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Amy Yarborough, a veteran teacher and curriculum resource leader in a rural district in Virginia, facilitates a professional learning community focused on social justice and equity-oriented instructional practices. When allegations of teaching critical race theory are reported via the state's email tip line and community social media groups, Amy is asked to present her professional learning community materials to the local school board. In the midst of stakeholder protests and media scrutiny, Amy must decide how to explain her professional decisions. Current and future educational leaders interested in issues related to race and equity will consider the roles of policy and the public in influencing teachers' lessons.

The Lilead Fellows Program is an intensive professional development opportunity designed to support district-level library supervisors in the United States as they planned for transformational change in their districts. Throughout the programme, Fellows developed a project to implement in their districts. We conducted a qualitative content analysis (QCA) to systematically describe how the Fellows planned for and promoted transformational change within their districts through these projects. We collected the Fellows' initial application essays and final project presentation scripts to show how the projects evolved over the 18-month programme. Through an iterative open coding process, we developed and revised a coding frame to include the initial and final themes represented in the projects. Findings revealed that throughout the programme, participants made significant shifts in their projects' foci. These shifts were a result of realising that a different, but related, aspect of their proposed project needed to be addressed before they could tackle their initial goal. The participants' final projects addressed three main themes: district affairs, professional development, and/or advocacy. In this paper, we describe how the projects evolved over the course of the programme, the final projects' themes and subthemes, and how the Fellows promoted transformational change in their districts through their projects.

The teaching and learning of self-study research have received increased attention in recent years, although there is still limited research about the learning of self-study. In this article, we share results from a self-study community of practice that describes how one group of novice teacher-educator-researchers learned self-study in a doctoral seminar on teacher education. The doctoral seminar served as a space through which the students simultaneously learned about and enacted self-study research methods. Data for the study included educational autobiographies and journals between students and the instructor, transcribed audio-recordings of course meetings and coding sessions, and course assignments. Through data analysis, we identified six steps in our particular journey of learning self-study: (1) advancing a willingness to improve; (2) acknowledging the power of reflection; (3) examining practice through collaboration; (4) identifying changes in practice; (5) developing new identities; and (6) sharing with others. We offer our experience of learning self-study to provide readers with one set of signposts, support, encouragement, and direction for the teaching and learning of self-study methods. Findings from this research may provide insights to new self-study researchers, scholars who teach self-study research, and experienced self-study researchers who provide on-going support for self-study colleagues.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of critical friendship on a first- and last-year doctoral student's novice and expert mindsets during role transitions. Doctoral students are challenged to navigate role transitions during their academic programs. Experiences in research expectations, academy acculturation and work-life balance, may impact doctoral students' novice-expert mindsets and contribute to the costly problem of attrition. Universities offer generic doctoral support, but few support sources address the long-term self-directed nature of self-study. Design/methodology/approach: The authors participated in a collaborative self-study over a 30-month period. The authors collected 35 personal shared journal entries and 12 recorded and transcribed discussions. The authors conducted a constant comparative analysis of the data, and individually and collaboratively coded the data for initial and focused codes to construct themes. Findings: The critical friendship provided a safe space to explore the doctoral experiences and novice-expert mindsets, which the authors were not fully able to do with programmatic support alone. The authors identified nine specific strategies that positively impacted the novice-expert mindsets during the following role transitions: professional to student, student to graduate and graduate to professional. Originality/value: While researchers have identified strategies and models for doctoral student support targeting specific milestones, this study identified strategies to support doctoral students' novice-expert mindsets during role transitions. These strategies may benefit other graduate students, as well as faculty and program directors, as they work to support student completion.

We pilot tested an identity-based relevance-writing intervention designed to support developmental community college students' (N = 54) educational commitment, value, and persistence. The intervention was embedded within regular journal assignments in two study skills courses with a third section serving as a comparison group. The intervention prompted students to explore how course topics connected to their identity. Results indicated large differences between groups in identity connections made in assignments and follow-up educational commitment and moderate differences in follow-up task value, all favoring the intervention group. There were no differences between groups in course enrollment eight months later. This pilot study offers promising preliminary evidence that an identity-based relevance-writing intervention may be effective in supporting developmental community college students' academic persistence.

Approximately a quarter of community college students are entering college-level courses underprepared for the literacy and critical thinking skills required to be successful in discipline courses (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2013). Discipline faculty are considered experts in their content area and are often not trained in pedagogy and literacy instruction, yet they are faced with meeting the diverse literacy needs of their students while still maintaining high content-focused expectations within their courses. This phenomenological case study investigated community college discipline faculty's perceptions and practices regarding integrating literacy instruction within their disciplines. Data were collected from community college faculty through demographic questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. In general, the faculty articulated that it was not their role to integrate literacy instruction into their content-specific coursework, yet they often felt they had to in order to meet the needs of their students. The findings provide insight for professional development programs and indicate areas for future research.

This qualitative multiple case study examined four preservice teachers' planning and perceptions of planning for culturally and socially relevant disciplinary literacy instruction in secondary disciplines. Four disciplines were represented: art, English, history, and physical education (P.E.)/health. This research sought to understand how a secondary literacy course and its requirements, with a particular focus on culturally relevant disciplinary literacy (CRDL) instruction. Particularities of the four disciplines of study represented were also considered to inform crosscontent literacy coursework. Findings indicated preservice teachers (PSTs) recognized potential of CRDL to engage students in critical thought. However, core disciplines (English and history) had varying viewpoints of the reality of such instruction compared with noncore disciplines (art and P.E./health), and all PSTs struggled to perceive CRDL as a primarily student-focused approach to instruction.

