This edited collection presents several research projects which examine issues concerning professional development, professional learning, and the ‘Education for All’ (EfA) ethos. The overall aim of the book is threefold: firstly, to explore the consequences for the education profession of EfA, and how professional development and professional learning may be made manifest as part of an EfA practice. Secondly, to examine how EfA practices intersect with theoretical notions of EfA. Finally, to explore how this intersection of theory and practice is rooted in different (Anglo-American, Continental and Northern European) traditions and contexts, and their implications for professional development and learning in education. Underpinning these three foci is a key principle of education as a human right in terms of participation, information and capacity building, regardless of people’s ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and/or physical and intellectual capacities. This book illustrates the complex conditions created in the nexus of social justice, EfA and professional development. The contributions highlight the educative nature of multi-relationships. In so doing, tensions, opportunities for learning, and the power relationships associated with professional development emerge, providing a resource for learning about good educational practice, authentic social justice practice, and genuine professional learning. This book was originally published as a special issue of Professional Development in Education.

Lily Orland-Barak offers us a breathtaking work of science ?ction. Or perhaps I should say ‘science and ?ction. ’ The science side of the equation employs sophisticated technique for observing and describing interpersonal and intrapersonal dynamics among professionals in education. Both dramatic and seemingly ordinary episodes in the lives of teachers in relational tension with one another are analyzed with scienti?c care, precision, and insight. The scienti?c study of mentoring is like the scienti?c study of soap bubbles – their formation, growth, and sudden exit from the visible world with a nearly soundless ‘pop!’ Scienti?c and intellectual tools can be used to describe and predict the behavior of soap bubbles, to study their colors, shapes, surface tension, and tiny mass. The same is true of the study of mentoring. But in both cases, the greatest care must be taken to avoid popping the almost m- ically elegant form – to avoid destroying the delicate relationship by rushing in, by heavy attempts at control, or by premature dissection, or even by paying attention too intensely to a private, personal relationship. Mentoring is best studied by being still, by listening with authentic interest, and by using our peripheral vision. The science and the scientist have done their best work here. The ?ction side of this ?ne book gives life to telling examples of mentoring in action.

The field of TESOL encompasses English teachers who teach English as an additional language in English-dominant countries and those teachers who teach English as a foreign language in countries where a language other than English is the official language. This range of educators teaches English to children, adolescents, and adults in primary, secondary, post-secondary, popular education, and language academies or tutoring centers. The diversity of learners and contexts within the TESOL field presents a unique opportunity for educators to address varied educational and societal needs. This opportunity calls for TESOL educators who can support the whole learner in a range of contexts for the greater social good. There is an urgent need for readily reproducible and step-by-step research-based practices and current standards in TESOL that bridge the gap between critical scholarship and equitable teaching practices. This book would serve as a critical addition to current literature in TESOL. TESOL Guide for Critical Praxis in Teaching, Inquiry, and Advocacy is an essential reference that provides practical and equitable step-by-step guides for TESOL educators through the current best practices and methods for effective and equity-minded teaching, critical inquiry, and transformative advocacy. This book is of particular value as it bridges theories to practices with a critical look at racial and social justice in English language teaching, which will lead to the integration of social justice-focused practice across the new curriculum. Covering topics such as integrated language instruction, equity and inclusivity, critical consciousness, and online learning, this text is essential for in-service and pre-service TESOL educators, education students, researchers, administrators, teacher educators, and academicians.

In a range of professions, professional practice today is under threat. It is endangered, for example, by pressures of bureaucratic control, commodification, marketization, and the standardisation of practice in some professions. In these times, there is a need for deeper understandings of professional practice and how it develops through professional careers. Enabling Praxis: Challenges for education explores these questions in the context of initial and continuing professional education of teachers. It presents a theory of the development of praxis--morally committed action oriented by tradition--to show the ways praxis is enabled and constrained by the cultural-discursive, material and social-political conditions under which professional practice occurs. It introduces the notion of 'practice architectures' to show how particular conditions for practice shape the possibilities of praxis. The way these processes work is illustrated by detailed exploration of a number of cases of praxis development in a variety of educational settings, at a variety of levels--in teacher education for schools and for vocational education and training, in the continuing professional education of teachers, in educational administration, and in informal, community-based education for sustainability initiatives. The book provides conceptual resources that permit deeper analysis of the character, conduct and consequences of professional practice. It concludes with challenges for education, and for initial and continuing teacher education, suggesting that the contemporary threats to education as a professional practice call for revitalisation of the profession, professional bodies and the intellectual traditions that orient and guide educational practice.

The literature on preparing and sustaining quality teachers has suggested that to be successful, teacher preparation and development require a mutual collaboration and a synergy of effort among partners, most typically a school district and a university teacher preparation program. One response has been to draw universities and school districts together in true partnership through Professional Development Schools ( PDSs). Together, the partners are responsible for creating environments in schools and in university classrooms that can transform into clinical sites dedicated to best practices and professional growth for all. This book is designed to offer practical applications on how partners can work together to implement the mission and goals of the PDS by providing ways that PDS partners can engage in a much deeper and more profound experience that results in a synergistic relationship. Joint involvement in application of practice takes each partner to a level far greater than traditional teacher education and professional development practices while creating a cooperative community of practice centered on teacher and student learning.

Children are already learning at birth, and they develop and learn at a rapid pace in their early years. This provides a critical foundation for lifelong progress, and the adults who provide for the care and the education of young children bear a great responsibility for their health, development, and learning. Despite the fact that they share the same objective - to nurture young children and secure their future success - the various practitioners who contribute to the care and the education of children from birth through age 8 are not acknowledged as a workforce unified by the common knowledge and competencies needed to do their jobs well. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 explores the science of child development, particularly looking at implications for the professionals who work with children. This report examines the current capacities and practices of the workforce, the settings in which they work, the policies and infrastructure that set qualifications and provide professional learning, and the government agencies and other funders who support and oversee these systems. This book then makes recommendations to improve the quality of professional practice and the practice environment for care and education professionals. These detailed recommendations create a blueprint for action that builds on a unifying foundation of child development and early learning, shared knowledge and competencies for care and education professionals, and principles for effective professional learning. Young children thrive and learn best when they have secure, positive relationships with adults who are knowledgeable about how to support their development and learning and are responsive to their individual progress. Transforming the Workforce for Children Birth Through Age 8 offers guidance on system changes to improve the quality of professional practice, specific actions to improve professional learning systems and workforce development, and research to continue to build the knowledge base in ways that will directly advance and inform future actions. The recommendations of this book provide an opportunity to improve the quality of the care and the education that children receive, and ultimately improve outcomes for children.

This book critically explores urgent questions that researchers, educators, and policy makers need to consider and address in order to better our understanding and capacity to transform education. Focusing on areas that underpin the empirical, theoretical, and strategic research of the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) International Research Network, it discusses the following topics: the nature of educational praxis; research approaches that facilitate praxis and praxis development; changing cultural, social, political and material conditions affecting the educational practices of teachers; and how good professional practice in teaching, leading, and professional learning are understood and experienced. Presenting findings emerging from the Pedagogy, Education and Praxis research, the book raises new questions and offers new ways of thinking about the identified issues and themes in light of current educational concerns and the prevalence of neoliberal conditions being experienced in educational settings around the globe. It provides supporting evidence and illustrative examples to help readers understand important concepts, situations, and concerns, and brings together intellectual and cultural-historical traditions that, when considered in relation to each other, open up critical opportunities and ideas orienting readers towards future educational transformation.