Early childhood special education teachers provide instruction to young children with special needs in order to address developmental delays that have been identified through standardized tests. Educational goals and objectives are individualized and progress is measured through legally mandated standards of practice, thus positioning the teacher…

In this essay, the author describes his curricular journey in creating a course on narrative inquiry and memoir for experienced early childhood educators. The author recounts the steps he took in selecting reading texts and activities for the course, and emphasizes the value of using poetry as a form of narrative for helping early childhood…

African American faculty have historically been underrepresented within predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and deal with academic isolation, marginalization of their scholarship, and racial hostility. Little is known about the experiences of African American faculty who teach in student affairs graduate programs. The purpose of this study was…

In this qualitative investigation, racial and ethnic minority teachers (N = 6) used personal stories to elucidate their experiences with social injustices that have impacted their teaching in rural schools. These counter-stories serve to disrupt orthodox conceptions of teachers of color, to resituate their work in their cultural positions, and to…

In this article, the author shares her experience in teaching students with passion. She recalls the time when she was then what most first-year teachers are today: filled with hope and promise, determination and good will, ready to work hard and yearning to soak up the art and craft of teaching and learning. And whenever she gets tired and…

Most character education-advocate organizations list traits that they identify as the central principles or "pillars" in character development. They usually include words like responsibility, fairness, pride, and citizenship. As so often happens in education, these words are presented as though they represented straightforward, commonly understood…

This article explores two beginning Canadian teachers' experiences of professional development in literacy education. Differences and parallel tensions between the Canadian teachers' and my own experiences as a teacher and teacher educator in Pakistan were identified through narrative inquiry. The significance of this article is found in the…

When they found themselves overwhelmed by the university experience of combining teaching, publishing, and service, the authors decided to meet regularly to discuss their experiences and frustrations with academic publishing in order to learn as much as possible from their pooled experiences. Here, they reflect on the obstacles they have faced and…

Significant changes have marked Brazilian education in the period focused on by this research. Aiming to understand the configurations of the teaching profession in that period, this work focuses on the issue of the school success in the area of literacy by means of an analysis of the practices of literacy teachers who were at work between the…

Based on the theoretical framework of reflective practice and teacher education, this article shares portions of a personal experience research project designed to gain understanding of teacher learning through nonfictional narrative story. Excerpts comprise the stories of learning-based journeys shared by five East Texas teachers that focus on a…

Algebraic reasoning skills can be enhanced by building connections among symbolic, tabular, and graphical representations. But how do classroom teachers change traditional teaching practices to foster the use of different representational forms? This article explores how I learned to incorporate representational fluency in teaching and assessment.…

The purpose of this narrative study was to explore the thoughts, perceptions, and experiences of 12 urban middle school teachers who were once urban middle school students. The study sought to discover reasons why these teachers returned to urban middle schools to teach and why they decided to stay. A qualitative methodology, using the…

The study's goal was to understand what contributes to the formation of teachers' perspectives regarding the education of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Its focus was to portray through teachers' stories the experiences in their lives that may have contributed to constructing who they are as people and as educators. Four…

When Bremerton High School (BHS) established a new school motto--"Respect, Responsibility and Safety...is the Knight Way!"--as a fashion marketing teacher, the author saw an opportunity to develop a learning opportunity for her advanced fashion marketing students. Her 2005-2006 class agreed to create and market a T-shirt to raise awareness of the…

Exemplary teachers do work with happy children and youth in productive classrooms because the best teachers work to develop communities of learners where people cooperate with each other and have strong expectations for good work and high achievement. Teachers in these classrooms are lifelong learners who appear to have boundless energy and…