leadership—in most part because leadership trusted them as professionals to responsibly lead student learning. Within this culture of trust and valued collaboration, working alongside external critical friends who supported their professional learning, the teachers engaged in regular, thought provoking and interactive professional dialogue. Together they exposed and challenged each other's thinking and beliefs about learning and teaching, captured and examined each other's practice and, ultimately articulated and extended their professional knowledge. The insights about this collaborative learning process and the emergent knowledge and understandings teachers develop about the interactive relationship between learning and teaching, has much to contribute to educational discourse beyond the school setting. Some of that knowledge and the way it looks in practice is shared in this book.

Since teaching is a practical activity, efficient problem-solving skill is one of the fundamental competencies teachers need to possess. All teachers face challenging school situations during teaching-learning process no matter where they teach or since when. Despite similarities appearing on the surface, every school situation is unique and depends on several internal and external factors that should have been taken into account. Therefore, in many problematic cases it is not enough to deal with the symptoms, but teachers need to go deeper. This book provides a theoretical and practical background for this step-by-step problem solving-oriented thinking process. The practical activities can help teachers to frame and identify their challenges, to analyse the cause and effect of their situation, and also to find their own solutions and strategies. The material in this book can be used in pre-service or in-service teacher training that deal with pedagogic cases, or challenges of teaching and learning processes. However, most of the tools can also be used individually by teachers at any stage of their career, including any type of compulsory education, thanks to the clear description of each technique.

Polyvocal Professional Learning through Self-Study Research illustrates the power of “we” for innovative and authentic professional learning. The 33 contributors to this book include experienced and emerging self-study researchers, writing in collaboration, across multiple professions, academic disciplines, contexts, and continents. These authors have noted and reviewed each other's chapters and adapted their contributions to generate a polyvocal conversation that significantly advances scholarship on professional learning through self-study research. Building on, and extending, the existing body of work on self-study research, the book offers an extensive and in-depth scholarly exploration of the how, why, and impact of professional learning through context-specific, practitioner-led inquiry. The chapters illustrate polyvocal professional learning as both phenomenon and method, with the original research that is presented in every chapter adding to the forms of methodological inventiveness that have been developed and documented within the self-study research community.

The purpose and impact of the professional doctorate—or EdD (Doctor of Education)—has long been debated. What should it be? Who should do it? Why is it worth doing? How should it be taught? What makes the EdD distinctive, unique and worthwhile? Internationally, at the level of program development and provision, universities are increasing the range of transformative professional doctorate practices while recruiting larger numbers of students from a wider range of professions. Transformative Doctoral Research Practices for Professionals offers unique insight into the teaching, learning, thinking and doing of doctoral education. In the form of a collaboratively authored volume this book offers the first institutional-specific collection that focuses on doctoral research practices. It showcases: the practices of researching professionals at different phases and stages of a five year doctoral journey; the imperative of reflexivity as one moves from practitioner to researching professional and scholar; and the placing of ‘practice'at the centre of a doctoral program specifically designed for professionals. This book shares the lived-through debates, deliberations, challenges and experiences of a group of professional (practitioner) doctoral students, their supervisors and lecturers. The critical perspectives and examples explored offer a wealth of insights on the distinct practices and unique journeying of professional practitioners embarking on professional doctorates. This volume invites you to reflect on and enter into dialogue with your peers and professional learning and research communities about the distinctiveness of the professional doctorate.

Unfolding Afterglow examines professional learning in the contemporary milieu of public education, considering the impact of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top on such encounters for art educators. Drawing from prominent scholars of philosophy and education (Greene, Dewey, Gadamer), aesthetic experiential play is theorized as a catalyst for teacher renewal through the embodied intensities (Merleau Ponty, Deleuze) it prompts: an aesthetic swell and afterglow. The swell is conceptualized as a movement that unmoors teachers as learners, setting them adrift towards unanticipated, surprising possibilities. Afterglow is an illuminated space that unfolds with a commitment and openness to move in swell towards the ever expanding new. This text invites readers into the findings of a qualitative research inquiry by unfolding a yearlong correspondence of letterpress printed postcards and hand rendered letters exchanged between the author and a cohort of K-12 art teachers. The innovative epistolary form evokes the relational and arts-based educational research methodologies that informed this lively aesthetic inquiry, providing new directions and possibilities for both art educators and arts researchers to explore. Advocating for more complex understandings regarding how educators become renewed as artists and as teachers, this poetic and pictorial text provokes an expanded vision for what counts as professional learning, and the processes by which teacher renewal is nourished and experienced. Brooke Hofsess, Assistant Professor at Appalachian State University, received her MA in Art & Art Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and her PhD in Art Education from The University of Georgia. She comes to academia with seven years of professional experience as a K-12 art educator. Her research on teacher education and renewal has received honors including the Elliot Eisner Doctoral Research Award in Art Education from the National Art Education Association, and the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Arts Based Educational Research special interest group of the American Educational Research Association.

