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In the author's pilot study of teacher-student sexual dynamics in five preservice teachers high school classrooms, one piece of data stood out from among the rest of the interview transcripts, field notes, and email correspondence--not as an aberrant outlier; the content, feeling attracted to a student, echoed across the data set. Rather, this one journal entry from Sandra (a pseudonym), a graduate student seeking secondary English certification, encompassed much of what the author was hoping to learn about in her research: her description of the attraction, her speculation about what implications it had for her teaching, and her theorization of why it occurred. By focusing on Sandra's journal entry, the author exercised Geertz's notion of "power in reserve": selecting the "best" data with the understanding that there are dozens of other quotations that she could have used in the exemplar's stead. Such a well-articulated gem was ripe for scrutiny, so the author set out to find a process of analysis and a means of representation that would be worthy of it. Rhizoanalysis, a method of data analysis inspired by Deleuze and Guattari's rhizome figuration, and the poetic representation of data that Richardson has modeled seemed appropriate for reasons the author outlines in this article. (Contains 1 figure.)

This article explores the place of teacher dispositions in English teacher preparation by contextualizing the issue of dispositions in English teacher preparation. This allows consideration for the importance of developing professional dispositions during English teacher preparation by recognizing that various stakeholders (teacher educators, university supervisors, mentor teachers, and preservice teachers) in teacher education often understand dispositions differently. The authors reflect and offer suggestions on how professional dispositions might be more effectively addressed in an English teacher education program through richer interactions among all stakeholders.

Background/Context: Very little empirical research has been conducted on the issue of educator sexual misconduct (ESM) in secondary settings. The few reports available typically treat a larger social issue, such as sexual harassment or child abuse; therefore, data on ESM specifically must be extrapolated. When such data are obtained, the focus has been on rates of incidence rather than the nature of the problem. Feminist scholars have theorized embodiment in education and debated whether and to what extent an eroticized pedagogy is desirable, but scant attention has been paid to how and why erotic pedagogy can go awry. Research Question/Focus of Study: A central question of this study is whether and when the sexual dynamic of teaching that many scholars believe is a condition present in most classrooms becomes ESM. This article focuses on just one step of the teacher-student affair process: how the line between "teacher" and "lover" was crossed. Participants: The primary participants are Hannah and Kim, high school English teachers who had a sexual relationship with a student. Their cases are framed with Mary Kay Letourneau and Heather Ingram, two headline-heavy teachers whose backgrounds and affair patterns are similar to Hannah's and Kim's. Research Design: This is a qualitative case study based primarily upon interviews and artifacts collected from the participants. Conclusions/Recommendations: The participants' relationships with their students was an escalation of events, a continuum upon which "crossing the line" was arbitrarily fixed at the point of their physical expression of what was already an emotional affair. The process was similar across the cases: During the teachers' attempts to save the student from academic failure, they fell in love with the students. Students initially flirted with the teachers, which the teachers did not discourage; the teachers then allowed (and sometimes created) increasingly intimate scenarios, thereby setting the stage whereby the line could be crossed, although the students initiated the physical crossing of the line. Understanding how and why teachers cross the line is more likely to be effective than the two lines of prevention and their concomitant assumptions that typically operate in schools: silence (the elephant will go away if we don't talk about it) and surveillance (instituting rules that disallow any form of touch will control outbreaks of educator sexual misconduct). In light of this study, the latter is especially ironic: A heightened emotional connection, not inappropriate physical touching, was the gateway to misconduct.

In a longitudinal, cross-disciplinary study of teachers' experiences with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification process in Georgia, discourse related to the notion of performance surfaced in the data in a variety of ways. A poststructural perspective suggests an explanation for how teacher performances are enabled and limited through what it means to be "teacher" in this society. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

This article narrates the author's experience of obtaining institutional review board (IRB) approval for her dissertation study. Although her research topic was particularly sensitive, this case is illustrative of the increasing level of difficulty qualitative researchers are facing in conducting not only risky research but also work that is not aligned with the National Research Council's conception of "scientific" methodology. The author nests her story within the larger social context of surveillance and disciplinary power operating on today's educational researchers. She focuses her attention on the complex power relations among researchers, IRBs, and arbiters of what counts as quality research. (Contains 1 note.)

This study investigated the nature of interaction among teachers that occurred around the National Board certification (NBC) process and how that collegial interaction influenced teachers' professional development. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 14 teachers who were either considering NBC, in the process, or had been awarded NBC. Interview data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Results indicated that teacher interactions triggered by NBC helped one another's professional development in several ways: (a) enhancing reflection on teaching practice, (b) establishing a professional discourse community, (c) raising the standards for teaching performances, and (d) facilitating collaboration. Implications for teacher professional development were discussed.

In this article I use a combination of feminist and psychoanalytic theories to understand the surfacing of sexualized discourse in secondary classrooms as a manifestation of suppressed pedagogical eroticism. I illustrate this phenomenon with an incident that Sheila, one of my participants in a study of sexual dynamics in pre-service teachers' classrooms, relayed as an example of a Freudian slip: The time she unconsciously drew a penis on the board. Narrative analysis provides the methodological framework for understanding how Sheila used this story and others to construct her identity as a "sexy teacher". I call for a space to share these kinds of stories so that teachers can better understand the sometimes-sexualized dimension of their teaching and to view sexual dynamics in the classroom as a "condition to be lived with" rather than a problem to be solved. (Contains 1 figure and 4 notes.)

