Men who choose to do "women's work" and enter the female culture of the primary school can often initially face a range of stereotyped responses to their choice. Drawing on stories from a small sample of trainee and serving male teachers, we adopt the term "identity bruising" to describe the "knock backs" that occur…

Using fiction writing techniques, such as the creation of composite characters and scenarios gathered from data collection and the author's tacit knowledge, this narrative teacher inquiry illustrates how anti-homophobia education might unfold in an elementary school. The art of yarning or storytelling is explored as an effective tool to confront…

By evoking the concept of memory pictures, the author recalls her early years as a teacher. Rather than calling herself a beginning teacher, she characterizes herself as a fledgling teacher to capture the insecurity associated with the first years of teaching. This experience is narrated through five memory pictures: (1) the new school's many…

Portuguese schools in urban areas became multicultural during the 90s. Some students are quite distanced from the school culture. Many repeat grades. The curriculum emerges as a means of (re)organizing school practice, so that it is designed to foster inclusion. It is a tool for social mediation between the culture and knowledge of teenagers, and…

The days following September 11, 2001, were characterized for many by a startling clarity, as if someone had applied a magnified lens to life's everyday routines and every moment, every gesture, every word exchanged with friends, colleagues and family was more nuanced and precious than before. The decision to publish this volume of essays was…

With a view to developing support for university accreditation, this small-scale study assisted 18 special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) to identify significant learning at work and consider possibilities for accredited learning projects. Participants wrote and shared narratives of critical learning incidents, assessed the contribution…

The growing practice of beginning instruction in a modern foreign language in the elementary school has created a need for many classroom teachers to become oriented to a whole new field of foreign-language teaching methodology and materials. Since teachers tend to think of language instruction in terms of the English-language arts, the language…

As a university instructor and a language arts middle school teacher, the authors have been working collaboratively for the last three years. This article describes their collaborative efforts, including what they have learned about their students and about the process of learning through the work they have done together. To introduce their…