Purpose: The purpose of this article is to outline the evidence-based development of a learning approach to school renewal that employs information from key members of a school community (teachers, parents, students) to promote school-based discussions about school renewal. Setting: The study took place in an independent system of Catholic…

Rapid changes in the Higher Education (HE) sector are increasing the pressure on teaching staff to introduce technology-enhanced learning experiences into the curriculum. Institutions therefore need to provide effective means of enabling academics to successfully transition to these new modes of curriculum delivery. This paper reports on an…

This article presents an analysis of the experiences of scholars in a university-wide curriculum reform in one public research university. The focus is on the intentions and dynamics that shape the curriculum process in the local communities of practice (CoPs). The data, comprising interviews with 25 scholars, are examined as experience-centred…

In this article we report on our examination of the challenges faced by four successful and long-standing national STEM reform communities. Drawing primarily on interview data from a large-scale, multi-year study informed by literature on "communities of practice" (CoPs) (Wenger et al. 2002), we describe five categories of challenges…

In this article, we examine the characteristics of a progressive school-change project in South Korea called the "Hyukshin" School (HS) movement. HSs are public schools that are intended to disseminate progressive and democratic practices. We obtained data from interviews with participating teachers, official documents, reports, and…

This study examines how involvement in four cross-institutional STEM faculty communities of practice is associated with local departmental and institutional change for faculty members belonging to these communities. It is informed by the communities of practice and change in higher education literature and utilizes data gathered through a survey…

Drawing on situated learning and communities of practice, this teacher-research study examined multiple stakeholders' perspectives about the purpose, design, and inaugural implementation of the edTPA, a teacher performance assessment mandated for state certification. Participants included teacher candidates, mentor teachers, a field placement…

While current reform efforts press for ambitious changes to teachers' instructional practice, teachers' instructional beliefs are also consequential in such efforts as beliefs shape teachers' instructional practice and their responses to instructional reforms. This article examines the relationship between teachers' instructional ties and their…

This study intends to identify some key factors in creating and sustaining school-based teacher professional learning communities (PLCs) through a case study of a South Korean public high school. To achieve this, the study identified some essential infrastructure, preparation, and necessary social organization for creating PLCs. The ideal unit and…

Pedagogical transformations in universities are typically explored as "top down" attempts or in the context of training programs targeted towards educating more pedagogically aware individuals. In this study, promoting pedagogical development is explored on a community level as change agency: acting as a broker between the…

This paper draws on the views of lecturers working in and delivering college-based higher education (CBHE) in the UK. There have been numerous works on the culture of higher education in further education (HE in FE). However, as noted by some literati, the culture of further education (FE) is not easy to define, and does not readily lend itself to…

This paper explores one implementation of an extended, structured, collaborative professional experience program. Its context is a new partnership between a university and a professional experience school. The program draws on elements of Instructional Rounds and Lesson Study, framed around a learning community model of professional experience for…

For more than 30 years, Dr. Marilyn Cochran-Smith has developed and directed research and contributed to publications about education and "practitioner research," especially about teachers' research and learning in inquiry communities. Her primary topics are inquiry communities, teacher research, teacher education for social…

School districts have been placed under increasing pressure to equalize student access to technology and equip students with the skills necessary to be competitive in a global economy. In response, a growing number of schools have sought an irreversible and dramatic departure from past practices, a second-order change, to learner-centered…

This paper argues for innovation diffusion as a "becoming" process in the context of lateral and vertical moves. The context of these innovations involves technology-mediated innovations and their diffusion trajectories in the Singapore education system. Embedded in a centralized-decentralized dialectics, this paper traces particular…