The International Handbook on Self-study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices is of interest to teacher educators, teacher researchers and practitioner researchers. This volume: -offers an encyclopaedic review of the field of self-study; -examines in detail self-study in a range of teaching and teacher education contexts; -outlines a full understanding of the nature and development of self-study; -explores the development of a professional knowledge base for teaching through self-study; -purposefully represents self-study through research and practice; -illustrates examples of self-study in teaching and teacher education.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair once said that his three priorities were 'education, education, education'. Here, one of the architects of these reforms describes his quest to transform the standards and opportunities available to pupils in English schools.

Ask people whether teachers unions are good or bad for education and you are likely to receive a wide variety of opinions. A 1998 Gallup Poll asked whether teachers unions helped, hurt, or made no difference in the quality of education in U.S. public schools. Twenty-seven percent responded that unions helped, 26 percent that they hurt, and 37 percent that they made no difference (10 percent of those surveyed said they did not know). Although teachers unions were first organized in the nineteenth century, and collective bargaining has been a fact of life in most communities since the 1960s, the body of literature evaluating the impact of teachers unions on American education is surprisingly small. Conflicting Missions? helps close the knowledge gap by providing a clear, balanced analysis of the role of teachers unions in education reform.The volume emerges from a 1998 conference organized by the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard University. The contributors represent a broad array of disciplinary backgrounds and methodological approaches, including some of the unions' harshest critics and most loyal supporters. In examining the relationship of teachers unions and educational reform, the authors approach the subject from several directions. They ask whether unions affect educational productivity, most notably in terms of student achievement. They analyze how teachers unions function as professional organizations concerned with the occupation of teaching, as institutional actors defending interests within a bureaucratic system of education, and as political actors wielding influence on legislation and elections. Reflecting a variety of perspectives and opinions, Conflicting Missions? offers a balanced analysis of a controversial topic. It is a useful starting point for readers who want to discover the complexity of teachers unions and their influence—both positive and negative—on the national effort to improve America's schools.

Mapping the way to reconceptualizing teacher education today, Marilyn Cochran-Smith guides the reader through the conflicting visions and ideologies surrounding the education of teachers for a diverse democratic society. “Our profession is at a critical crossroad. . . .We must accept Cochran–Smith’s challenge to speak loudly and articulately for social justice and democracy. Could our society face a more urgent or compelling issue?” —From the Foreword by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine "This volume represents not only the best of Cochran-Smith, it represents the best of teacher education. These essays are hard–hitting yet lyrical, provocative yet poetic, theoretically sophisticated yet practically useful. Teacher education is in good hands.” —Gloria Ladson–Billings, University of Wisconsin–Madison

This book draws on scholarly expertise across the former Soviet Union to provide a comparative analysis of the policies and practices that are discussed within the context of global reform of teacher education. Divided into three parts, chapters of this book discuss the context behind economic and political reform across the former Soviet Union, and the resulting change that has occurred within teacher education systems within the 15 republics that now exist in this ‘post- Soviet space’. Offering a complex and nuanced account of ‘vernacular globalisation’, the book discusses the significant contribution that teacher education can make to the process of nationbuilding. In doing so, this truly international volume offers fresh insights and original perspectives on this dynamic educational landscape. Being the first comprehensive account of reforms in all 15 nations that emerged in the post- Soviet world, this book will be of interest to students, scholars, and academics in the fields of teacher education, international, and comparative education, and education policy and politics. It should also be of relevance to teacher educators and policymakers around the world more broadly.