Ireland's "mathematics problem" is well-documented and extensively reported in the media and elsewhere (Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) 2008; Task Force on the Physical Sciences 2002). Concern primarily lies with post-primary students' underperformance in mathematics coupled with a failure to make a successful transition to…

In this article, the author reflects on her continual journal in regard to improving her teaching skills. She opines that this journey is a story that could resonate with other colleagues to whom teaching is also critically important but to whom it does not come naturally. She describes lessons she learned in her early years of teaching, and she…

Journal ranking systems are becoming more commonplace and receiving increased attention from academics and their senior managers. The study reported below was designed to examine the relationship between particular background factors (e.g., gender and qualifications) of academics and the rankings of what they perceived as their most significant…

In Chile, as many other countries, understanding how high-qualified teachers are distributed across schools and which are the relationships that may lead to teachers' potential sorting are key aspect of the teacher labor market and it is central to addressing student achievement gaps. The first paper uses rich new data on all elementary public…

Preschool teachers play a critical role in children's development yet there is little agreement about how to codify teacher knowledge and skill. This brief argues that too much attention has been given to debating the baseline of qualifications required of preschool teachers (e.g., AA vs. BA), failing to take into account the precise nature of the…

American Sign Language (ASL)-English interpreting education, which began as a community apprenticeship and vetting process, has within the last several decades moved into higher education. Most recently, the number of baccalaureate-granting ASL-English interpreting programs have continued to increase while the number of associate's degree…

The authors extend findings from qualitative research on the effects of action research by reporting two linked quantitative studies (N = 80 and 105). They found that teachers who participated in collaborative action research experienced statistically significant improvements in attitudes to educational research and teacher efficacy. The pre-post…

Early childhood education and care settings in England and the people who work in them constitute an important sphere of influence, shaping young children's characters and values. But the values and dispositions expected of the early years workforce are missing from statutory policy documentation despite its clear requirement that practitioners…

Despite the progress made in studying the dynamics of attracting and retaining STEM students, limited research have focused on understanding the values and impact faculty could have on the learning outcomes of students. This exploratory study presents the voices of six successful engineering students through a case study interview approach. Common…

The purpose of this study was to consider characteristics of elementary general music teachers and their views of factors influencing students to take part in secondary music programs, including their own influence and characteristics of their music programs. The following research questions concerning selected characteristics of elementary…

The main driving force of all transformations in general education is the schoolteacher. It is not by chance that one of the key areas in the initiative "Our New School" has to do with the development of the teacher potential. What is involved are the tasks of raising the qualifications of teachers and school management, strengthening…

Background: Teacher qualifications have been emphasized as a basis of professional development to improve classroom practices for at-risk children's school readiness. However, teacher qualifications have often not been compared to another form of professional development, in-service training. Objective: The current study attempts to investigate…

Using a theoretical framework provided by critical educational and postcolonial scholars, this article presents critical ethnographic research documenting the perspectives of various stakeholders involved in the process of immigrant teacher integration in the province of Manitoba. The author problematizes the assumption that successful integration…

The author reports on a case study investigating how one nonnative English-speaking teacher (NNEST) struggled to claim professional legitimacy as a university-level ESL writing instructor. Using Vygotskian sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1978, 1986; Wertsch, 1985) and Bucholtz and Hall's (2005) indexicality principle, the author explores the…

Untrained teachers are deployed in basic schools in many developing countries as a measure to address enrolment escalation; minimising the financial burden on the government, much of whose education budget is already a recurrent cost. However, there has been little research into untrained teachers. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this article…