Human rights education (HRE) holds the potential for educators to begin an honest dialogue with students and to connect local issues with international struggles for human rights. However, HRE and other teaching approaches that build understanding of systems of power and oppression that lead to human rights violations are not widely embraced in…

The language used by adults in an early childhood setting is one of the most telling indicators of the values of a center. Each center has its own culture of language that consists of often heard phrases and scripts used when teaching and caring for young children. Listening closely to words, tones, and scripts--educators tune into what is unseen,…

This paper is a reflective account exploring the value of using action research in a relatively new context in the United Kingdom; the development of community renewable-energy projects. There is a strong rationale for using action research in this setting due to the synergies between the principles and practice of action research and localised…

This paper takes a critical look at the applicability of the Jungian view on individuation and imagination. While Jungian ideas can bring something fresh and necessary into educational practice, personal enthusiasm might blind us to a dissonance between educational goals and the therapeutic goal of analytical psychology. The case is made with…

Recent considerations of threshold concepts in the rhetoric and writing studies discipline fail to consider the role that reading plays in the learning of student writers. This article reports results from a three-part, two-year, empirical study of seventy-five learners enrolled across four sections of a writing-intensive course. The course…

Teachers changing class levels is common practice in many New Zealand primary schools; however, it is not always seen as a platform for shaping pedagogies. In order to manage the change to a new class level teachers are compelled to reflect on many of their established practices. Engaging in this reflection can help teachers to see their practice…

This article argues that transformative learning becomes increasingly essential for educators in the changing landscape of the adult and higher education institutions of the United States that has continuously hosted highest numbers of international students among other countries. First, it presents a context discussing learning for…

Pre-service teachers face a complex educational context and Transformative Inquiry is a useful approach for negotiating this terrain. We interpret the movement of students via the adaptive cycle put forth in panarchy theory as they engage in the inquiry process through "winter counts", a Plains First Nation tradition, as expressions of…

In this paper we report on research we conducted to begin the process of identifying threshold concepts in the field of postsecondary teaching. Meyer & Land (2006) propose that within all disciplinary fields there seem to be particular "threshold concepts" that serve as gateways, opening up new and previously inaccessible ways of…

This paper describes the outcomes of a self-study that we undertook as instructors of a capstone undergraduate leadership course. Using the framework of action inquiry and a variety of pedagogical approaches, we sought to create a course and classroom environment that was student-centered, empowering, and transformative. Three questions are…

In this article, the impact of assessment tasks on examination result (measured by examination grades) is investigated. Although many describe the advantages of electronic assessment tasks, few studies have been undertaken which compare a traditional approach using a classical examination with a new approach using assessment tasks. The main…

A program titled Physical Education Programming Infusion (PEPI) was incorporated into a required science methods course for preservice classroom teachers (PCTs). Using the transformative learning theory and the social ecological model, the authors examined changes in PCTs' personal health behaviors and perceived barriers toward movement…

Despite acknowledgement among social justice educators about the need to infuse anti-bias lessons in K-12 curricula, discussions of disability oppression are silent in schools. Token efforts at addressing the topic of disability generally manifest as "disability awareness day(s)" and often include "disability simulations,"…

In 2010, an Indigenous Elder from the Wiradjuri nation and a group of academics from Charles Sturt University travelled to Menindee, a small locality on the edge of the Australian outback. They were embarked upon an "adventure-learning" research journey to study ways of learning by creating a community of practice with an Elder from the…

Although the human mind resists confusion, this feeling of disequilibrium nurtures learning. Newkirk, the author quotes, says intelligence is not a matter of being smart--it is the capacity to view difficulty as an opportunity to stop, reassess, and employ strategies for making sense of problems. These same habits of mind define reflection, a…