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Scholars have long urged teacher educators to engage in policy advocacy and to respond to mounting attacks on the teacher education field. Prior research has shown that teacher educators feel large...

As attacks on teacher education mount, teacher educators have been urged to take a more active part in policy deliberations. Yet the question of how teacher educators get their voices heard in poli...

The Association of Teacher Educators Reflectivity Commission was established in 2004. This literature review updates the Commission’s work by examining 24 empirical research articles publis...

Enhancing all students’ academic performance continues to be a national priority, and although achievement gains have been made overtime, shortfalls in mathematics learning for students with disabi...

This reflective article examines the relationship between teachers’ engagement in action research and their ability to lead within their schools. As part of The New Educator’s special issue, “Developing an Inquiry Stance toward Instructional Improvement: Teacher-Leader Action Research,” this article demonstrates the development of an inquiry stance. It shares the story of two practicing teacher leaders within the new and challenging circumstance of adjusting to, and studying, the professional development they provided to help teachers deal with a challenging transition to a radically different school space. This article examines the ways practitioner inquiry supported these teachers to be leaders in the new architectural space designed to promote innovative instruction for twenty-first-century teaching and learning. We posit that coupling teacher leadership and teacher research enables teachers (a) to lead with literature, (b) to lead from data, (c) to lead through sharing, and (d) to lead by example.

Engagement in practitioner inquiry by classroom teachers is a promising mechanism for teacher professional learning. While much has been learned about the positive role inquiry can play in traditional professional development efforts, we know less about the impact of inquiry in a rapidly advancing technological age that includes the proliferation of online professional development institutes and programs. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of inquiry in online professional development by providing a detailed description of a year-long program called Prime Online. Supported by US federal funding, this program was designed to help teachers develop the mathematics content and pedagogical content knowledge necessary to implement research-based practices in inclusive elementary classrooms within a framework of practitioner inquiry. A detailed description of this program is presented followed by an examination of the inquiry projects completed by the participants. Implications of this effort for...

While job-embedded professional learning shows great promise at the school and district level, little is known about how it can be fostered on a grand scale. In 2014 participants from six European Union nations developed and implemented a job-embedded professional development program centered on practitioner inquiry, professional learning communities, and teachers’ use of scholarly literature. This case study provides insight into designing cross-country professional development. Facilitators included collaborative development of the conceptual framework, shared learning experiences, and the use of technology tools for task and time management. Inhibitors included language differences and divergent levels of commitment among the partner nations.

The purpose of this article is to describe a professional development program for principals focused on their engagement in action research, the systematic and intentional study by principals of their own administrative practice. The program is described in detail along with a brief analysis of the action research produced by the principals, a report of the principals’ perceptions of the action research experience from survey data, and the authors’ reflections on important considerations to take into account when designing a long-term program of principal professional development that endeavors to develop principals as action researchers.

The development of "inquiry as stance" is a foundational component of the teacher research movement. Yet, it is difficult to exemplify this construct to gain insights into its meaning and what it might look like in practice. The purpose of this article is to initiate discussion about the construct of stance through the provision and analysis of an eight-minute video clip depicting one teacher researcher’s work. Three components of stance are discussed in relationship to the video example: (1) Data Collection as a Part of Teaching, (2) Roles of Inquirer and Teacher Blend Seamlessly With One Another, and (3) Commitment to the Creation of More Equitable Classrooms.

Although the NCATE Blue Ribbon Panel Report challenges those responsible for teacher preparation to design clinically rich programs, there is little discussion about preparing teacher educators to actualize these innovations. This study explored how practitioner inquiry could serve as a mechanism to facilitate the development of the next generation of teacher educators. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand what 16 doctoral student participants, from across two different university contexts, learned about becoming teacher educators as a result of engaging in practitioner inquiry. Findings suggest doctoral students developed an appreciation of inquiry as a tool for continuous instructional improvement and became active in program innovation. Doctoral students also broadened their understanding of educational research while uncovering tensions related to conducting research. These findings suggest inquiry as a relevant action for doctoral students to develop their abilities to innovate the...

