How much should ethnographers involve themselves with the people, places, and processes they study? One answer has become increasingly popular: invert the standard method of participant observation into observant participation. This article draws on an ethnography of ambulance work to consider the trade-offs between these approaches. My fieldwork…

Background: Many education systems internationally expect schools to participate in continuous instructional improvement programmes. One tool used within these processes is the structured, rubric-based classroom observation, focused on the evaluation of teaching. Such observations are a common feature of formative evaluation systems, teacher…

Classroom observation tools (COTs) are used to understand and improve the quality of teaching practices, ultimately for better student learning outcomes. While COTs are widely used globally, there is limited research on how they are adapted to fit different educational contexts. Moreover, little is known about how lesson observers and teachers are…

In this article, we describe the process of revising our writing program's teaching observation forms and processes over the last several years, drawing from descriptions of best practices in conducting teaching observations in writing programs (Comer; Jackson). We analyze the teaching observation form as it functions in a structurational nexus to…

This chapter responds to the recent crisis surrounding developments in large language models (LLMs) and generative AI with a relational view of education informed by the emerging world-centered approach to education and a synthesis of personalist character formation with feminist care ethics. It proposes that the instinct to manage student use of…

Noticing is a momentary act. Enriching the possibility of noticing something specific in the future marks the beginning of an action labelled "professional development". Thus, what happens as a result of noticing is what matters for the teacher, but what really matters is what happens for the learner. Whether something noticed enables a…

A teaching life is not one continuous thread of progress, moving ever forward. Theories that become fixed, as well as habits of thought and approach within the teacher, can cloud their understanding of their students and life in the classroom. For the teacher, the key to understanding is "seeing" the person, continually working within a…

In response to national and state trends promoting inquiry-based social studies over the last decade, social studies teacher educators at the University of Kentucky revamped their pre-service program to create alignment around the key inquiry concepts of questions, tasks, and sources. Part of the program revision involved the creation of a new…

This book proposes a new method for working on the complex and polysemic notion of interculturality, aimed at scholars, students and educators who have an interest in enriching and challenging their own take on this somewhat controversial scientific notion. Multiple examples of observability made by the authors are provided to illustrate the…

In this article, we reflect on our experiences with teaching ethnographic skills and sensibilities to MSc students at a Dutch university. Using methods such as (self)observation, journaling and reflection, we highlight dilemmas (conceptual, practical, ethical) faced by students when doing ethnographic fieldwork and dilemmas that emerged in…

Critical reflection is pivotal for enhancing practice in peer observation of teaching (POT). Our analysis of educators' reflections in a developmental POT program revealed a deficiency in the level of critical reflection. In this paper, we reflect on the reasons behind this shortfall and changes made to enhance the scaffolding of critical…

Students have powerful but underutilized perspectives on the impact of educators' professional learning. When students are directly engaged in providing feedback, they can offer unique insights into how professional learning translates into classroom practice and affects their learning experience. Incorporating student feedback also helps…

Wildflower Schools, a network of decentralized "shopfront" Montessori schools, began in 2014, when Sep Kamvar, a MIT Media Lab professor, was unable to find a preschool for his son that fit his needs, and ended up partnering with two veteran Montessori educators, Mary Rockett and Katelyn Shore, to start a school. Wildflower's work is…

Montessori was very specific about the value of observation. Observation may feel like a never-ending chore--a routine that is difficult to fit into the day that results in data that is difficult to use once collected. No matter the reason, observation can inspire feelings of discomfort, inadequacy, and confusion. Viewed from this perspective,…

The Optimizing Learning Opportunities for Students (OLOS) Observation System was developed by the Early Learning Network's assessment team at the University of California, Irvine. OLOS is a user-friendly, web-based tool designed to help teachers understand what is happening in their classrooms and uncover ways to meet the unique learning needs of…