When we envision the ideals of middle school, we so often think about the importance of physical setting. Physical setting helps to create a material space for so many of the tenets of the middle school mindset. For example, "A successful (middle) school for young adolescents is an inviting, supportive, and safe place -- a joyful community…

Employing empathetic-reflective-dialogical restorying as a teaching-learning strategy, pre-service teachers situated in two different geographical contexts, namely, South Africa and Norway, engaged in self-dialogue, self-narrative and in a Community in Conversation. Using Adobe Connect, together, they participated in a Community in Dialogue. By…

The article is an (co)autoethnography story about a project that conducted as a teacher at the University of Szczecin in Poland. Technically, the project consisted in creating a (co)autoethnography text. The story in this article attempts to raise the question of the relationship between (co)autoethography, emancipation and resistance to the…

Change process research often discusses barriers that impede organizational change (e.g., Banta, 1997; Cavacuiti and Locke, 2013; Mutchler, 1990; Stewart et al., 2012); however, no empirical research has addressed how behaviors established in leadership models counteract these barriers. This study explored these two interconnected constructs of…

The first years of the twenty-first century saw the introduction of a new mode of higher education in Cuba. Local university centres were set up across the country offering part time study to a range of students previously marginalised from higher education. As well as massively increasing access, this programme created a new kind of teacher --…

By 2017, French higher education had undergone a dramatic restructuration following the Bologna process twenty years earlier which impact all the European universities (Rüegg, 2010), and the implementation of the French LRU in 2007 (Stavrou, 2017). Some studies examined this new model's effect on university academics through international or…

This modified narrative study is an exploration of the perceptions of two special educators who experienced the dramatic changes in the New Orleans public school system as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The participants in this study will consist of two special education professionals (See Table 1). From their perspectives, the reader shall gain a…

This article presents an analysis of the experiences of scholars in a university-wide curriculum reform in one public research university. The focus is on the intentions and dynamics that shape the curriculum process in the local communities of practice (CoPs). The data, comprising interviews with 25 scholars, are examined as experience-centred…

The changing roles of two primary (elementary) school music teachers are explored in this article, and how these changed roles have impacted on music programmes in their respective schools. Change readiness provides the theoretical framework for investigating the way both teachers responded to their changing roles. The first teacher's role changed…

This narrative study explores accountability and care in the stories of an exceptional teacher, Marsha Ethridge, who taught more than 46 years in one low-socioeconomic community. While there has been an abundance of research related to teachers' stories of accountability conducted in the last 20 years, much of it reflects accountability imposed on…

The signifier "alternative" in education has largely shifted from progressive or humanizing pedagogies to deficit framings requiring alternate graduation criteria. This development is part of broader neoliberal educational reform efforts that disrupt longstanding conceptions of teachers' roles. This study serves to investigate long-term…

This modified narrative study is an exploration of the perceptions of two special educators who experienced the dramatic changes in the New Orleans public school system as a result of Hurricane Katrina. The participants in this study will consist of two special education professionals (See Table 1). From their perspectives, the reader shall gain a…

An earlier paper focused on how born-free learners constitute, negotiate and represent their identities after almost two and half decades of democracy in South Africa. Utilising the theoretical framework of subjective realities of educational change, in this article I set out to explore what implications teachers' beliefs hold for born-free…

Since South Africa's transition to democracy, numerous policies have been enacted to address gender oppression. Taking its cue from the country's constitution, these policies and acts, such as the Higher Education Act (1997), aim, in particular, to promote social justice by addressing gender imbalances in society. Likewise, the vision of Sol…

Standards-based reforms of education favour narrow forms of teacher professional learning tied to generic standards and pre-determined, measurable outcomes. In high-stakes accountability-driven environments, in schools and initial teacher education programs, educators are rarely encouraged to inquire into their work and professional identities…