This book explores the interdisciplinary potential of cultural historical activity theory or CHAT perspectives of developmental psychology, conceptualises the author’s realisation of teacher-researcher collaboration and details their joint conduct of instructional interventions to realise transformative action in ongoing mathematics classrooms.

This volume provides alternatives for tackling existing empirical, methodological, and analytical challenges. It does so by providing a broad overview of less established, as well as emerging methods, which are of great relevance for current research on professional learning and development. As such, it offers a comprehensive collection of state-of-the-art methodologies and future directions within the workplace learning and professional development research. By describing these novel approaches and providing empirical illustrations, the book promotes innovative methodologies for investigating professional learning and development. It also supports scholars to understand upcoming empirical research and methods and encourages novice as well as established researchers to adopt new empirical strategies beyond traditional ones that have the potential to enrich a better understanding of professional learning and development.

The dominant narratives of both science and popular culture typically define aging and human development as self-contained individual matters, failing to recognize the degree to which they are shaped by experiential and contextual contingencies. Our understandings of age are thereby "boxed in" and constricted by assumptions of "normality" and naturalness that limit our capacities to explore possible alternative experiences of development and aging, and the conditions – both individual and social – that might foster such experiences. Combining foundational principles of critical social science with recent breakthroughs in research across disciplines ranging from biology to economics, this book offers a scientifically and humanly expanded landscape for apprehending the life course. Rejecting familiar but false dichotomies such as "nature vs. nurture" and "structure vs. agency", it clarifies the organismic fundamentals that make the actual content of experience so centrally important in age and development, and it also explores why attention to these fundamentals has been so resisted in studies of individuals and individual change, and in policy and practice as well. In presenting the basic principles and reviewing the current state of knowledge, Dale Dannefer introduces multi-levelled social processes that shape human development and aging over the life course and age as a cultural phenomenon – organizing his approach around three key frontiers of inquiry that each invite a vigorous exercise of sociological imagination: the Social-Structural Frontier, the Biosocial Frontier and the Critical-Reflexive Frontier.

How can Jungian psychology be applied to the educational setting? Education and Imagination explores the application of Jungian perspectives in educational settings, establishing the creative imagination as a critical and necessary feature of learning throughout the lifespan. The book identifies various facets of applying contemporary Jungian thought to the issue at hand, in chapters that range from scholarly critiques to practical project reports. This straightforward and accessible resource addresses issues at the interface of education and imagination and the possible contribution of insights from Jungian psychology, in a practical, theoretical and imaginative way. Topics include: a synthesis of Jung and Vygotsky learning difficulties storytelling, socialisation, and individuation. Contributed to by authors professionally involved in education and training on the one side, and actively engaged with Jungian studies on the other, Education and Imagination will make essential reading for those involved in educational and training contexts, as well as the wider public of teachers, trainers, and students.

Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and other Vygotskian approaches are becoming increasingly popular among social scientists interested in studying human actions, thoughts and emotions in their cultural contexts. Building on non-dualist, dialectical materialist epistemological premises, these approaches, however, can pose important challenges to the scholar and the student aiming at first adopting them in their research. What are the concrete, method-related implications of CHAT perspectives for the way we do research in the field? Showcasing the work of well-established as well as emerging CHAT scholars, this volume presents from-the-field insights of non-dualist CHAT methodology for both newcomers and the initiated. Contributors are: Sylvie Barma, Michael Cole, Patricia Dionne, Philip Dupuis-Laflamme, Ritva Engeström, Beth Ferholt, Alfredo Jornet, Isabelle Rioux, Frédéric Saussez, Chris Schuck, Anna Stetsenko, Marie-Caroline Vincent and Samantha Voyer.

Researchers need the concept of agency to address diverse and urgent social problems of our time. Cultural-historical activity theory, originally started with Vygotsky, is widely used in education, psychology, sociology, and transdisciplinary contexts. Scholars and students in diverse disciplines will benefit from this volume.

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.