Alternative route urban teacher retention and implications for principals’ moral leadership

Early murmurs concerning teacher attrition in the United States have risen to an alarming level since the 1990s. Given that half of the 1990s teaching force were/are expected to retire between 2000 and 2010, the cry has been heard loud and clearly throughout the nation. Furthermore, today’s fledgling teachers are fleeing at astronomical rates, particularly in economically challenged urban areas. Alternative route certification programmes are one example of states’ and cities’ attempts to fill urban classrooms with highly qualified teachers. This paper addresses the potential for retaining urban alternative route teachers. What is revealed is that teacher retention, though multi‐layered, implicates principals’ moral leadership. As such, traditional leadership methods, roles and responsibilities are called into question. The paper addresses the relationships between alternative route urban teacher retention and educational leadership and proposes a discourse in support of moral leadership. Findings suggest that the moral leadership of school building‐level principals may favourably impact the potential for retaining alternative route teachers.     

Naturalistic case studies exploring social-cognitive mechanisms,and some methodological issues in research on problems of teachers

The argument is advanced that research could be more effective for use by teachers and simultaneously more scientific, in the sense that it would emulate the historical process of the development of quantitative science, if it were (1) of the form referred to as naturalistic case studies and (2) oriented toward discovering the cognitive and social interaction mechanisms that underlie the learning processes in classrooms. The limitations of individual case studies of children with difficulties learning in school are examined and some practical approaches to interventionist case studies done in classrooms are considered. It is proposed that the standard view of quantitative research in the social sciences derives from the physics curriculum rather than from the history of physics. This view also mistakenly places higher priority on finding predictive linear relationships among measurements rather than qualitative understanding of mechanisms, which could guide researchers toward useful quantitative research. The researcher who has not yet penetrated the world of the individuals being studies is in no firm position to begin developing predictions, explanations, and theories about that world.     

A cognitive model for the evaluation of units of instruction

Instructional Science - This paper describes an approach to the problem of how particular pre-existing systems of cognitive structures in individuals could be brought to bear on the design and...     

Emerging communities of practice: collaboration and communication in action research

This article chronicles the experiences of Dialogues in Methods of Education (DIME), a group of school and university faculty. Over the past 22 years, DIME members have studied together how to improve their own teaching practices through research, the sharing of ideas and mutual support. They have also engaged in critical analysis of the disciplinary and institutional forces shaping their work. The history of DIME shows the importance of accommodating difference as well as providing mutual support for long-term collaborations.     

The Rules of Engagement: Examining the Limits of Standards and Accountability Policy

Standards and accountability policies are central elements of school reform agendas aimed at equalizing students' access to quality education and closing the achievement gap. Yet, such policies have failed to yield the expected, large scale results. One explanation may be found in the embedded zones of wishful thinking. Two particular zones of wishful thinking are the policies' efficacy to foster deep learning and the standards' ability to create cohesive P–12 systems of educational excellence.     

Seven modeling perspectives on teaching and Learning — some interrelations and cognitive effects

Seven categories of models employed in research on teaching and learning in schools are reviewed, demonstrating the general educational metaphors and perspectives associated with each and their cognitive effects. The categories reviewed are called combinatorial models, sampling models, cybernetic models, game models, critical thinking models, ordinary language analysis models, and dynamic structural models.One major cognitive effect is the tendency for those who think primarily in terms of a given perspective to see all classroom phenomena in terms of that perspective and to feel that all other perspectives are inferior in not representing fully what they see from theirs. This means that no critical experiments or new observations are likely to help much in deciding which category of models is most appropriate for a given research need. The desirability of increased tolerance for different perspectives in research and practice is discussed with special reference to teacher education, where the perspective of the teacher candidate may be expected to determine largely how his or her training experience is assimilated.All categories are judged to have considerable scientific potential, because of successful applications within the natural and applied sciences and the degree of precision attained in at least some models. The first category, which is also the most popular (encompassing as it does practically all multiple variable models in education), seems to have the most questionable status when comparisons are made with the conditions in which it has succeeded in the sciences. The last category, dynamic structural models, encounters the greatest difficulty satisfying demands for operational means of testing its models, for the clinical methods required are not easily accessible to the uninitiated, but it offers the hope of more holistic and naturalistic insights into teaching and learning.The author is indebted to Heinrich Bauersfeld, Rosalind Driver, Jim Hauwiller, Jim Raths, Henry Trueba, and Klaus Witz for discussion of the key issues and an earlier draft of this paper. Of course, he assumes all responsibility for the presentation of ideas and material.The author is grateful to Basil Blackwell, Publisher, for persmission to quote from L. Wittgenstein, The Blue and Brown Books and to McGraw-Hill Book Company to quote from E. U. Condon and H. Odishaw (1958), Handbook of Physics.