Examines educational experiences of a student teacher who joined a study of how preservice teachers with little classroom experience make sense out of university coursework. The paper presents the student's personal history, her conclusions about what constitutes good teaching prior to enrolling, and resulting conflicts between research-based and…

Self concept is deeply intertwined with one's racial socialization. Two incidents are recounted as turning points in this counselor educator's self-perception as a person having a racial identity and to her career development. Coping mechanisms are described. A safe atmosphere is essential to the exploration of feelings about race. (EMK)

The development of a new Indigenous Nations Studies program at the University of Kansas is described. Success depended on a critical mass of Indigenous and non-Indigenous faculty and students that had a sense of political and social justice and understood the need for institutional change. The biggest challenge was countering the entrenched…

Preservice teachers get their first teaching position hoping to take the first step toward becoming professional educators and expecting support from experienced colleagues and administrators, who often serve as their mentors. In this article, the authors present the story of Kristine (a pseudonym), who works at a middle school in a large U.S.…

This paper considers the educational work that narrative does. Against the context of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission that examined the crimes of apartheid, it discusses the narrative implications of South African poet Antjie Krog's multi-layered text of Truth Commission testimony, and autobiographical and philosophical…

This article explores the nature of the author's classroom practice and provides insights about how he constructed and delivered classroom curriculum for the electrical apprenticeship classroom. In this article, the author defines classroom curriculum as the planned and guided learning experiences that take place in a classroom setting with…

The author discusses the power of personal narratives to help writers not only improve their writing and understand themselves but also think more critically. Through poetry that grew from her impulse for narrative, the author reveals her growth as a teacher who was simultaneously learning about students' growth and change. (Contains 1 figure.)

Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal…

Stories are the most natural form of communication and learning among humans. In this paper, we describe how we have designed and implemented an case library of technology integration stories to support pre-service and in-service teachers learning how to integrate technologies into their teaching. The case library was built using the artificial…

The establishment of Maui Arts & Cultural Center (MACC), a community arts facility that prioritizes education at the top of its mission, has been a significant factor in the growth of arts education in Hawai'i. This article describes the role such a facility can play in the kind of educational reform that people envision, and the author's…

This article examines students' narrative responses to reading professional literacy histories. Demonstrating the importance of narrative as a way of learning, it shows how elementary education majors of diverse backgrounds explore their relation with language in a traditional grammar class. Cajun, Creole, and African American students recover…

This narrative inquiry portrays the human experience of change by way of a situated account of a reform event. Three conceptualizations ground storied the analysis: the metaphor of the "professional knowledge landscape" of schools; the "narrative authority" of teacher knowledge; and the notion that teachers have knowledge communities with whom…

Questions related to motivation of trainee teachers who have changed careers and become trainee teachers are examined. Perceptions held by recruits that led them to choose teaching are then analysed and factors that may deter trainee teachers from remaining in the profession are considered. (Contains 2 notes.)

The first half of this article reviews literature on some of the unmet needs of gay and lesbian students in schools and highlights educators' attitudes and beliefs toward individuals with differing sexual identities. Although the majority of literature reviewed in this article does not portray educators as being supportive of gay and lesbian…

In today's societal landscape, "adoption," the legal process by which a child becomes a full and permanent member of a new family, is becoming commonplace. Even though most people have had a personal experience with adoption in some capacity, those most closely associated with adoption (birth parents, adoptees, and adoptive parents) continue to be…