The intent of this book is to strengthen the professional role teachers play in curriculum planning and development, a process central to teacher activity and responsibility. Contextual narratives, document analysis, the use of metaphor, personal rules, principles, beliefs, images, and philosophy are all described for use in hands-on exercises.…

This paper is the personal journey of one teacher from a rural childhood, through a small university, to a rural school, and eventually to the city. It contrasts the intense challenges that rural teachers and students face with the unique opportunities afforded them by virtue of being rural. It includes an attempt to piece together the factors…

The author relates his experiences in the undergraduate teacher education program at one of only two public higher education institutions open to Blacks at the time. The curriculum is described, and his experiences during student teaching and his first teaching jobs are detailed. (IAH)

A white male professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks taught an experimental section of a composition course with a reading list composed almost entirely of American Indian and Alaska Native authors. Vocal controversies about the readings were attributed to fundamentalist views, lack of experience in reading literature, sensitivity about…

Student teachers can become obsessed with classroom management issues if preservice programs do not prepare them adequately for classroom realities. The paper looks at one student teacher's struggle with classroom management issues and recommends teaching student teachers management issues and providing corresponding opportunities to experience…

The author reflects on his first teaching experience 20 years ago at a residential outdoor and environmental education school in Ontario (Canada). He stresses the importance of documenting outdoor experiences through personal narratives as a means of bringing attention to the value of outdoor learning and connecting learners with their natural…

Describes an instructor's experience teaching English composition at Turtle Mountain Community College during the summer of 1990. Explores the difficulties of bicultural education at Indian reservations and recognizes the real meaning of cultural exchanges between American culture and Indian culture. (IH)

A seventh-grade teacher describes how her students gradually became engaged in a year-long project on Thoreau. Although initially resistant and unenthusiastic, the students became interested after two field trips involving living-history experiences, and went on to write a play involving Thoreau, his contemporary and 20th-century…

Author, consultant, and teacher educator Grant Wiggins recalls his own and his students' memorable learning experiences and discusses the impact of those experiences on his evolution as a teacher, the importance of the teacher/student relationship to student learning, and the likelihood that the student understands less of what the teacher says…

An English-as-second-language (ESL) teacher could not interest her students in their work until she changed her perception of education by reading books on unschooling and meaningful learning by Holt, Dewey, and Freire. By combining solid language acquisition research with holistic learning theory, she was able to transform the experience of…

Scotland has a new system of teacher induction, introduced in 2002. Whilst recognising the many benefits for newly qualified teachers, we aim to explore some of the real experiences of teachers in the new system. This article recognises the power relationships involved and therefore aims to allow the submerged voices of probationer teachers to be…

This paper is based on a multidimensional study employing a heuristic methodology termed "creative narrative" that combines arts-based methods with narrative inquiry. Six female teachers' narratives of identity are explored through artistic, visual images to illuminate if and how they story "unconscious". The creative narratives, illuminated…

This book is a memoir of one-room school life in 1929. In his day, Cratis D. Williams (1911-85) was America's foremost scholar on the Appalachian experience. This book is the story of his first teaching assignment at age 18 in a one-room K-8 school on Caines Creek in Lawrence County, Kentucky. Williams details his classroom practices and…

This book analyzes a collection of 147 stories from more than 50 teachers about memorable moments in their teaching careers. Recurrent themes from these stories, depicting the interactive nature of teaching, the teaching-learning process, and the rewards of teaching, are categorized. Because the work of teachers is generally devalued and…

As in urban schools, at-risk students in rural schools may be unmotivated, lack purpose for learning, have special learning problems, or come from dysfunctional families. In this paper, an experienced teacher in a small rural Oklahoma high school describes her efforts to demonstrate that at-risk students would improve in all language areas as a…