The purpose of this study was to understand the ways virtual school teachers experienced professional development framed as a year-long collaborative action research endeavour. These virtual school teachers taught completely online courses for a large virtual school and did not reside within the same geographical location. Thus, the professional development was supported by the use of various synchronous and asynchronous technology tools. This study provides insights into what constitutes powerful online professional learning opportunities not only for virtual school teachers, but for their traditional face-to-face school counterparts, as well as the ways synchronous and asynchronous technology tools can be utilized to scaffold professional learning.

This study examined the nature of thirty virtual educators' action research questions during a yearlong action research professional development experience within a large, state-funded virtual school. Virtual educators included instructional personnel (i.e., individuals responsible for teaching virtual courses) and noninstructional personnel (i.e., individuals responsible for other roles in the virtual school such as administration or course design.) Action research questions emerge from the intersection of educators' professional contexts and their real-world challenges or passions and analyzing the nature of these questions provided a glimpse into the priorities and practices of the participating instructional and noninstructional virtual educators. Studying completion rates and personalizing the curriculum were trends within questions posed by instructional personnel whereas noninstructional personnel primarily focused on macrolevel issues within the virtual schools, such as communication. Future resea...

Despite the profound impact of action research coaches on teachers’ experiences of the inquiry process, little research exists in the field regarding the coach’s role. In this exploratory study, two groups of action research coaches – one novice and one experienced – share their experiences of coaching inquiry during the 2009/10 school year. Out of the focus group interviews conducted with each group of coaches, four challenges arose that spanned across the coaching of both groups, despite the level of experience: time, coaching wondering development, coaching data analysis and administration. Implications and future research directions based on this work are discussed.

In this article we draw from our year-long experience of assisting scholars who are new to publishing in transforming their work from a dissertation or conference paper to final production. We reflect on the importance of guiding, editing and prompting authors and offer advice on what we have learned about doing so.

In this article the four coauthors share the process of moving a paper from a conference presentation to a manuscript that is acceptable for publication. The first two authors discuss the ways in which an experienced teacher educator mentored an emerging scholar through the submission process. The last two authors discuss the editors’ role in shaping the final version.

This qualitative study was designed to examine teachers’ and principals’ perceptions of the impact of a graduate program designed to prepare teacher leaders. Impact was investigated through interviews with 20 graduates and 6 principals. Using Mezirow’s concept of transformational learning, the study documents perceived transformation of teachers’ frames of reference: two related to teaching (adopt an inquiry stance; learn to view oneself as an autonomous professional), and two related to leadership (adopt a leadership stance; view student learning as a communal responsibility). The study includes implications for the design of graduate level teacher education programs to enhance their impact and effectiveness.

Given the increasing challenges faced by high-poverty urban schools, mentoring has become the panacea for policy makers interested in a quick-fix solution to the teacher quality dilemma. As a result, mentoring programs have experienced exponential growth with little empirical attention during the last decade. This 16-month qualitative investigation within a large city in the northeastern United States, sought to better understand the work of mentors in high-poverty urban schools. Analysis of the data collected led to the identification of three assertions that highlight the interplay that occurs in the urban teacher mentoring context between four critical concepts: novice teacher survival, novice teacher success, onus of responsibility, and a social justice stance. Implications are discussed related to the need for adequate resources, placement, and preparation of mentors in high-poverty schools. Additionally, the study also asserts the role that a passion for or a disposition toward social justice plays ...

(2008). Resisting ‘Crash Diet’ Staff Development. Kappa Delta Pi Record: Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 66-71.

National agencies advocate the use of field experiences to help prepare teachers to integrate technology in their classrooms. However, prospective teachers often fail to synthesise the integration of technology with the complexities of teaching during such experiences. This study suggests teacher inquiry, a strategy for helping educators systematically and intentionally study their own practice, provides important benefits for prospective teachers participating in curriculum-based, technology-enhanced field experiences. Specifically, this study explores whether or not engagement in teacher inquiry can promote conceptual change related to teaching with technology. Thirteen inquiries conducted by prospective teachers in six elementary schools were analysed and one instrumental case was identified. The case exemplifies how curriculum-based, technology-enhanced field experiences and teacher inquiry may coalesce to support conceptual change for prospective teachers. In fact, the marriage of curriculum-based, technology-enhanced field experiences and teacher inquiry embodies research-based conditions necessary for conceptual change. Teacher inquiry is widely recognised and supported in the general teacher education literature yet its use by prospective teachers in curriculum-based, technology-enhanced field experiences is novel. This exploratory study highlights its potential and encourages further research into its usefulness as a tool to prepare the next generation of teachers to be effective technology-using educators.

