This paper considers the state of contingent laborers, Ph.D. holders, lovers of robust scholarship, and hopeful academics who toil away in the neoliberal university in the search for the academic good life. The author argues that the academic good life is a fantasy and agrees that the fantasy is cruel, i.e. not attainable or livable, but does…

This essay examines teaching failure in the context of COVID-19. It uses autoethnography to convey and explore the impact the pandemic has on teaching, as situated against and within my life-long dream to be a teacher. I explore four performances as a teacher that resulted from the transition at my institution from on the ground to fully remote…

The collection of papers presented in this issue of Critical Studies in Education adds to the expansive body of work on teachers and teaching. Collectively, the papers draw our attention to new ways the field is problematising the emerging and evolving conditions that shape the work, lives and identities of teachers. With this editorial…

Do teachers spend more time on actual teaching and learning in a typical lesson compared to previous years? Do they feel prepared to teach when they start teaching? What sort of continuous professional development programmes do they participate in and how does it impact their practice? This report looks first at how teachers apply their knowledge…

Many comparative education researchers have tackled the question of how we could understand the relationship between social and cultural contexts and education. Based on the criticisms of School Effectiveness research that prospered during the 1980s, researchers started to pay closer attention to the embeddedness of education in the broader…

Since 2017 I have examined the impact of shifting professional practices demonstrated by students of an Artist Teacher MA programme at an English university. Students repeatedly discuss the transformative nature of the course, and through an impact case study I have interrogated the conditions which enable profound changes to occur. Emerging…

Experiential learning exercises have the potential to elicit emotional responses in students and instructors alike. This article takes an auto-ethnographic approach in detailing the author's experience facilitating a role-playing activity that triggered an unanticipated emotional reaction in a session participant. In the narrative, the author…

The new demands imposed upon the education industry world-wide by "globalization" and "information revolution" are analysed in this paper, centred on the ethical constraints surrounding the teacher, and the challenges facing management. The concept of the modern Sisyphus is presented herewith, to capture the…

The purpose of this paper is to share the challenges faced with the rapid transition from face-to-face to online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight successful online teaching strategies. The challenges are presented in a question and solution-based analysis to help educators mitigate barriers for students who are engaged in online…

In Spring 2018--almost a decade into province-wide implementation of Full-day Kindergarten--the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) Research Department and British Columbia Primary Teachers' Association (BCPTA) investigated who the K/K-1 teachers are, how they teach and learn, and whether they have the resources and supports needed to…

Why does professional learning for educators have such a mixed history? Why is it so hard to find solid research evidence of professional development programs that actually improve student learning outcomes? Part of the answer, writes Thomas R. Guskey, is that professional learning experiences for educators are rarely well planned. Consequently,…

This paper provides discussion of learning experienced by Applied Learning Educators in a workplace context where everyday teaching activities can involve undertaking unfamiliar tasks to the extent that the concept of 'crossing boundaries', or acting outside 'comfort zones' becomes 'normalised'. This perspective arises from consideration of…

Over the past few years, there has been an ever-growing chorus of those who grumble that teachers are unhappy with their lack of control and freedom and have grown to deeply dislike their jobs. This article asks if teachers really lack autonomy and freedom, and wonders if as a nation, whether or not we have reached the right balance of…

Professional educators are called upon to provide effective instruction to student populations that increasingly consist of multiple cultures, languages, and ethnic backgrounds. Based on current special education law, schools are working toward establishing more collaborative cultures by stressing partnerships between general and special education…

An emerging trend in educational research is the use of social network theory and methodology to understand how teacher collaboration can support or constrain teaching, learning, and educational change. This article provides a critical synthesis of educational literature on school social networks among educators to advance our understanding of the…