This case study investigated disciplinary literacy specific to the trades from a sociocultural perspective. Four community college faculty (diesel marine technology, mechatronics, and mathematics) participated in a disciplinary literacy learning community where they unpacked the discourse of their discipline, identified what it meant to be a member of their discipline, enhanced an assignment to address disciplinary literacy, and reflected on their experiences. We used open and axial coding and constant comparative analysis to analyze focus group interviews, faculty reflective journals, enhanced assignments, session documents, and researcher observations. The findings revealed that faculty strengthened their understanding of the role of literacy in their courses, used their discipline's discourse to inform instruction, and implemented specific literacy practices to support students toward being insiders of the field.

This qualitative study explored the affordances provided by the integration of the NAO humanoid robot in three preschool classrooms. Using the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework as a lens, the researchers qualitatively analyzed data from focus groups, observations, field notes and student artifacts, using grounded coding to uncover language and communication, physical, cognitive and social-emotional learning experiences for children. The researchers also examined interactions between the robot, children and teachers to identify successes and challenges experienced during the integration. Findings indicate the robot provided opportunities for student development in all learning domains. Students were intellectually curious about the robot; data showed their eagerness to "talk with," generate questions about, make eye contact with and learn more about the robot. Students viewed these interactions as two-way. The presence of the robot created much enthusiasm and excitement, resulting in the opportunity for students to practice waiting their turn and cooperation. Challenges uncovered show that teachers lacked experience and knowledge in the integration and operation of the robot. Despite these challenges, findings show that teachers welcomed the robot as a tool in the classroom to align with curriculum requirements and meet the developmental needs of children.

Asking scientific questions is the first practice of science and engineering listed in the Next Generation Science Standards. However, getting students to ask unsolicited questions in a large class can be difficult. In this qualitative study, undergraduate students sent SMS text messages to the instructor who received them on his mobile phone and via Google Glass. Using observations, coding of texts, and interviews, the researchers investigated the types and level of questions students asked and the perceptions of the instructor and TAs on how the messages were received. From the findings of this study, it is evident that students asked a wide variety of question types and levels. It would appear that important distinctions between voice and text questions are that: (a) a shy or insecure questioner can remain anonymous; (b) questions can be asked in an interactive, but not interruptive manner; (c) there is no time limit to answering questions; and (d) the record of questions on the instructor's phone can be used to guide revision of lecture notes for future semesters.

Teacher education doctoral seminars can provide a space for students to collaborate, reflect and support each other as they transition from teacher to teacher educator. These spaces also provide a forum for the learning of new research methodologies. This collaborative self-study chronicles how one group of doctoral students learned self-study research and fostered a scholarly identity in a doctoral seminar focused on learning about teacher education practices through self-study research. The participants shared autobiographies, journals, and critical summaries of assigned readings, and they questioned each other's understanding and development in the context of their shared experiences. Through this process, they overcame concerns regarding self-study as they developed their understanding of the components of self-study research and accepted their new role as self-study researchers. This study provides insights into the benefits of using doctoral seminars as a space to develop a scholarly identity and for using that space as a source of investigation. Implications for similar communities are also discussed.

Teaching philosophies provide a space for faculty to explore their practice, articulate their beliefs about teaching and learning, and express their identity as an educator. A well-developed teaching philosophy statement paints a picture of who that faculty member is in and out of the classroom. As faculty transition to different roles within higher education, such as faculty development, their practice, beliefs, and identity may also change. Teaching philosophies can be a powerful venue for faculty to explore this shift in role and identity. This collaborative self-study explores how two educators who recently transitioned from faculty to faculty developer acted as critical friends and revised their teaching philosophies through reflective practice. The participants used personal shared journals, teaching philosophy revisions, and recorded discussions as data as they reflected on their shifting philosophy. Through this process, they revised their teaching philosophies to represent their new practice, beliefs, and identity; explored, developed, and accepted their new identity as a faculty developer; and recognized the integral role critical friendship played throughout this transition. This study provides insights for faculty who are transitioning into faculty development and recognizes the role teaching philosophies and critical friendship can have through this transition.

The use of mobile learning in education is growing at an exponential rate. To best understand how mobile learning is being used, it is crucial to gain a collective understanding of the research that has taken place. This systematic review reveals the trends in mobile learning in science with a comprehensive analysis and synthesis of studies from the year 2000 onward. Major findings include that most of the studies focused on designing systems for mobile learning, followed by a combination of evaluating the effects of mobile learning and investigating the affective domain during mobile learning. The majority of the studies were conducted in the area of life sciences in informal, elementary (5-11 years) settings. Mobile devices were used in this strand of science easily within informal environments with real-world connections. A variety of research methods were employed, providing a rich research perspective. As the use of mobile learning continues to grow, further research regarding the use of mobile technologies in all areas and levels of science learning will help science educators to expand their ability to embrace these technologies.

This study considers how pre-service teachers envision disciplinary literacy through an online social bookmarking project. Thirty secondary pre-service teachers participated in the project through an undergraduate literacy course. Online bookmarks and post-project reflections were collected and analyzed using a constant comparative approach to determine emergent themes. Results suggest varying levels of disciplinary knowledge among pre-service teachers, influences of pre-service teachers' envisionments on posted bookmarks, and considerations about standardized testing in disciplinary literacy instruction. Implications for teacher education are discussed in light of these results.