Having facilitated, read, and collected more than 200 teacher research pieces written by prospective and practicing teachers, the authors conducted a systematic analysis of the domains and contents of teachers' questions as they embarked on their first research study. Focusing on the questions teachers ask led to the generation of a typology of “six passions” for teacher inquiry: An individual child; curriculum; teaching strategies and techniques; beliefs about management, teaching, and learning; personal and professional identity; and teaching and learning context. This article shares examples of teacher research in each of the six passions and the process of locating questions for teacher research efforts.

This phenomenological interview study identifies the insights and experiences of one early childhood teacher, Anna, through her recollection of becoming an early childhood teacher leader and an advocate for social justice. This study falls at the nexus of the literature in early childhood education (ECE), teacher leadership, and social justice as the researchers seek to understand the lived experiences of a teacher, who is committed to each of these three activities. As a result, the purpose of this exploratory study was to understand how the early childhood teacher might define, understand and play out leadership roles in her position. Two assertions emerge from the merging of themes into categories and categories into assertions. The first assertion describes the importance of experiences in childhood and how they are directly linked to the way one perceives, understands, and carries out leadership in early childhood settings. The second assertion outlines how the visions of leadership in early childhoo...

This 18-month ethnographic study provides a snapshot of teachers’ use of space and voice as they work in a newly formed Professional Development School (PDS) committed to shared responsibility for teacher education and developing a culture of simultaneous renewal through inquiry. The study identified the tensions produced when a PDS functions within a hierarchically organized district where teachers do not feel empowered to participate in decisions beyond their classroom and where mandates and standardization drive teachers’ work. This work informs those new to PDS work of ways teachers may first occupy the new spaces PDS work creates for teachers to be decision makers and teacher educators. Implications for the future of teachers’ work within partnerships focused on reform are discussed.

Through sharing examples, the authors demonstrate how the analysis of long-term Professional Development School (PDS) problems and their evolution can serve as one indicator of growth in the PDS. Three persistent problem areas are identified: (a) building trust and relationships between university and school personnel, (b) reconceptualizing existing coursework to fit in the PDS context, and (3) making inquiry a central feature of the PDS. The historical evolution of these problem areas is traced through three phases of PDS development over a six-year period, including PDS Planning, PDS Pilot Year, and PDS Institutionalization. The authors conclude that, through careful analysis, PDS problems can be celebrated and utilized as one measurement of growth in PDS work rather than bemoaned and utilized to characterize PDS work as unstable and fragile. Finally, the authors call for other PDS practitioners across the nation to share their PDS problems publicly, beginning a national dialogue about the ways...

In recent years, there has been a move to reconceptualize teacher education from a set of technical skills prospective teachers must master and subsequently demonstrate during field experiences to a more reflective and critical examination of one's own teaching practices. Reflection can be seen as a way to integrate one's technical, scientific knowledge of teaching with the values, beliefs, and experiences that form one's personal knowledge of teaching. Bowman (1989) argues that this subjective knowledge base needs to be legitimized in order to fully understand the teaching process.

A group of elementary school teachers and the researcher engaged in collaborative action research in order to explore, implement, and document practitioner initiated change. Three assertions are reported: (1) teachers' newfound voices can be silenced by peers; (2) collaborative action research groups may provide essential support during school change efforts; (3) teachers can be silenced by a principal, even one who is supportive of school change and teacher empowerment. Support for these assertions unfold through the stories of two teachers and their principal. Implications for teacher education are drawn.

This article documents the results of an interpretive study on the process of principal thinking as the researcher and the principal engaged in Schön's notion of reflective coaching. Metaphors were used as a referent for the principal to make sense of changes he wished to make in his practices.

(1993). Children's Literature: Preparing Preservice Teachers for the Multicultural Classroom. Action in Teacher Education: Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 45-51.

Moral education continues to be a concern for those in the field of gifted education. A potential tool to address this concern is children's literature. Through children's literature, gifted children can explore moral dilemas, moral decisions, and moral development in rich context of literary classics.