While politicians and the media have devoted a great deal of attention to the "problem" of school violence, classrooms teachers remain an underutilized source of information and inspiration about the frequency of school violence, its causes, its consequences, and appropriate interventions. In essence, teachers have been given little, if any,…

Increasingly diverse student populations in schools highlight the need for effective service delivery models to accommodate these students. One promising practice that is being utilized and becoming more commonplace in schools is coteaching (Reinhiller, 1996). Coteaching involves the deployment of a general education teacher and a special…

Creative Arts in Learning, a master's degree program at Lesley College Graduate School, acknowledges the importance of teacher creativity. By feeding teachers' inner lives, the arts can transform the tone of classrooms or entire schools. Courses in storytelling, visual arts, and drama help teachers demystify the arts, learn alternative…

There is a growing need in the field of teacher education to bridge the gap between theory and practice while creating dialogue for exploration, change, and growth. Proactive teacher educators should seek change in traditional inservice training and create more authentic and empowering professional development opportunities that are proactive as…

This paper uses teachers' voices to explore transformation processes in teachers as a result of participation in an innovative school-based Master's degree program at the Institute for Educational Transformation. The program is built around a set of beliefs and principles that enunciate a philosophy of teaching and learning emphasizing work within…

The International Working Group on Education (IWGE) met in Lisbon, Portugal, in November 2001. Participants came from 26 institutions representing 10 international agencies or institutions, 4 foundations, and 12 bilateral agencies. This publication is a summary of the proceedings of that meeting. It begins with opening and welcoming keynote…

To promote empowerment, student teachers participated in service learning projects. They had received training for service learning and thus knew more about it than did their cooperating teachers. So they were empowered as leaders in the student teacher setting. Factors contributing to successful empowerment included student teacher initiative and…

Discusses the importance of preparing teachers to be leaders, explaining that the best method is to change teacher preparation curricula to provide explicit education in teacher leadership. The paper describes three preparation programs for teacher leadership, noting that only through partnerships in education will the goal of providing quality…

George Mason University, Virginia, prepares teachers through a professional development school model, which empowers teachers to assume leadership roles as clinical faculty and site coordinators. Classroom teachers and the former Director of Teacher Education describe the effects of teachers' experiences as teacher educators on their roles within…

Parental involvement and participation, partnership with parents, and community-focused development are important features of government initiatives such as the Sure Start project for children under four years of age and their families. A common feature of the rhetoric is "empowerment" as a means of achieving this. This article describes…

This paper reports on a study of the implementation of a new mathematics curriculum and its effect on the teachers implementing it. The study focused on understanding the barriers teachers faced with implementing new curriculum that relies on a different theoretical base than the teachers had previously experienced. Participants in the study were…

Describes an approach to facilitating middle school reform that includes teachers in a constructivist learning environment where they function as active learners who explore contradictions and create their own solutions to real problems. Considers implications for teacher inservice education, and describes the case of one middle school teacher.…

Contains four presentations from workshop on media culture and young children: (1) "Changing Needs, Changing Responses: Rethinking How We Teach Children" (Levin); (2) "Watching Television: What Are Children Learning about Race and Ethnicity?" (Linn and Poussaint); (3) "Empowering Parents and Teachers To Protect…

Media literacy helps teachers relate to today's students, prompts new approaches to curriculum, and encourages teachers' professional growth. This paper explains what media literacy is; the benefits of media literacy to both teachers and students; student needs related to telecommunications; curriculum applications of media literacy; and teacher…

Summarizes a survey of over 500 teachers throughout four regions of Russia. Discovers that most teachers feel their skills and development are lacking, particularly in the areas of innovative teaching methods. Outlines a system of steps and goals to be implemented throughout teacher education to rectify this deficiency. (MJP)