The problem this study explored was that despite the various methods of differentiating professional development content to meet the needs of K-12 teachers, teacher professional development programming does not meet the career growth needs of many professional educators. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how ten K-12…

In this theoretical paper, I examine the role and potential alterations to uses of social categories in qualitative research. Categories are socially constructed, imbued with power, and include race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. These categories, although constructs and subject to change, hold durability and are leveraged in much of…

The objective of the paper is to explore how theory is integrated into practice in students' academic work within upper secondary education. In order to study this, the paper develops an analytical framework for situated reflection that conceptualises reflective processes in direct relation to practical activities of students. The framework…

This paper outlines the use of a form of research intervention known as the Change Laboratory to illustrate how the processes of organisational change initiated at a secondary school can be applied to develop tools and practices to analyse and potentially re-make educational traditions in a bottom-up manner. In this regard it is shown how a…

The main purpose of the current study is to examine the construct, convergent and discriminant validity of the Sources of Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (Usher & Pajares, 2009) in a Turkish sample. Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986) served as the theoretical framework for the current study. According to Bandura (1986), people's…

Understanding teachers' pedagogical choice provides a new insight into the influences on student achievement. This paper presents a sociological framework developed from the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Anthony Giddens that identify the complex social interactions which surround teacher's work. The framework examines teachers' potential to act…

This qualitative case study explores middle school instructional coach learning from problems of practice in a reforming, mid-sized, diverse school district over the course of one school year. Drawing on sociocultural learning theory, specifically the idea of learning as guided participation in culturally valued activities, this study investigates…

Poor transition outcomes for youths with emotional and behavioral disabilities beg for the development of effective intervention models. After reviewing the limited empirical support for seven current intervention models, a critique is conducted that can serve as the foundation for modifying current practices toward building successful…

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of the anthropological approach (AA) concurrently to Activity Theory (AT) in view of overarching questions about classroom use of technology for teaching and learning mathematics. I will do it first from a philosophical point of view, presenting the main notions of AA that have been used to…

The paper sets out to examine the role that ethnographic work can and should play in the development of sociological theory, focusing on the case study of differentiation-polarisation theory. It provides a detailed discussion of the work of Hargreaves (1967), Lacey (1970) and Ball (1981) and assesses the degree to which their work was ethnographic…

Within the framework of social cognitive career theory, social cognitive career variables, demographic variables, and the contextual variable, parent support, were examined to determine their predictive value for eighth-grade students' career exploration behavior. Results suggest that the social cognitive career variable, intentions/goals,…

The predictive utility of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) interest and choice models was examined in a sample of 600 Portuguese high school students. Participants completed measures of occupational self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, social supports and barriers, and choice consideration across the six Holland (1997) RIASEC…

Over the past twenty years much work has been done by teachers of secondary English to describe and make explicit the semiotic resources used to access and critique the discourses of powerful institutions such as schooling. At the same time, however, there has been a growing recognition that the rhetorical resources needed for adolescents to…

Sociocultural theory is increasingly popular as a paradigm for research in education. A recent member in this family of theories is introduced--cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT)--that shows much promise to complement and invigorate the field of educational change, a large, multi-faceted, and persistent problematic. In particular,…

This article offers a defence of critical realism in the face of objections Nash (2005) makes to it in a recent edition of this journal. It is argued that critical and scientific realisms are closely related and that both are opposed to statistical positivism. However, the suggestion is made that scientific realism retains (from statistical…