Designing infrastructures to support instruction remains a challenge in educational reform. This article reports on a study of one school system's efforts to redesign its infrastructure for mathematics instruction by promoting teacher leadership. Using social network and interview data from 12 elementary schools, we explore how the district's…

Discusses four case studies concerning induction experiences of three elementary and one secondary teacher over a 2 1/2-year period. Studies show the influences of students, colleagues, school context, and parents on beginning teachers' socialization. (RJC)

Describes interpretations of one preservice elementary physical education teacher, who preferred received knowledge (i.e., coming to know by listening to others) to experiences in reflection (lesson and unit instruction, dialogue journals, and class discussions) that occurred during a methods course. Only slight changes in reflective abilities…

Presents a case study of a child with early learning difficulties as an illustration of the constellation of problems which can be involved in learning inhibition. Also discussed are possible remedial efforts which can be used in a school setting. (BD)

Examined the instructional reform process in 17 middle schools. Reforms included heterogeneous grouping, cooperative learning, active learning, and interdisciplinary instruction. All reforms relied on teachers' willingness to change daily instructional content or strategies. Heterogenous grouping and interdisciplinary instruction posed the…

Examined a teacher-created inclusive environment for elementary students and its endurance in the midst of administrative change, budget cuts, a teachers' strike, and class size reduction. Found that the inclusive environment sustained when teachers shared the vision, resources were available, training was provided, and a culture of inclusion was…

Uses ethnographic case-study data to examine affective interaction in two racially diverse urban elementary classrooms. Subjects are 56 fifth and sixth graders and their teachers. Results suggest that teachers can foster racial harmony in the classroom through small group work. (CM)

Identifies a set of change leadership functions including sustaining a vision for change, encouraging staff, modifying standard operating procedures, and monitoring progress. Suggests that these functions do contribute to change, but are also performed redundantly by persons in a variety of overlapping roles, including central office personnel,…

Presents a case study of a middle school mathematics teacher using a discourse-oriented teaching method for a three-year period. Demonstrates how the teacher provided both analytic scaffolding (help in structuring mathematical ideas) and social scaffolding (help in establishing norms for social behavior). Finally, highlights parallels between…

Describes the implementation and evaluation of an early intervention program, Reading Recovery, designed to help young, at-risk children become writers. Research evaluation results in New Zealand and in the United States and a case study of a five-year-old child are presented. (BB)

Employs the image of "contested ground" to characterize tensions surrounding the evolution of teacher leadership in order to illuminate the ways in which traditions of subject specialism shape assumptions about the exercise of leadership among secondary teachers. Challenges the stereotypes of the "subject-centered" teacher and…