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The demographic composition of the United States (US) has transformed since the early 1990s with immigrant arrivals from Mexico and Central America. Education leaders frequently exit preparation programs without content focused on opportunities around working successfully with multilingual students. This qualitative case study explores the implementation of online learning modules focused on engaging multilingual students and their families that were embedded into advanced leadership preparation coursework. Utilizing data (e.g., classwork, fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews) collected from 10 participants, findings include recommendations for stronger preparation on multilingual learners and flexible learning experiences that encourage the application of knowledge in professional practice.

This mixed-method study utilizes survey and interview data reflecting teacher candidates' beliefs about intercultural competence to identify areas of targeted support in teacher preparation. Intercultural competence is operationalized by performance on the Cultural Intelligence Survey (CQS) identifying relative areas of strength and weakness in four dimensions. Participants reported awareness of cultural differences and motivation to interact with those from other cultures, with less confidence in their knowledge base and ability to adapt behavior in intercultural interactions. Qualitative data provided explanatory support for understanding how program elements influenced intercultural competence along a developmental trajectory of learning.

To understand how dominant messages about race and effective pedagogy impact teacher beliefs and practice, this study employs critical race theory (CRT) in a case study analysis of Rebecca Rosenberg, a mid-career entrant into the teaching profession who was terminated from her first job before the end of her district's probationary period. Despite believing she was teaching for social justice, being prepared in a program oriented toward social justice, and being hired in a school with a comparable mission, Rebecca's beliefs and practices affirmed uncritical perspectives of the status quo regarding race, schooling, and social ascendance. This research underscores the substantial work to be done in preparing teachers to be reflective of the overarching cultural myths and majoritarian stories that may guide their practice.

Career decisions of four teachers are explored through the concept of figured worlds in this qualitative, longitudinal case study. Participants were purposefully chosen for similarity at entry, with a range of career trajectories over time. Teacher career paths included remaining in one school, repeated changes in schools, attrition after relocation, and non-renewal of contract. Data included interviews, observations, participants' assessments, and pupils' work. Cross-case analysis suggests that no single teacher attribute or workplace condition determined teachers' career decisions; rather, teachers' ability to refigure their identity within the figured world of teaching shaped career trajectory. Key factors such as ability to address disequilibrium, teacher identity, agency, and collaborative capacity are examined. Implications call for pre-service preparation and professional development to navigate cultures of schools, amended administrative involvement in teacher retention, and policy reform acknowledging the complexity of teachers' figured worlds.

Inquiry-into-practice represents a valuable disposition for teachers; reflecting on one's teaching to derive insights for subsequent practice can enhance professional efficacy and promote student achievement. To support this disposition among teacher candidates (TCs), Lynch School of Education faculty at Boston College created a capstone course, Inquiry Seminar, where TCs complete a formal "inquiry project". Conducted while student-teaching, the project requires candidates to research their teaching practice, identify areas of concern, and modify their teaching accordingly. To assess the teacher education system's coherence, we explored how Inquiry Seminar did, and did not, align with program objectives. We drew on varied data sources, including interviews, course observations, archival data, and inquiry project papers. We found that when Inquiry Seminar experiences complemented TCs' field experience, program objectives were more often realized. Two factors proved critical to our research: integrating the often-neglected voice of TCs and clinical staff, and examining a foundational feature of the teacher education program, Inquiry Seminar. (Contains 2 notes.)

In many teacher education programs, some form of inquiry or practitioner research is now included in the preservice teacher education curriculum. The intention is to help teacher candidates become professionals who are lifelong learners who raise questions and research their practice across the professional career. At the same time, teacher education evaluation has shifted from primary emphasis on resources and curriculum to an emphasis on K-12 student learning outcomes. This article speaks to the outcomes focus of teacher education policy and practice and to the agenda to prepare professional teachers who know how to learn from and about teaching in an ongoing way. The article describes an inquiry project carried out by a group of teacher education practitioner-researchers to examine how and what teacher candidates learned when they were required to conduct classroom inquiry focused on student learning outcomes. The purpose of the study was to explore the processes and results of this new focus and to determine whether the strengths of a long-standing emphasis on inquiry as a way of knowing about teaching could be retained when the emphasis was shifted from teacher candidates' learning to that of their students. Based on in-depth content analysis of purposively selected inquiries, the article demonstrates that the quality of candidates' inquiries generally depended on the questions posed, the ways that candidates conceptualized and assessed learning, and the candidates' understanding of the recursive nature of the inquiry process. The article also identifies a number of problems that were created with the new emphasis. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

The article presents instructions on conducting an artifact exchange with students and teachers from other countries to have more accurate representations of each other's cultures and compares "blind" exchanges from "open" exchanges. It also discusses what a teacher needs to do for students to select artifacts and images that they feel best represent their culture and provides a list of possible cultural artifacts that can be collected including weather forecast, local map, and population data.

The article describes the cultural conversations that American elementary students had with children from a classroom in another country, detailing the Global 2.0 project, which was developed to create meaningful partnerships between the university, local schools and schools around the globe. Topics discussed include the project outline, the range of reading materials made available to the students, and the use of paired texts to explore culture. A sample global 2.0 unit of study is presented.