This book explores the dynamic approach to student-centred learning known as project-based learning, or project work. It addresses both the concepts and practical application of project-based learning to enhance teaching and learning. It describes empirical case study research into the impact of research-based project work on independent learning for academically-able secondary school students at Hwa Chong Institution, a premier independent school in Singapore. The research investigated how students dealt with an innovative project-based learning curriculum built on a social constructivist approach designed to foster independent learning attitudes. The students had to research and initiate their own projects, and see through the entire process with guidance from their teacher mentors. The case study findings give rich insights into student perspectives and experiences as they engage in projects and respond to real-life challenges and problems. A new theory of project-based learning is presented in the form of theoretical propositions. The research has implications for the professional development of teachers as project work mentors to help prepare their students to be ‘future-proof'in dealing with 21st century study, work and social challenges with confidence. The book highlights compelling reasons for schools to include some form of research-based project work within their curricula, thereby allowing students to engage in collaborative, authentic research.

Many countries now employ national evaluation systems to demonstrate publicly that universities provide a quality education. However, the current processes of quality evaluation are often detached from the practices of teaching and learning. In particular, those who teach and those who learn still have to be won over to such audit processes. This book argues that it is time for the higher education sector to concern itself with the human dimension so as to develop both academic professionalism and students'commitment to their learning. Based on five completed research projects, which explore academics'and students'experiences and their views of quality evaluation, the book argues that developing the intrinsic values of teaching and learning held by academics and students is key to achieving high quality education. In this book, the author critically reviews the four most frequently used terms related to current quality evaluation: ‘fitness for purpose', ‘value for money', ‘student satisfaction'and ‘students-as-customers', and argues for a motivationally intelligent quality approach, emphasising the moral dimension and the intrinsic values of academics and students. The author also outlines an improved quality evaluation system that encourages and increases academics'and students'commitment to teaching and learning.

Supporting newly hired science teachers has taken on an increased importance in our schools. This book shares the most current information about the status of newly hired science teachers, different ways in which to support newly hired science teachers, and different research approaches that can provide new information about this group of teachers. Chapters in the book are written by those who study the status of beginning science teachers, mentor new teachers, develop induction programs, and research the development of new science teachers. Newly Hired Teachers of Science is for administrators who have new science teachers in their schools and districts, professionals who create science teacher induction programs, mentors who work closely with new science teachers, educational researchers interested in studying new science teachers, and even new science teachers. This is a comprehensive discussion about new science teachers that will be a guiding document for years to come.

In this collection of narratives, beginning teachers describe and reflect on critical incidents—classes that didn't quite go to plan. These experiences are recalled in a general way and all names and locations are fictionalized. Each narrative, while situated in a classroom, focuses on the experience of the teacher/author and sheds light on their thinking as they work through the complex event they are remembering. Beginning teachers then imagine how they might approach a similar situation in the future. While developing reflective practice techniques can support and enhance individual practice when these accounts are shared with others there is some scope for enhancing educative experiences generally. There is a long tradition of reflective practice writing in education, and this small workbook aims to make a contribution to this genre. Each reflective practitioner narrative is followed with an invitation to discussion section and periodically through the workbook sideline methodologies are introduced that readers can use to support further analysis. The beginning teacher narratives are authentic, complex and alive and as a consequence they will generate lively discussion in tutorial spaces with beginning teachers. The materials are informed by various strands of poststructural and critical theory and therefore they are intended to reflect a dialogic stance—rather than signpost specific directions. Cover image: ‘Three legged chair—an accident waiting to happen', by Crowhurst (2012)

