Purpose: The capacity to update and monitor the contents of working memory is an executive function presumed to play a critical role in language processing. The current study used an individual differences approach to consider the relationship between memory updating and accurate reference to story characters in the narratives of typically…

This paper explores societal perceptions of a child's disability and bilingualism through the author's observations and reflections. Drawing from the observations of the child in different public schools in the United States, the author shares how the child has been viewed differently and similarly by school personnel. By reflecting on different…

This article examines an eight-year-old's story as a literary work which throws light on the extent of a young child's knowledge of the human condition and on the child's capacity to set forth her knowledge in measured prose.

The Campaign for Learning's Learning to Learn Phase 4 was a research project in which teachers undertook practitioner enquiry to explore innovative pedagogies under the umbrella term of learning to learn. In 2008, to gain greater understanding of what this process meant to the participating teachers the research team at Newcastle University…

The article explores how male primary school teachers view and relate to other people's expectations of them as teachers. The empirical data consists of interviews with seven teachers working in compulsory school grades three to five in a large-sized town in Sweden. The theoretical work on relations among masculinities developed by Connell and the…

This research investigates the professional life histories of upper elementary science teachers who were identified as effective both within the classroom and in the outdoor learning environment (OLE). The narratives of five teachers collected through semi-structured and open-ended interviews provided the data for the study. Professional life…

This paper draws from data from a year long study looking at teachers' perceptions of border violence in tandem with my autoethnographic exploration of the lived experience of border violence as a teacher, mother and as a daughter still grieving for her murdered father. The first steps in starting my research critically exploring educator…

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines:…

The assessment of children's writing raises technical and practical challenges. In this paper we examine the potential use of a curriculum based measure for writing (CBM-W) to assess the written texts of pupils in Key Stage 2 (M age 107 months, range 88 to 125). Two hundred and thirty six Year three, five and six pupils completed a standardized…

Students' knowledge, memories, and experience could be valuable sources for narrative artmaking and identity formation beginning in elementary school. The process of understanding the self is powered in part by each person's unique perception of the world, which strongly depends on "individual abilities as well as particular socio-cultural…

This article offers a personal account of a primary mathematics teacher's current practice and how it developed through participation in a professional development programme. This alternative to fixed-ability teaching is based on creating opportunities for learners to exercise choice and on an understanding of mathematics as connected. Key…

Recent educational accountability efforts have married student assessments with reform mandates and sanctions. As a result, students--beginning in early elementary grades--are feeling the pressures of this new era of high-stakes accountability. This article chronicles a story of the consequences of high-stakes testing on a father and his son.…

Who are talented and gifted (TAG) students and how do we meet their unique needs in the elementary school setting? The body of literature clearly articulates the unique intellectual, social and emotional needs and characteristics of TAG students. Additionally, the literature supports the implementation of differentiated teaching strategies and…

This study examines the effects of foreign language learning context (three-month study-abroad; versus "at-home" instruction) and age (10-11-year-old children versus university students) on the development of effective foreign language communication strategies (CS) in monologue production. Participants (N = 95) were all Spanish/Catalan…

This study discusses how four instructional coaches' roles and identities, as well as the school district context, have influenced their development as instructional coaches. This study thematically analyzes the narrative stories of four elementary school English instructional coaches in New Taipei City, Taiwan. The study concludes that the way…