The multi-age teams (MATs) at one Georgia middle school fostered continuous, individual student progress unachievable in more conventional classrooms. In MAT groups, assignments to classes were based on students' interests, abilities, performance, and other maturational factors, regardless of chronological age. Opportunities for remediation and…

This article constitutes an attempt to investigate how student teachers and teacher educators in the context of Swedish early childhood teacher education are invented and reinvented by practices that are inspired by feminist and post-structural thinking. I give examples of practice that explicitly make use of different aspects of the personal,…

This position paper presents the STAIRS model for overcoming barriers to teachers as they implement and integrate instructional technology in science classrooms. There are many barriers for teachers in the integration of this technology which include time to learn how to use the technology, adequate hands-on staff development opportunities,…

Discusses 10 challenges media specialists must overcome to effectively use technology in education. Highlights include people opposed to technology; teacher training to help develop collaborative relationships; establishing and using a comprehensive technology plan; assuming more professional responsibility; and empowerment. (LRW)

Describes members' responsibilities within effective middle school interdisciplinary teams. States that principals are responsible for hiring, orientation, teacher empowerment, and staff development, while existing team members help new members by building a new team identity and developing collaborative relationships. Asserts that new teachers…

Describes the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, discussing the importance of sustained professional development and collaboration in achieving reflective practice and teacher change and describing how social and cultural history and literature and innovative critical pedagogy work together to enrich curricula, advance…

Summarizes major differences between, and compatibility of, site-based management (SBM) and choice as strategies for restructuring schools. Examines the following areas of comparison: focus; impact timing; nature of impacts; teacher empowerment; empowerment basis; roles assigned parents; professionalization strategy; accountability; change…

Articles in this special section by middle-school educators describe the multi-age team (MAT) experiment at a Georgia middle school from 1993 onward. In 1992, a project inspired by "Turning Points" recommendations addressing teacher and administrator empowerment was launched at another Georgia school. (MLH)

This book describes teachers' work in urban New York City (New York) schools during a time of intense school reform in the 1920s. Teachers and schools coped with an ever-growing and diverse student body. Extensive interviews of teachers from this era shows the complexity of teachers' work, their problems with reform implementation, and the…

This paper shows that policymakers and researchers have changed their views about school improvement and the role of teachers in the process, suggesting that educational reform initiatives challenge classroom teachers to make sense of new policies, ideas, programs, and their own work. It examines calls for reform, highlighting: the 1957 launch of…

Discussion of the need for educational reform in elementary and secondary public schools focuses on a new masters degree program in Educational Change and Technology Innovation developed at Walden University (Minnesota) to help empower educators through distance education courses. Curriculum, courses, and admissions criteria are appended. (LRW)

The present study focuses on the relationship between teacher empowerment and teachers' organizational commitment, professional commitment (PC) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). It examines which subscales of teacher empowerment can best predict these outcomes. The data were collected through a questionnaire returned by a sample of…

Explores potential changes in the power relationships among teachers and principals. Describes and analyzes the following models of teacher decision-making: (1) Instructional Leadership Teams; (2) Principals' Advisory Councils; (3) School Improvement Teams; and (4) Lead Teacher Committees. (FMW)

Summarizes an ethnographic study examining interactions perceived as empowering in four inner-city primary schools in Victoria, Australia. Teachers wanted interactions between themselves and principals to be characterized by trust, recognition, respect, support, and reliability, but were disheartened by vanishing career and professional…

The administrators at Earlham College wanted teachers who entered its M.A.T. program to develop a "fire in the belly" to teach, and to have the ability to confront the realities of U. S. schools, including standardized testing (which seems at odds with passionate teaching and learning). Prior to entering the Earlham College M.A.T. program,…