Representing a dramatic shift in education thinking, converging evidence now supports a reliance on findings from rigorous scientific research to guide education policy initiatives in the United States. Particularly for early reading instruction, scientific research has provided the framework for establishing the most effective measures for the…

This article argues cultural anthropology would make a good partner to service-learning pedagogy because it offers students a theoretical approach for understanding community life and its power structures. Anthropologists have been dealing with power vis-a-vis the people they study using concepts relevant to the reflection process in…

The Anthropology Department at Western Michigan University has sponsored an annual archaeological field school since the mid-1970s. Over the past decade, students have worked with community and government organizations, learning to apply archaeological methods to real world problems to preserve and interpret significant heritage sites. They come…

As is true for human resource development (HRD), the field of organization development (OD) draws from numerous disciplines to inform its theory base. However, the identification and selection of theory to inform improved practice remains a challenge and begs the question of what can be used to inform and guide one in the identification and…

Occupational socialization in schools is a known factor counteracting attempts at educating innovative teachers. In this study, findings are reported from a longitudinal study conducted among 357 students, 128 cooperating teachers, and 31 university supervisors from 24 graduate teacher education programs. Quantitative survey data as well as…

Arguably, living and working in rural communities can pose significant challenges for human service practitioners--challenges that are different from those encountered by their urban counterparts. Human services employers, like many other employers in rural areas, have difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. There is now considerable…

Previous research has indicated that the transfer climate of work organisations is an important factor in determining the degree to which knowledge, skills and abilities gained in training transfer to the workplace. In particular, workplace social support from supervisors and coworkers is consistently cited as an important factor that can…

In an experimental writing course we taught at a northeastern state university, we explored "queer" and "writing," hoping to discover what students could create by merging these terms. How might queer theory help students use writing to reimagine and rearticulate various identity categories in ways that allowed them to reconfigure the mental map…

In this article, we argue that the debates about mathematics education that have arisen in the United States over the past decade are the result of a major shift in how we conceptualize mathematical knowledge and mathematics learning. First, we examine past efforts to change mathematics education and argue they are grounded in a common traditional…

The former Soviet economies have, for the past 12 years, looked to the advanced economies in the west for help in reforming their systems of vocational education and training. These "transition" economies still bear much of the legacy of the previous system and culture-academic in orientation, firmly supply led and implemented through…

Learning to teach is a complex and multidimensional process. Many teacher educators agree that learning to teach occurs when theory connects with practice, general propositions and abstract concepts are instantiated in clinical contexts, and field experiences are interpreted in light of a coherent knowledge base. The recently redesigned curriculum…

This article outlines the experiences of educators in three teacher education institutes in the USA, Australia and the UK as they experiment with carrying out programmes based on ideas of action research. The emphasis is on experiences with programmes of initial education for secondary school teachers. A descriptive case study aimed to find out…

The authors draw on data from weekly e-mail responses to a questionnaire completed by beginning teachers placed in one-year, paid, internships. Interns were assigned mentors who responded every several weeks, also via e-mail, to a questionnaire about the interns and their development. Data from 23 interns were analyzed. Seven themes were…

Is it possible for principals/heads to be effective educational leaders? In this study, we compared the work of principals/heads in two policy contexts. In Policy Context 1, standards for student performance were common and well-established, and authority was devolved to the school level for reshaping the school to meet those standards. In…

Our graduate degree program includes a component of six one-credit courses, in which teachers find ways to bring into their own classroom practices theory learned in related three-credit courses. Prior research indicates that taking course work alone may not bring about changes in teachers' decision-making. Prior research also encourages higher…