Materials development is increasingly recognized as a valuable venue for narrowing the research-practice gap. This qualitative case study explores how four middle school teachers and three university researchers collaborated in a community of practice (CoP) to write textbooks by highlighting the interplay between their collaborative relationships…

The concept of professional learning communities (PLCs) has attracted global attention because of its significant role in facilitating teacher professional learning. While increasing efforts have been invested in building PLCs in many systems, few studies have investigated how teacher leaders lead and sustain PLCs. Drawing on qualitative findings…

This qualitative case study investigates how faculty members in a Title I middle school engage in collaborative practices to enhance professional growth without formal professional learning. Framed within a descriptive lens (Merriam, 1998) and informed by Brown and Duguid's Community of Practice (CoP) framework (1991), the study addresses two…

The purpose of this article is to describe and explain a mentoring initiative for supporting and retaining middle school teachers. First, we examine the persistent problem of teacher retention in U.S. schools, particularly in middle schools. Then, we describe a mentoring initiative--a community practice mentoring model that is well-suited for…

This study's main objective was to use structural equation modeling to examine the direct effects of teachers' amotivation, identified regulation, external regulation, introjected regulation, and intrinsic motivation on PLC development in Ethiopia's Awi administrative zone's primary and middle schools. For this purpose, a correlational…

Purpose: This research aims to examine the pre-service teachers' learning when using STEM tasks with middle school students in a lesson study. Design/methodology/approach: This research adopted a qualitative methodology with an interpretative orientation. The participants are three pre-service teachers involved in a lesson study that took place in…

As people with power in schools, teachers and administrators make instructional decisions that shape opportunities in classrooms for students to learn. Educators' words and actions, especially related to the treatment of students and their ideas, are foundational for creating equitable learning communities in our classrooms and schools. David…

This article examines the ways teachers, students, and teacher educators interacted in a unit around Christopher Columbus and other historical figures that have been given places of privilege within the dominant society. The authors trace how color-evasiveness and explicit engagement with race in the classroom intermingle with the implementation…

This study identified the experiences of middle school teachers in the Southeastern Louisiana participating in professional learning communities, using the social constructivism theory. The study uncovers the various factors that are present that influence instructional practices and student learning outcomes. Ten middle school teachers engage in…

When it comes to implementing educational policy changes, teacher leaders have been identified as playing a critical role. Yet, despite more calls for increased teacher professionalism and leadership, we lack substantial empirical research on how these teacher leaders are developed and the role of collaborative relationships in their development.…

Writing groups have the potential to be positive academic communities, but often become problematic spaces where students go to get their writing "fixed." In this article, the authors draw on literature from peer response groups as well as social justice pedagogies to explore how teachers might develop these groups as spaces for student…

Design thinking has been propositioned to be interconnected to Dewey's notion of pragmatist inquiry and aesthetic experience. To address the need for empirical studies on design thinking in the classroom and add to our understanding of its characteristics, this study explored middle years' students' discourse as they worked through a design…

The purpose of this action research study was to understand and develop school-wide critical literacy practices with middle school teachers. During Cycle 1, students, teachers, and administrators from one school within an urbanized district spoke with the researcher in either interviews or focus groups. Results indicated that in order to implement…

Teachers who work at small schools often do not have colleagues at their workplace who teach the same content area and therefore cannot benefit from the professional growth that comes with having same-subject colleagues in one's workplace. The purpose of this study was to see if participating in a teacher Facebook group as a Virtual Community of…

Knowledge Building Communities (KBCs) are principled-based, interactive learning environments designed to scaffold higher levels of student agency and the formulation of goals and questions stemming from students' knowledge-building needs. The design of KBCs is guided by a set of 12 principles that have been examined across hundreds of studies.…