Narratives of classroom life--the type that blend analysis with artistry, in the form of plays, poems, stories, and the like--remain relatively uncommon within language education research. Yet such narratives have the potential to make a significant and timely contribution to the field, given the ways in which knowledge is being reconceptualised…

The need for knowledge and understanding of inclusive practice is now required in higher educational contexts as increasing numbers of students with special educational needs enter the university system. This has implications for university teachers whose background knowledge and experience of teaching students with special educational needs is…

For some time there has been a focus in higher education research towards understanding the student experience of learning. This article presents a narrative analysis of the experience of a teacher who re-entered the learning world of undergraduate students by enrolling in a challenging chemical engineering course. The analysis identifies multiple…

This study investigates teacher stress, anxiety, and burnout through my experience teaching music in a suburban Toronto secondary school between 2002 and 2008. Primary data sources include a rich collection of journal entries I have written over a six-year period, which were retrospectively analyzed in this study. Hence, this study is principally…

This piece presents a teacher's reflections on her experiences working with Latino English language learners with and without disabilities. The author's voice narrates her journey as a teacher, researcher, and teacher educator preparing professionals to work with bilingual populations. The beliefs and factors she identifies as influencing her…

This study investigates the identity and interculturality development of English-language teaching assistants through their perceptions of their experiences living and working in France. The study is framed using Bourdieu's (1979, 2000) notions of habitus and cultural capital, and draws from Byram's (2000) "intercultural mediator" and…

Kathleen McEvoy describes her experience after achieving tenure at Washington & Jefferson College (Pennsylvania). She reflects on how she could have better prepared for her post-tenure academic existence and how the teaching profession could do a better job managing the earning of tenure. In retrospect she realizes that she may have been able…

Teaching can be an exhilarating and exciting career despite, or perhaps because of, a never-ending round of challenges, difficulties and problems to solve. Beginning teachers face new challenges every day. This book points the way for school leaders to help them meet these challenges and encourage them to stay in teaching. New Zealand is no better…

This study examines the narratives of three African American teachers who participated in an early desegregation plan that transferred selected African American teachers into all-White schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While many of these teachers experienced rejection in their new schools, the three African American teachers in this…

Teachers' narratives, when viewed as a form of critical inquiry, can allow teachers to tell and retell stories from their evolving points of view and contextual positions, with the goal of better understanding the complexity and depth of the experiences that have informed their teaching. This narrative, which weaves the voices of the author and…

This article presents a personal history of the author's own relationships with the concept of academic freedom. The article is subdivided into 3 prehistories, 7 incidents, 3 disjunctions, and 3 myths. The author discusses the complications of politics, culture, and academic freedom in one career.

While many urban teachers flee urban schools after a few years of teaching, many spend their careers in teaching in the urban environment. A series of biographical interviews was conducted with four "career" urban teachers; throughout the data collection and analyses and despite their decade or more in the field, the interactions between the…

This study is a phenomenology of the practice of high school teaching. It is an examination of the day-to-day lived experience of high school teachers. The research is grounded in Heidegger's (1962) theory of hermeneutic phenomenology, as well as Polanyi's (1961) theory of tacit knowing. The study uses a phenomenological research design influenced…

This article presents a narrative account of the author's experience of working with teacher educators in Lesotho, Africa. It describes research projects developed in conjunction with the author's counterparts in Lesotho. Although the research project work is yet in its infancy, the author reflects on insights gained from working as an Irish…

The authors describe teacher professional identity as lived experience in the context of educational change. Adopting activity theory and its genesis in cultural historical theory (Stetsenko & Arievitch, 2004) as a framework, the article discusses the way teachers see themselves as professionals and how they compose their identities in…