Education in the United States is often characterized by testing and standardized outcomes, and bears little relevance to the culture and the community that surrounds both students and teachers. Conversely, community arts connect the philosophies of art and education to the larger spheres of culture and community. The community thus becomes an…

Journal clubs are meetings where participants engage in discussion or appraisal of professional literature and research. This study investigates the perceived value of librarians' participation in journal clubs. Using a hermeneutic dialectic process, we built a construction of the value of journal club participation based on interviews with…

Education preparation institutions have long sought the most effective preparation practices for preparing tomorrow's educators. Unfortunately, understanding best practices in teacher preparation is fraught with ambiguity. Key facets of instruction on theory and clinical experience are understood to be necessary elements of preparation, and…

Grounded in the theoretical framework of Moore's Theory of Transactional Distance and the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Theory, this dissertation sought to (a) examine the relationship between the three components of teaching presence and student satisfaction, (b) determine which component of teaching presence is most closely associated with student…

The work of school leaders is critical in this era, and there is heightened attention on the roles of the leaders as linked to student achievement and school improvement; school culture and climate; and the variables that impact achievement, improvement, culture and climate. The demands on school leaders have significantly changed. About a decade…

The primary focus of this Executive Leadership Portfolio (ELP) is to investigate whether teachers who actively participate in professional development designed to model best practices and explore digital technology would incrementally change their instructional moves to include these practices and technologies. The literature presented within this…

Principals work within a complex context where multiple stakeholders make many competing demands of them. Chief among these demands includes district initiatives, which serve to create leadership expectations but often do not contain clear methods or practices for implementation. Additionally, demands of the local community and interests of…

Most teachers participate in professional development of some kind at some point in their careers, yet many teachers report that professional development neither supports their practice nor improves learning. Thus, more work needs to be done on how professional development can meet those needs. In this study, a group of educators created a…

In this scoping review, the authors describe the ways in which key concepts from situated learning theory are employed in the health professions education literature between 2006 and 2014. Among 333 articles identified during level 1 screening, the authors identified 153 that addressed situated learning concepts in a substantive way. Most articles…

School development is often seen as a concerted (re-)action to educational policies, curriculum development, and change in education laws or regulations, and sometimes, as stakeholders' reactions to low school performance. Generally, school development incorporates organizational, managerial, and educational activities and measures. This is done…

This paper will set out the key planning considerations regarding the establishment of a dedicated online portal for Gaeltacht and Irish-medium schools at post-primary level as detailed in the Policy on Gaeltacht Education 2017-2022 (PGE). The research topic is intrinsically linked with action points highlighted within strategy and policy papers…

The article focuses on pedagogical strategies for multicultural education courses, with a focus on creating brave space for a community of learners. The study explains how to design and implement effective practices to create the brave space that is vital to a multicultural education course. Brave space is crucial because of the sensitivity of the…

This article describes the process of developing a pilot learning community at East Tennessee State University, focusing on the collaboration of academic and student affairs administrators. Exploring how the literature on the integration of high impact practices, namely learning communities, service-learning, and domestic travel study informed our…

A core role of the K-12 school leader is to support and nurture the growth of others. That growth is commonly thought to be at the student level. However, school leaders must also focus on the growth of their teachers. School leaders are adjusting to a world where technology has crept into many aspects of the profession. And sometimes, technology…

This study aims to explore the influence of contextual factors on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers' professional identity formation in the context of Saudi Arabia. More specifically, it aims to examine how the participants' educational background, life experiences and professional setting influence their professional identities as EFL…