Adult learners often fear that they will be unable to find work if they are lacking in technological skills. The media, including newspapers, magazines, and advertisements for positions often emphasize the importance of the use of technology in the workplace. It is the case that without adequate skills in the use of appropriate technologies, adult…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of Global Education (GE) from a "theory of action plan" and an "evolutionary and systems theory" approach as an educational perspective to cope with globalisation--more specifically, the challenges of globalisation. Moreover, an additional aim is to analyse the…

This article documents the transformation of cognitive and relational dispositions within a group of 14 White female undergraduate students ranging in age from 18 to 21 years and enrolled in a semester-long diversity course. Using Mezirow's transformative learning theory as an interpretive frame to guide our phenomenological analysis of written…

This paper presents a framework for understanding the role that systems theory might play in education for sustainability (EfS). It offers a sketch and critique of Land and Meyer's notion of a "threshold concept", to argue that seeing systems as a threshold concept for sustainability is useful for understanding the processes of…

As an ideology, the concept of social justice has long been a worthy, if slightly volatile, companion of early childhood theorists and researchers. Whilst the majority of the literature has valorised social justice, discontented questions regarding "what" the construct entails and "how" it might be tamed to work still remain.…

Why is that child so rude? Why does that mother let her daughter come to school dressed like that? Why doesn't he ever do his homework? That child is so lazy that he sleeps in class every day! It's not unusual for teachers to express frustration with students' behavior by making comments like these. But do these teachers really know…

This chapter presents one faculty member's narrative in which academic research, teaching, advising, and mentoring coalesced into an activist agenda for transformative learning and social justice.

The authors examine the modernist underpinnings of traditional adult learning and development theories and evaluate elements of those theories through more contemporary lenses. Drawing on recent literature focused on "public pedagogy," the authors argue that much learning takes place outside of formal educational institutions. They look beyond…

Funded by Race to the Top, a federal education initiative, the Department of Education of a Midwestern state in the U.S. launched statewide implementation of online teacher professional development (OTPD) to apply formative instructional practices (FIP) to enhance classroom instruction. Central to the design and implementation of OTPD was the need…

This narrative inquiry seeks to advance the field of educational leadership preparation by exploring ways to interrupt personal, interpersonal, and institutional racism through the senses--ways in which people perceive their experiences and relation to others. Findings suggest that participants engage in actions aligned with revelations from their…

Coming to understand how cultural differences influence interactions between educators and students and their parents is a complex and perhaps life-long discovery. Culture helps to define groups' belief systems and expectations for appropriate behavior, often at a hidden level. Pre-service teachers need multiple opportunities to interact with…

Teaching the Nature of Science (NOS) in elementary schools and in higher education institutions has become the focus of the science education research community because there is a need to redefine teaching methods and practices. Studies have shown that elementary teachers' views and attitudes towards teaching the NOS are not always compatible with…

The authors outline the potent relationship between continuing professional development (CPD), teacher efficacy, and student learning outcomes in the context of a major reform of middle years teacher work in Queensland, Australia. The authors explore core features of effective teacher CPD, including content focus, active learning, coherence,…

This research investigates the potential of service-learning to develop a situated, embodied and critically reflective human agency for sustainability. It employs document analysis to review the intended curriculum and the institutional contexts of national and international cases wherein service-learning is a component of pre-service teacher…

This article explores the potential of pedagogical approaches such as International Service-Learning (ISL) to cultivate a cosmopolitan orientation. Founded upon the premise that conceptualisations of transformative learning must be expanded upon to account for the interaction and balance between epistemological and ontological aspects of learning,…