Learning to redesign teacher education: a conceptual framework to support program change

University-based teacher education faces intensifying pressure to prove its effectiveness. This has prompted renewed interest in program redesign. In this article, we argue that enacting meaningful redesign requires university-based teacher educators to learn new ways of thinking and acting not only with teacher candidates but also with their university and K-12 colleagues. Drawing on Engeström’s expansive learning theory and our own efforts to redesign our teacher education program along a practice-based teacher education model, we delineate a conceptual framework and illustrate how it supports the organizational learning necessary to enact change in university-based teacher education. The expansive learning redesign framework specifies conceptual tools and social practices to guide, enact, and sustain university-based teacher education redesign. It acknowledges the multi-organizational nature of university-based teacher education and provides tools for engaging K-12 educators in the redesign of teacher education.     

‘Microsoft bought Minecraft … who knows what’s going to happen?!’: a sociocultural analysis of 8–9-year-olds’ understanding of commercial online gaming industries

This study investigates children’s media literacy with a specific focus on socially situatedness of children’s understanding of online gaming industries and related marketing. This article analyzes interviews with 8–9-year-olds and their parents in homes in the U.S.A. Rather than concentrating on developmental factors, the article uses a sociocultural approach to analyze various aspects of children’s gaming culture in domestic settings that relate to their understanding of gaming industries. The article considers implications for how children as consumers are understood by key stakeholders, including researchers and educators.     

Trial and Error: How Student Affairs Staff in Community Colleges Learn to Supervise

Supervisory skills play an important role in individual staff development and the achievement of organizational objectives. These skills are vital to professionals in community college student affairs, who support a diverse student population and a wide array of programming. This study was conducted to describe the kind of supervisory training experience student affairs professionals received. Through interviews with community college student affairs professionals, we found that many experienced a lack of formal training and acquired supervisory skills over time on the job, through trial and error, and from workshops.