Instructional coach initiatives aimed at teachers' professional development are expanding in reforming school districts across the United States. This study addresses the lack of research regarding the professional development of instructional coaches. Drawing on sociocultural learning theory, specifically a model called the Vygotsky Space, the…

Pressures for change in the field of teacher education are escalating significantly as part of systemic education reform initiatives in a broad spectrum of economically developed and developing nations. Considering these pressures, it is surprising that relatively little theoretical or empirical analysis of learning and change processes within…

This paper evaluates the usefulness of a sociocultural approach for analyzing teachers' responses to the professional learning demands of standards-based reform policies. A policy-oriented case study of the practice of six elementary teachers who worked in two high-poverty schools in a demographically changing district in the state of Washington…