Background: When mathematics teachers embrace the call for pedagogical change, instructional shifts are likely to unfold in complex ways. While we typically view teachers as leading this process, within a figured worlds framework, students play active roles in negotiating the identities, rights, and obligations of all members of a classroom in the…

Reform-based approaches to teaching mathematics are proven to be most effective for students' learning, yet many novice secondary mathematics teachers still use traditional approaches. One reason for this is that novice teachers tend to teach the way that they experienced mathematics as students themselves. There is thus an onus on teacher…

This article examines how Masters of Business Administration (MBA) students, at the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement (Occupy), strove to organize socially and environmentally sustainable business practices. We asked: what kinds of learning were supported through student-led organizing, and how? We designed a multi-sited case study that…

Several recent studies in mathematics education have argued that, for reforms to be implemented effectively, teachers need to have appropriate support through high-quality professional development programs. Most programs, however, typically prepared by policymakers, focus on how to prepare teachers to use the intended curriculum. In this paper,…

Teacher change involves the transformation of beliefs, knowledge and practices. While research has highlighted significant facilitative conditions as well as barriers to these changes, insufficient attention has been devoted to examining influences derived from existing practices perpetuated by institutional factors and teachers' personal…

This paper explores the leadership of education for sustainability (EfS) in higher education, focusing specifically on the key role students can play as internal catalysts for change. It presents a case study of Plymouth University, a higher education institution with an international reputation for EfS leadership. The paper outlines the…

In this study, we used a case study approach to obtain an in-depth understanding of the change process of two university instructors who were involved with redesigning a biology course. Given the hesitancy of many biology instructors to adopt evidence-based, learner-centered teaching methods, there is a critical need to understand how biology…

Innovation, a complex concept, underpinned a four-year pan-European research project designed to increase the effective use of technology in school classrooms. This article revisits evaluation data collected during the project and explores the challenges of conceptualising, realising and researching "innovation." The authors describe how…

Recent attention to youth activism for school reform reveals positive student outcomes. Yet educators may object to the use of social actions in schools, diminishing opportunities for these benefits to accrue. This paper analyzes educators' conceptions about the proper exercise of student voice within schools and how these coincide with…

Using the National Research Council's inquiry continuum framework, we use a multiple-case study research design to investigate the teacher- and student-directedness of elementary preservice teachers' planned and enacted science lessons and their pedagogical reasoning about science instruction during a semester-long science methods course. Our…

There is much discussion today about the need to transform higher education. Experts and researchers list numerous challenges: low student retention and graduation rates, the increasing cost of higher education, and concerns that graduates don't possess the skills required to compete successfully in today's interconnected, global marketplace.…

School environments offer a particularly difficult setting for fostering youth-adult partnerships because of the sharp power and status distinctions among students, teachers, and administrators. Drawing on interview and observational data examining 13 student-voice initiatives in northern California, this research examines the type of supports…

The development and application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the field of Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) have had a considerable impact on the teaching methodologies in China. With an increasing emphasis on strengthening students' learning initiative and adopting a "student-centred" teaching concept in FLT,…

In this paper, in response to Ajay Sharma's paper titled "Portrait of a science teacher as a bricoleur: A case study from India" and associated reviews, I address the value of bridging two narrative styles for describing teacher development, discuss questions of over-essentializing an Indian school context, propose that teacher and…

This report examines five dimensions of various initiatives intended to empower students. It is based on two case studies of schools belonging to the Coalition of Essential Schools, a school-reform project aimed at improving teaching and learning in American schools. The report focuses on the level of power that administrators and teachers…