Arlene C. Ackerman, who took the helm of Philadelphia's public schools a little more than a year ago, is pushing for changes that would upend how teachers are paid and assigned to schools. The veteran urban superintendent is battling tradition in the 167,000-student system, but insists that increasing the effectiveness of the city's nearly 10,700…

The purpose of the present article is to review the contextual conditions that lead teachers to be more controlling rather than autonomy supportive with their students. Research indicates that the more teachers perceive that school administration thwarts their autonomy by imposing pressures on them, the less autonomous they are in their motivation…

In response to external pressure for change, the subject university engaged in major restructuring activities during the mid to late 1990's. As predicted by organizational theory, faculty reacted to the restructuring in order to define the conditions and methods of their work and to legitimate their professional autonomy. Although this university…

Currently, the decline in teacher numbers has become an important topic for discussion in the field of teachers' work in Australia. The purpose of this article is to discuss current initiatives being implemented by both the Australian federal government and the South Australian state government to retain and attract prospective teachers and some…

This study examined the way performance accountability culture influenced the work of public high school principals. A qualitative multiple case study design was used to discover the way principals responded to, and coped with, performance accountability culture at the local level. Interviews of nine high school principals in the state of New…

Purpose: A recent development in England is the emergence, under various names, of groups of schools working together in a variety of collaborative ways. Such diversification enjoys broad political support. In this paper, the author aims to argue that the trend is potentially a radical transformation of the school system as a whole. The concepts…

In this study, faculty at institutions of higher education in Southern California were surveyed to determine the ways they interpret the effects of globalization dynamics upon their various teaching and research activities. Faculty in the state's three higher education tiers spoke positively about the intellectual benefits to be gained by exposure…

Advocating dialogue between language teachers and learners has been an area of growing exploration, particularly in the area of reflective practice in second language teacher education. In this brief report, the authors detail the conceptualization and procedures of two online exchange projects conducted in 2008 and 2009, in which they tried to…

It is essential that teachers take a proactive look at their profession and themselves to strengthen areas of professionalism over which they have control. In this article, the author suggests strategies that include collaborative planning, reflectivity, growth in the profession, and the examination of certain personal characteristics.

This study examined factors that contribute to Chinese and United States middle school science teachers' perceptions of autonomy support. Autonomy is one component of self-determination theory and has been associated with intrinsic motivation. The study used a mixed methods design including quantitative data collected through an online survey and…

The aim of this research is to study the impact of teacher leadership on the school effectiveness. A total of 181 teachers from six primary schools in Male (the capital island of Maldives) were chosen as respondents for this study. A quantitative survey method using questionnaire to obtain the data is employed. The findings showed there is a…

Community colleges are increasing their use of part-time faculty who are taking a leading role in utilizing technology for instructional purposes. Part-time faculty are less likely than their full-time counterparts to use technology for instructional purposes and are less likely to teach non-face-to-face classes. For community colleges to be…

A growing body of evidence has defined the characteristics of a quality preschool curriculum. However, less is understood about the sustainability of implementation once a preschool curriculum has been adopted. Using a qualitative methodology, we focused on factors associated with preschool teachers' continuing use of a research-based curriculum…

Purpose: This From the Field article describes an emerging model of boundary spanning leadership in homeless education. Drawing from the pilot program that is being implemented in conjunction with the Homeless Children's Education Fund in Pittsburgh, the article identifies areas of promise and potential limits to university faculty involvement…

Purpose: Schools necessarily employ elements of a bureaucratic structure to organize the complex task of educating large and diverse groups of students--elements such as a hierarchy of authority, a division of labor, policies, rules, and regulations. Although such a structure is useful, there is a danger that school leaders will overemphasize…