Despite the multifaceted complexity of teaching, dominant perspectives conceptualize teacher development in linear, dualistic, transactional, human-centric ways. The authors in this book offer non-linear alternatives by drawing on a continuum of complex perspectives, including CHAT, complexity theory, actor network theory, indigenous studies, rhizomatics, and posthuman/neomaterialisms. The chapters included here illuminate how different ways of thinking can help us better examine how teachers learn (relationally, with human, material, and discursive elements) and offer ways to understand the entangled nature of the relationship between that learning and what emerges in classroom instructional practice. They also present situated illustrations of what those entanglements or assemblages look like in the preservice, induction, and inservice phases, from early childhood to secondary settings, and across multiple continents. Authors provide evidence that research on teacher development should focus on process as much (if not more than) product and show that complexity perspectives can support forward-thinking, assets-based pedagogies. Methodologically, the chapters encourage conceptual creativity and expansion, and support an argument for blurring theory-method and normalising methodological hybridity. Ultimately, this book provides conceptual, theoretical, and methodological tools to understand current educational conditions in late capitalism and imagine otherwise. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Professional Development in Education.

Nonlinear pedagogy is a powerful paradigm for understanding human movement and for designing effective teaching, coaching and training programs in sport, exercise and physical education. It addresses the inherent complexity in the learning of movement skills, viewing the learner, the learning environment and the teacher or coach as a complex interacting system, with the constraints of individual practice tasks providing the platform for functional movement behaviours to emerge. This is the first book to explain this profoundly important new approach to skill acquisition, introducing key theoretical ideas and best practice for students, teachers and coaches. The first section of the book offers a general theoretical framework to explain processes of skill acquisition and the learning of movement skills. The book then defines nonlinear pedagogy, and outlines its key principles of practice. It offers a thorough and critical appraisal of the optimal use of instructional constraints and practice design, and discusses methods for creating challenging and supportive individualised learning environments at developmental, sub-elite and elite levels of performance. Every chapter contains cases and examples from sport and exercise contexts, providing guidance on practice activities and lessons. Nonlinear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition is an essential companion for any degree level course in skill acquisition, motor learning, sport science, sport pedagogy, sports coaching practice, or pedagogy or curriculum design in physical education.

This volume highlights unique features of L2 teachers’ motivation, autonomy and career development in Far East counties (including Japan, South Korea and China), using diverse methodological research approaches incorporating both quantitative and qualitative paradigms. While much of current research focuses on students’ psychology, this volume looks into EFL teachers’ motivation and autonomy. Both discussions of theoretical issues of teacher motivation and autonomy and practical, classroom-based investigations are included and written to appeal to researchers, as well as applied teacher audiences. The theoretical chapters give readers a solid grounding in the issues of interest to the field. The practical chapters offer cutting edge insights and can also serve as templates on which postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers can base future studies. This helps the book to offer a dual service to the research community, addressing both issues of theorization of research and the practice of conducting research investigations.

This book presents critical perspectives on teacher professional learning and professional development as interpreted in 14 countries across Europe. Bringing together experts from across Europe, the book fulfils a need for a better understanding of the changing nature of teacher professional learning in national policy contexts and of the cultural differences existing between various systems. It discusses the new thinking that has emerged in the field of teacher education alongside new models that reflect the changing patterns and policies relating to the ways educational professionals maintain and enhance professional practice. The book highlights that new models of teacher leadership and practitioner inquiry have a strong focus on pedagogy and social justice. It also examines briefly the challenges brought about by the Covid pandemic and the ways in which new approaches to professional learning, specifically the use of new technologies, have begun to transform practice in some countries in Europe. The book gives insights into the ways in which professional learning policy is interpreted and applied in practice. It will be highly relevant for researchers and post-graduate students in the fields of teacher professional learning and development, school leadership, comparative education and educational policy and planning.

This is the first book to explicitly link healing and wellness practices with critical pedagogy. Bringing together scholars from Brazil, Canada, Malta and the USA, the chapters combine critical pedagogy and social justice education to reorient the conversation around wellness in teaching and learning. Working against white Eurocentric narratives of wellness in schools which focus on the symptoms, not the causes, of society's sickness, the authors argues for a "soul revival" of education which tackles, head on, the causes of dis-ease in society, from institutional racism, colonialism, xenophobia and patriarchy. The contributors provide fresh perspectives that address short-term goals of wellness alongside long-term goals of healing in schools and society by attending to underlying causes of social sickness. The chapters bridge theory and practice, bringing diverse historical and contemporary philosophical discussions around wellness into contact with concrete examples of the interconnections between wellness, education, and social justice. Examples of topics covered include: Buddhist practices for healing, Black liberation theology, hip hop pedagogy, anxiety and vulnerability, art therapy and story-telling.

This handbook synthesizes both contemporary research and best practices in early childhood teacher education, a unique segment of teacher education defined by its focus on child development, the role of the family, and support for all learners. The first volume of its kind, the Handbook of Early Childhood Teacher Education provides comprehensive coverage on key topics in the field, including the history of early childhood teacher education programs, models for preparing early childhood educators, pedagogical approaches to supporting diverse learners, and contemporary influences on this quickly expanding area of study. Appropriate for early childhood teacher educators as well as both pre- and in-service teachers working with children from birth through 8, this handbook articulates the unique features of early childhood teacher education, highlighting the strengths and limitations of current practice as based in empirical research. It concludes by charting future directions for research with an aim to improve the preparation of early childhood educators.

This book aims to challenge established teaching cultures to promote teacher autonomy and autonomy-oriented pedagogies in language teacher education. Offering a set of inspiring case studies that illustrate language teacher education for autonomy as a space of multiple possibilities, the book fuses theory and practice and gives a holistic view of the changing landscape of language teacher education, accounting for the transformative power of educational practices that help teachers think and act in informed, context-specific, and learner-centred ways. It also demonstrates the importance of autonomy in language teacher education contexts, specifically to foster teachers’ professional learning, identity, and agency, as well as in assessing and reshaping teacher education programmes. This book will be particularly useful to researchers, scholars, and postgraduate students in the fields of teaching and teacher education, modern foreign languages, and teaching and learning language research more broadly. Curriculum designers and language teacher education programme directors may also find the volume of use.