At the time of writing, primary English education is, once again, at a crossroads. Within the context of a continuing focus on underachievement in writing for key groups of learners and a large body of research, which suggests that classroom talk is a powerful means of improving children's success in all areas of the curriculum including writing,…

Teachers' knowing about students and their families is critical to ensuring relevant classroom instruction. The "Family Storytelling through Dichos" approach is explored as a culturally and linguistically appropriate mechanism for learning about students' backgrounds. This article posits that this approach may be a viable one, since it is rooted…

Distance education has come a long way from its first offerings of pen and paper when submissions had to be mailed and no interaction occurred between students and instructors. One concern that has remained is that of keeping students connected to peers and instructors. Moore (1973) stated this psychological and communication gap (transactional…

Professional networking is critical for school leaders. Networking has emerged in the literature as one of the major needs in attracting and retaining quality school leaders. There is evidence that professional networking offers a system for women to enhance their career opportunities. However, the evidence shows there are limited professional…

This paper synthesizes conceptual and empirical literature on organizational learning interventions based on dialogue. First, I attempt to delineate the concept of dialogue and to explain its relevance to organizational learning. Examples and arguments in support of dialogic learning initiatives are presented. Organizational realities and…

This exploratory study uses qualitative methods to analyze the impact of conversations in the Border Pedagogy "Cafes" on more than 500 binational educators from the Tijuana/San Diego area on the U.S.-Mexico border. Four important themes emerged from the analysis that describe the impact of the cafes and offer a strong foundation on which…

This article reports research from a qualitative case study of three preservice English teachers who participated in the Web Pen Pals project, a university--secondary telecollaborative partnership which paired preservice English teachers enrolled in the author's young adult literature course with local middle school students in online chat rooms…

In the present era of accountability, there is a real and justifiable temptation to use collaboration to focus strictly upon instrumental goals that have an immediate impact on classroom practices. However, without some time and reflection devoted to why teachers do what they do, a sustainable culture of collaboration is unlikely to emerge. Based…

Classroom discourse analysis has contributed to understandings of the nature of student-teacher interactions, and how learning takes place in the classroom; however, much of this work has been undertaken in teacher-directed learning contexts. Student-centred classrooms such as problem-based learning (PBL) approaches are increasingly common in…

The motion picture "Crash" does not focus on surface realism, but instead provides what appears to be an unbiased portrayal of various races and perspectives. Not only does the movie highlight the idea that all people carry racial baggage, but it also reminds them that often their greatest fear is of the "other." According to this author, it is…

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement describes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communication processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable…

Building on the framework of Peters and Armstrong's (1998) three Types of Teaching/Learning, this article explores the use of dialogue to foster a collaborative and democratic learning experience. There are three conditions under which dialogue can be facilitated as a part of the collaborative learning experience: (a) intent, (b) a dialogical…

Demands continue for the reform of educational administration preparation programs. Attention typically focuses on the knowledge base, its foundation and relationship with the field. This article raises the pivotal issue of faculty learning through conversation and its role in the development of core purpose to frame the reconsideration of…

This study examines the extent to which conceptual change is stimulated and achieved through online discussion in the context of an online graduate course. Transcripts of discussions among 15 graduate students studying assessment issues in mathematics and science education were analyzed using an interaction analysis model developed to assess…

This paper presents findings from the pattern of participation and discourse analysis of the online interaction among in-service teachers in the teacher training institute in Singapore. It was found that the teachers formed a knowledge-building community and jointly discussed issues related to integrating information technology into the classroom.…