In this article, the author discusses what life will be like in 2035, and what its implications will be for the way in which health education is practiced. He states that in the next 25 years health educators will have to leave their comfort zones and take a calculated risk with some radical and more creative approaches to health behavior change.…

This essay examines the dangers of attempts by educators to clothe the teaching profession in a veneer of scientific certainty. The author argues that teaching is an art, not a science, and should be proudly proclaimed as such.

Masaki Oda is a Professor of Applied Linguistics at Tamagawa University in Tokyo, Japan, specializing in Sociopolitical Aspects of Language Use. Prof. Oda got his PhD program from Georgetown University, where he also taught Japanese for several years. He returned to Japan in 1990 and began teaching EFL and training EFL teachers at Tamagawa…

Considerable resources and intellectual attention have focused on seeking to raise the status of teaching in higher education over the last two decades. Initiatives at an institutional level have included the funding of pedagogic research, teaching awards and the creation of teaching professorships. In a broader context, the scholarship of…

In this article, the author discusses what rubric really is. A rubric is not a technical specification nor is it a checklist for ailing student performances in need of therapy. It is the finest description of what teachers think is important for their students right now, in the service of their learning. Most important, it is a statement of their…

In his 30 years as a library wholesaler, first as VP and general manager of Brodart Books, Library, and School Automation divisions and since 2000 as president of the Library & Education division of Baker & Taylor (B&T), George Coe has been instrumental in a whole host of innovations. They go way beyond the selection, processing, and delivery of…

Though the filmed portrayal of teachers can be inspiring or humorously satirical, the stereotype offered in those films might tell us much about how the larger culture views traditionally trained teachers and how schools can be reformed. It is argued here that Hollywood's emphasis on the need for outsiders to come in and rescue students from…

In this article, the author shares her personal reflections on praxis and social justice through her work in a teacher education program in Los Angeles. She also shares her thoughts of why she became a teacher, why she became an education professor, and of those who inspired her to work in education. She describes the joy in educational work and…

Japan's Basic Law on Food Education (Shokuiku kihonho) was enacted in June 2005 as a response to various concerns related to food and nutrition, such as food scandals, an increase in obesity and lifestyle-related diseases and an assumed loss of traditional food culture. The Law defines food education (shokuiku) rather vaguely as the acquisition of…

Over the past 20 years education for sustainable development (ESD) has become part of the discourse in teacher education and the teaching community has a better grasp of ESD's action-oriented and participatory pedagogies. The International Network of Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) associated with the UNESCO Chair on Reorienting Teacher…

It is widely recognized today that a teacher's surrounding professional community inevitably affects the kind of teaching that students are offered. However, until recently, it has been difficult to quantify and systematically study the nature of professional relationships in schools and districts. The articles in this special issue provide a…

U.S. universities have had century-long success in absorbing existing professions into their curricula--by making academe their gatekeeper. These professions often started with apprenticeships and short training courses leading to a certification examination--and were then elevated and "academized" into a comprehensive body of knowledge,…

In this response to Donald A. Myers's "The Teacher as a Service Professional" (2008 [this issue]), the author suggests that teacher educators should not buy into Myers's concept because such would sell them short and be counterproductive to the advancement of the teaching profession. Teacher educators must not give up their struggle to advance the…

Reflecting on my experiences as a graduate student, I argue that the terminology of public sociology should be dropped. The public sociology rhetoric is at odds with the fundamental professional reality in the discipline. Sociology, as a "hyper-professionalized" endeavor, primarily values abstract, explanatory theories, even if those theories make…

Dispositions make up the affective side of the library media profession. They work in concert with the content, skills, and knowledge base used to meet the needs of students and faculty. At first the author had difficulty with the term :dispositions" when it appeared in "AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner". Through further analysis she…