The dangers of a single story in current U.S. large-scale writing assessment are that assessment practice does not align with theory and this practice has negative effects on instruction and students. In this article, I analyze the connections or lack of connections among writing theory, writing assessment, and writing instruction, critique the…

This article invites the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the aesthetics of African-based dance through the elements of tradition, transformation, and social justice. A discussion of the aesthetics of African dances within Africa and throughout the African diaspora opens the doors to present these dances in a K-12 setting, to explore a…

Education reform policies harvested from neoliberalism, social Darwinism, consumerism, and free-market ideologies have begun to replace the pragmatic progressivism of the pre-World War II era. In this article, I use three federal and state education reform policies and programs--No Child Left Behind Act, Common Core State Standards Initiative, and…

This study explores the level of "social presence" or connectedness, in two iterations of a 13-month, graduate-level certificate program designed to help K-12 school leaders integrate technology in their districts. Vygotsky's Social Development Theory serves as the theoretical lens for this programmatic research. The methods include a…

Action research in schools implies that the researchers and the teachers should collaborate on solving problems and improving practice. One underlying premise when choosing, such an approach, is that the participants are interested in, and willing to participate in such a process. In this article, the authors explore how words and utterances…

School psychologists are adult learners. They support children and youth within the K-12 system who are facing academic, emotional, behavioral, or systematic barriers to education. Among the most vulnerable are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth, and school psychologists need to learn to be LGBTQ competent. The purpose of…

In this article the authors interrogate the historical meaning of the African American soldier in order to widen the discussion of race and citizenship in the field of social studies education. The article has two overarching purposes. First, the authors attend to the recent call in the field of social studies for a more rigorous analysis of…

As a lens through which to read and understand a subject area and its curriculum content and issues, a sociocultural perspective is a recent and arguably significant change for the Health and Physical Education (HPE) Key Learning Area (KLA) in Australia. Its significance lies, first, in the fact that it seems to represent a notable departure from…

I apply as theoretical framework the Habermassian principles of "communicative action" and "consensus" through deliberation and reasoning. In particular, I focus on "rational" and "argumentative" communication through which school governance stakeholders could advance arguments and counter-arguments. I…

We discuss how K-12 teachers can put motivational principles from self-determination theory into practice. To explain the "how to" of autonomy-supportive teaching, we answer eight frequently asked questions from teachers: What is the goal of autonomy-supportive teaching? How is autonomy-supportive teaching unique? Does autonomy support mean…

School climate is a significant way to predict school achievement as a positive correlation to students' standardized test scores and also teachers' perceptions of bureaucratic effectiveness and empowerment (Hoy, Tarter & Kottkamp, 1991; Sweetland & Hoy, 2000). Enabling bureaucracies are positively related to teacher empowering; however,…

This paper reveals how the provision of teacher professional development is conceptualised within the Australian Government Quality Teacher Programme (AGQTP) policy text and its predecessors, and uses these texts to infer the nature of the production practices associated with the development of these policies. The paper argues that multiple…

Agreeing on what the major goals of art education should be is particularly important in an era of national school reform and accountability. The need to be accountable and to provide data that supports that accountability is evident, although not always provided. Without clear and measurable goals, art education cannot be made accountable in…

This submission contains the Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), held at Laval University in Québec City, Québec. The CMESG is a group of mathematicians and mathematics educators who meet annually to discuss mathematics education issues at all levels of learning. The aims of the Study…

Vygotsky regarded the site of learning to be within a matrix of relational action. From this perspective, learning social responsibility will involve a focus on the learning environments that are made available in schools. Adapting the concept of restorative justice to a school context, restorative practice offers a range of relevant learning…