Since the passing of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), neoliberal policies, such as standardized curriculum, high-stakes tests, accountability measures, school choice, charter schools, value-added models and school privatization have pushed social justice teaching to the margins. As a result, many educators endure demoralization, teach…

This paper presents a view of action research (AR) as a valuable way in which teachers can pose fertile questions and engage in inquiry with transformative possibilities. This counters claims of its being at best a sterile method of teacher research and at worst a perilous trap for teachers. Chris Higgins has argued that AR has lost its original…

Reflective practice and inquiry are aspects of teacher professional practice that characterise teachers as learners. Reflective practice in some form is considered in contemporary education as an essential activity for teachers and teacher educators. "Inquiry as professional development" and "inquiry as research", on the other…

As U.S. population becomes increasingly diverse, preparing 21st century educators to teach children of diverse racial, ethnic, social class, and language backgrounds is a critical issue in teacher education. This study focused on career and technical education instructors with a business and industry teaching license and minimal or no previous…

This paper advances our understanding of how schools can become change agents capable of transforming local practice to address the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. It presents a novel application of cultural-historical activity theory to reinterpret evidence on widespread learning loss and increasing educational inequities resulting…

Teaching in a new country initiates a process of adaptation requiring emotional, cognitive and behavioural adjustments. This qualitative study explores international lecturers' perceptions of their adaptation process in a South African university. The findings, based on semi-structured interviews with six lecturers from six different countries,…

This study emphasizes the importance of faculty development and training as a means to prepare faculty to design the capstone course as a high-impact educational practice. Specifically, this research explores transformative learning in the capstone class as a vehicle for reflection on personal and professional ethics. Students enrolled in a…

There are two types of challenges that adults face in their professional learning: technical and adaptive. Technical challenges simply require informational learning while adaptive challenges require transformational learning, which requires us to rethink our deeply held values, beliefs, assumptions, and even our professional identity. Adaptive…

This mixed method convergent study explored the impact of design and delivery of professional development practices in a large, urban school district in Missouri. Certificated classroom teachers at 23 pre-determined elementary school sites (541 participants) were electronically surveyed. Additionally, three department leaders were interviewed and…

We offer a more nuanced characterization of teachers' narrative inquiry as professional development (Johnson & Golombek, 2002) by grounding our definition of and empirical research on teachers' narrative inquiry from a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective. Our goal is to reaffirm our belief in the educational value of teachers'…

This article is about personally driven professional development through the use of reflective self-study. The argument that teachers need to take responsibility for their own learning while also taking decisions on how and in what areas to develop is strongly made throughout the article. Data for this article were gathered over a 10-year period…

In a neoliberal political context, educational reform is seen as largely dependent on the individual teacher and his or her ability to continue developing and improving his or her practice with the ultimate goal of improving student outcomes. Professional development (PD) is therefore reliant on teachers to embrace new models of practice, to…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the ways that a change in perspective can create a better understanding of cultural identity. This study addressed: (1) How does a self-awareness transformative learning experience develop critical cultural competence in career and technical education instructors?; (2) How does the practice…

Hobbs and Coiro describe a new approach to the professional development of educators, librarians, and media professionals that emphasizes the value of collaborative, interdisciplinary relationships. The authors explore why creative collaboration using digital media texts, tools, and technologies is vital to support the professional development of…

This longitudinal ethnographic study involved a professional development project, Project Partnerships Achieve Literacy (Project PAL) in South Africa, with eight rural foundation phase teachers who taught Reception (kindergarten) through grade three (R-3). This Project was designed to support teachers in an under-resourced school as they learned…