This qualitative journey explores how literature informs and challenges my understanding of teaching and learning. Insights, questions, and conflicts are revealed through a series of essays in which my evolving teacher identity is illuminated through literature and imagination. Hopefully reading this portrayal of literature, which has been a source of educational insight and imagination for me, will be of use to other educators as they reflect on their own teaching. The primary works of literature used to facilitate this journey are: The Red Badge of Courage (1895), Les Miserables (1862), and American Idiot (2004); Light in August (1932), Seinfeld scripts (1991-98), and Frankenstein (1818); and The Odyssey, Night (1960), and The Souls of Black Folk (1903). By delving beneath my exterior ‘teacher mask,'a collage of images, anecdotes, reflections, aspirations, and fears is exposed. As a resource for pre-service teachers or a reflective exercise for veteran teachers, this study aims to benefit educators by providing a new pathway through which to better understand their intrinsic identities as teachers. Each chapter concludes with “Recommendations for Reflection” that readers are encouraged to consider individually and/or collectively. The spirit of daydreams allows me to integrate literature, autobiography, and imagination through inventive and inspired discourses with literary figures, using authentic quotations as content for original commentaries that further examine the intrinsic nature of teacher identity. My hope is that this journey will inspire other educators to further reflect on realities and possibilities of what it means to be a teacher.

This book is a review of more than twenty years of international research on teacher educators. It offers a solid overview of what is known about the professional roles, professional behaviour and professional development of teacher educators. A systematic analysis of the focus, methods and data sources of 137 key publications on teacher educators make this book into an important reference work for everyone interested in the work of and research on teacher educators. There is a growing consensus that teacher educators largely determine the quality of teachers and hence, the quality of education. Through this book, Lunenberg, Dengerink and Korthagen provide not only insights into the various roles of teacher educators and the complexity of their work, but they also discuss building blocks for ongoing structured and in-depth professional development. The authors clarify that if we wish to take ‘being a teacher educator'seriously, it is imperative that we build our understanding on research data. The book shows that although the number of studies on teacher educators is growing, the research in this field is still scattered. The authors highlight the need to create a coherent research programme on teacher educators and provide concrete suggestions for such a programme.

“Bringing a different world into existence—Action Research as a trigger for innovations” was the overarching theme and vision of the international CARN Conference 2011 in Vienna. The chapters in this book are drawn mainly from conference contributions. The authors share practical knowledge which has arisen from their work, and reflect on development processes in schools, in teacher education and professional development, social work, social pedagogy, health care and community development. This book offers what some critics believe has been missing in recent action research literature, namely first person accounts of action researchers who endeavour to change working conditions and social relations in their environment through the conduct of action research. This book is also distinguished by assembling contributions from people who are linking action research to a broad diversity of differing contexts, and who are exploring topics or issues across various applications of action research.

This book uses Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory to provide a unique theorisation of teachers'professional development as a practice. A practice can be described as the socially structured actions set up to produce a product or service aimed at meeting a collective human need. In this case, collaborative, interventionist work with teachers in two different Australian primary schools sought to simultaneously identify, understand and develop the necessary conditions for supporting the teachers'development as professionals. The in-depth analysis of this practice provides interesting insight into professional development for teachers at all levels of schooling, and provides strong support for educational researchers, administrators and consultants to reconsider many existing forms of professional learning/development programs. This book supports the contemporary view that professional learning must take place with teachers, rather than be delivered to teachers, but provides an important expansion to current work in this area by arguing that a focus on teachers'learning of new strategies and principles may still fall short of creating long term change in teachers'professional practice. By taking a cultural-historical approach, the focus moves to supporting teachers'development of unified concepts (the intertwining of theoretical and practical aspects) and motives to continue their ongoing development as professionals. This emphasis builds teachers'capacity to examine and disrupt habitual practices and understand, create and implement thoughtful and sustainable transformations in all areas of their professional life. This book therefore builds upon the ongoing conversation about professional learning and development, offering a new framework for researching, understanding and developing this critical practice.

This ground-breaking book uncovers a hidden history of the professional development of serving teachers. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, Wendy Robinson reveals an optimistic and liberal age of high class conferences in the 1920s and 1930s, in London hotels and Oxford colleges, free from government control, where teachers from across the country and abroad, gathered for professional, intellectual and cultural ‘refreshment'. The status attached to these occasions was signified by the celebrities who graced them, including royalty, public intellectuals, educational practitioners and politicians. Professor Robinson then shows how post-war training became more instrumental, taken over by the Ministry of Education with its centrally-prescribed advanced courses, and, from 1970, by Local Education Authorities'invention of apparently democratic Teachers'Centres. This analysis is complemented by face-to-face interviews with teachers and other practitioners once active in professional development. Fascinating, detailed interviews brilliantly capture teachers'lived experience of professional development and its influence on their teaching, career development and professional identity. Fresh and original, lucidly written by one of the leading historians of education in Britain, A Learning Profession? is essential and engaging reading for those interested in the development of a teaching profession.