This paper presents an analysis of how lecturers respond to students with disabilities, the initial question being: do lecturers aid or hinder students? Findings pertain to a broader research project employing a non-usual research methodology in higher education research and students with disabilities: the biographical-narrative methodology. The…

This study examines the developing beliefs and practices of six beginning primary teachers. Their accounts reveal practices indicative of contemporary approaches to teaching and learning in mathematics. Additionally, a consistency appears to exist between the beliefs and practices of the beginning teachers, and the ideals for mathematics teaching…

Despite their significant contribution to Australian school life, there has been little research into migrant teachers in Australia. The few studies which are available report difficulties with cultural adaptation for migrant teachers in areas related to pedagogy, language, and classroom management. However, research in Australia has mainly…

This study examined the effects of death on teachers' lives, noting the ways in which teachers knew what to do for their students and themselves when a death occurred. The study investigated the effects of one high school student's death on four teachers and examined how they experienced that death personally and professionally. Through 3…

This paper, written in a highly personal style, follows the "docustory" model first employed in "Communication Education" in 1993 when the journal presented a series of 13 docustories from various scholars in the field--each tried to articulate "When Teaching Works." The paper is a partial attempt to value the…

The reminiscences of a professor who has taught writing from junior high through college serve in this paper to illustrate that the beginnings of a teaching career are usually marked by both enthusiasm and, frankly, a good deal of ignorance. Two important lessons for beginning teachers are to learn to respect experienced teachers and to learn to…

In the struggle to find an acceptably academic voice that still felt personal, an instructor started thinking about what it would mean to say that academic writing is always autobiographical. Reading student work for how the autobiographical is presented in academic discourse, the instructor thought about how autobiographical writing could be used…

In separate but overlapping narratives, 3 women composition teachers ponder some of the challenges female instructors face in defining their role for themselves and the students they teach. Students and women instructors both experience considerable confusion over what role the woman instructor fills; both parties view her too often not only as a…

For the past three years, case studies have been conducted of a school district's implementation of the California Mentor Teacher Program. For two of the case studies, interview data of mentors and their mentees were distilled into vignettes about how mentors and teachers worked together. At the end of this project, researchers used several…

This study includes the voices of elementary teachers, primarily women, in the historical narrative of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Hopefully, this inclusion will encourage educators, and social studies educators in particular, to use personal accounts and narratives in the study of historical events. Also this study…

In this study, 12 preschool teachers in Queensland, Australia were given opportunities to record and describe their work within their specific teaching context, as well as within the wider contexts of the school campus and the educational and social system. Subjects kept a reflective journal each day over a 2-week period, and entries frequently…

Oral interviews with female teachers are used as the basis for an analysis of the personal, cultural, and social lives of women who taught in a small midwestern city during the 1930s. Portions of interviews with teachers are presented, and ethnographic theory and techniques used in the interviews are discussed. Analyses of the interviews focus on…

During the last decade, the impact of social sciences on educational theory and practice, and anthropology, in particular, have changed the way in which educators view classrooms, teachers, students, and learning itself. Classrooms are subcultures that require particular behaviors, linguistic patterns, and mind sets for members to succeed;…

Teachers need to become students again and pay attention to how they learn best in order that they may then use like means in teaching their students. Teacher students often connect by telling anecdotes and other narratives that have meaning in their personal experiences. They share these stories and build on them, finding fresh ways of looking at…

In Judith Richards' ethnically diverse third and fourth grade classroom, the morning meeting is a time for discussion. The functions these discussions serve range from sharing personal news to talking about problem-solving strategies. During these meetings, the teacher has a polyphonic role. She participates, moderates, and sometimes writes…