Shel Silverstein's children's book "The Giving Tree" imparts a useful metaphor for thinking about the role of teachers--women teachers in particular. The book's namesake is the epitome of altruism, providing branches, fruit, and even her trunk so that her beloved boy might have what he desires. And so it goes for women; endless giving, nurturing, and self-sacrificing is their lot in life, their role to embrace. Certainly traces of the Giving Tree remain in women teachers' partial function as nurturers of children and mother stand-ins. The concern of this paper is how this vestigial Giving Tree mentality may affect the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' (NBPTS) functions to improve the status and quality of the profession and to reward accomplished teachers who meet the rigorous criteria for National Board Certification (NBC). Using data from an interview study of forty-two Georgia secondary school teachers involved in the certification process, the authors demonstrate gendered differences in teachers' talk about both their motivations for becoming certified and the negative aspects of engaging in the process. The paper goes on to explore the potential ramifications of these differences for the future of NBC. The following is appended: Interview 1 protocol (Adaptations to pre-candidate interviewees). (Contains 2 tables and 4 endnotes.)

In this article, the author, as a teacher educator, wants to provide a space for her students to talk about the role they and their students' bodies play in the classroom--a safe place for them to share, reflect on, and begin to theorize the sexual dimension of their teaching. Her space-creating intentions have been predicated on the assumption that other teachers of secondary students felt as she did, but she had to verify first whether that assumption was legitimate. In this article, the author's pilot study is presented. An investigation of how teachers experience sexual dynamics and their bodies in their classrooms and what factors influence their experiences is discussed. Furthermore, she states that teacher educators could play a role in creating a space within the larger framework of teacher education discourse such that bodily knowledge is considered along with pedagogical and content knowledge as a necessary component of teacher training and professional development. (Contains 7 notes.)

The five-paragraph theme, while widely used by writing instructors, has often been criticized for its tendency to focus on a rigid formula rather than a writer's ideas. This study investigates the decision of an early-career teacher, Leigh, to teach her eighth-grade students the five-paragraph model in the context of a state-mandated writing assessment that rewarded such writing. The key settings for Leigh in learning to teach were her structurally fragmented teacher education program, her relationship with her mentor teacher during student teaching, and, as she embarked on her first teaching job, her entry-year supervisory committee and her English department colleagues. Through an activity-theory analysis of field notes, observation-based interviews, and other data, we interpret Leigh's decision-making as a function of her participation in tool-mediated action in these settings. Leigh's teaching was affected by forces without (e.g., community expectations to produce passing scores on the state writing test) and within (e.g., her colleagues' pressure on Leigh to teach to the test). These pressures superseded the motives of other settings in which Leigh participated, primarily her administration's downplay of the need to teach to the test. The study concludes with a reflection on why Leigh in particular and other teachers in general find this form useful enough to serve as a primary tool in their approach to teaching writing. (Contains 1 table and 1 note.)

Asserts that teacher education programs should emphasize pedagogical concepts that interweave theory and practice so that preservice teachers learn consistent, unified approaches to teaching, noting that the theory-practice dichotomy lacks the richness of Vygotsky's notion of concepts and recommending that teacher educators strive to teach concepts, though the overall structure of teacher education programs makes it more likely that their students will learn complexes or pseudoconcepts. (Contains references.) (SM)

Explores how a new teacher's identity was affected when she attempted to enact a student-centered, i.e., liberal, pedagogy in a school district that was in the process of introducing a heavily scripted language arts curriculum tied to district standardized tests. Concludes that the frustration that the teacher felt was that the curriculum took over the role of planning. (SG)

The difficulty qualitative researchersE face in conducting research on sensitive topics and work not in line with the National Research Council's idea of scientific methodology is illustrated. A teacher narrates her experience with the disciplinary power of the institutional review board (IRB) and the difficulties she faced before obtaining their approval for her dissertation study on sexual dynamics in the classroom.

Education provided by the teachers lacks the richness of concepts as it is theoretical. University programs and schools provide training to the teachers with regard to concept development to make them learn how to teach.

The article offers information on issues about English education as well as the backdrop of communal child care. Other topics being presented include an editorial about #MeToo, the English Language Arts Teacher Educators membership, and the development of a Qualtrics survey comprised of multiple-choice, numeric-scale, and open-response items.

The article offers information on the Literary Awards in the Purdue English Department. It mentions that the award was inaugurated in 1928, after the World War II interrupted its recognition of excellent writing. It mentions that the literary awards features undergraduate and graduate writing of students from Purdue’s main and satellite campuses.

The author explores the pride, stubborn self-sufficiency, and her mother's Dutch pragmatism that had keep her personal and professional lives intact. The author points out her stress level where she recognizes and appreciates as a result of choices. Topics mentioned include the hypocrisy for a power to career change, good health and high tolerance for disease, and shame as another significant factor in the author's reluctance to ask for help.

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various articles within the issue on topics including English teacher educators' assessment work, abolitionist Theodore Parke's views on English teaching educators, and an essay by Daniel Willingham on social justice education classes.

The authors reflect on honoring and preserving the history of English education in the U.S. to make a sustainable difference.