This paper, as its title suggests, introduces some reflections on the importance critical pedagogy as well as awareness-raising practices have in education today, especially in language teacher preparation programs, and how they provide a new opportunity for pre-service teachers to re-think their pedagogical experiences for social transformation.…

The use of narratives in the social sciences has drastically increased throughout recent decades. They are mainly used as a way of collecting data and as a way of promoting professional development. This article sheds light on how a practitioner-researcher engaged in narrative writing and how this helped in what is hereby termed a reflective…

While schools are focusing excessively on meeting accountability standards and improving test scores, important facets of schooling--such as preparing students for the global marketplace--are being inadvertently overlooked. Without deliberate informal observation by teachers and school administrators, detecting and addressing students'…

This study examines changes in teaching habits reported by teachers when they see themselves on video. It is a longitudinal study in which 43 student teachers participated in the first step during their teacher education. When the teachers saw themselves teaching, they were surprised by certain habits and wrote that they wanted to change them. Two…

This study brings together the theoretical and empirical practices of traditional informative education, radical transformative education, and sustainable education reform. An analysis of learning disability and constructivist learning are used to elucidate the socio-complexity of historic academic constructs concerning educational leadership for…

The purpose of this research was to examine what preservice teachers learned about their intentions to provide equitable instruction in comparison to their actual teaching acts. Preservice teachers in a K-6 mathematics methods course analyzed their verbal interactions from their teaching of a mathematics lesson and used guided reflection to…

Student-faculty partnerships position students as informants, participants, and change agents in collaboration with faculty members. Enacting one form of such collaboration, Bryn Mawr College's SaLT program pairs faculty members and undergraduate students in explorations of pedagogical practice. The program provides both context and case study for…

Flow theory has not been previously applied to faculty experiences in higher education. Upon carrying out this autoethnographic self-study, I discovered that my experiences as a community college instructor were riddled with periods of being in flow. During the spring academic semester of 2010, I created weekly journals of my teaching life. Then,…

Presented at AERA 2010 as the Social Justice Award Lecture, this article calls attention to the purposes of education in the 21st century and the need for a robust, social justice vision of education. Here, it is argued that education is about the cultivation of a flourishing life and not only the narrow preparation for employment. To realize…

This paper explores how 20 African teachers in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, construct their identities in the light of inclusive education, and how they negotiate the tensions and contradictions emerging from the process of becoming inclusive practitioners. Central to this discussion is the understanding that teachers' identities are…

As teachers continue professional development throughout their careers to better serve the educational needs of students who are gifted, it becomes apparent that one of the goals is to strive to increase self-awareness of ethical and moral professional decisions and actions. Often, this requires intentional reminders and deliberate work to…

In the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability, many social studies teachers struggle to find creative ways to add depth and authenticity to a broad, shallow curriculum. Teachers can use the time after tests are administered for students to reflect back on the social studies curriculum and select topics they want to study more deeply…

The first year of one's superintendency is a year like no other. Even those educators who've worked for years in the wings fulfilling high-level duties in the central office find one eye-opener after another when they alone are at the top of the organization's leadership ladder. At the start of the summer in 2010, The School Administrator invited…

This paper explores the complex and shifting dimensions of the social, cultural and bodily differences that impact on learners and their learning. Our theoretical argument proceeds in five stages. First, we build a typology of terms used to classify demographic differences for the purposes of designing, implementing and evaluating the…

In the context of rapidly changing classroom environments, it is crucial that teachers be able to make appropriate decisions. Those teachers who reflect on their practice, particularly while they are teaching (what Schon terms reflection-in-action), are best able to do so. It is the intent of this article to investigate the role of teacher…