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This paper examines the practice and professional development of teacher educators engaged in diversity pedagogy in Canadian teacher education programs. Using a reflective inquiry combined with a self-study of teacher and teacher education practices (S-STEP), three educators discuss the complexity of their research and teaching experiences through the lens of Egbo’s (2009) seminal text, Teaching for Diversity in Canadian Schools. These critical reflections provide the basis to contextualize praxis-oriented teacher education practices in rural and in urban contexts. Specifically, the discussions focus on how diversity pedagogy informed curriculum development and promoted trans-disciplinary educational praxis. These transformative frameworks provided the teacher educators with the necessary knowledge base and knowledge mobilization to introduce marginalization, oppression, and alienation of underrepresented populations to preservice and service teachers. Cet article examine les pratiques et le développement professionnel des professeurs formateurs d’enseignants qui sont engagés en pédagogie diversifiée dans les programmes canadiens de formation des enseignants. À l’aide d’un examen de réflexion combiné à une auto-évaluation des pratiques d’enseignement et des pratiques de formation des enseignants, trois éducateurs discutent la complexité de leur recherche et de leurs expériences d’enseignement à travers le prisme du texte de référence d’Egbo (2009), Teaching for Diversity in Canadian Schools. Ces réflexions critiques présentent une base pour mettre en contexte les pratiques de formation d’enseignants orientés vers la pratique dans des contextes ruraux et urbains. Plus particulièrement, les discussions se concentrent sur la manière dont la pédagogie diversifiée a informé le développement des programmes d’études et favorisé la pratique éducative transdisciplinaire. Ces cadres transformatifs ont donné aux professeurs formateurs d’enseignants la base de connaissances et la mobilisation des connaissances pour introduire la marginalisation, l’oppression et l’aliénation des populations sous-représentées aux enseignants en formation ainsi qu’à ceux qui ont déjà pris du service.

This paper focuses on the divide between the university as a site of teacher education and the profession of practicing teachers. We employed a theoretical inquiry methodology on a singular case study which included formulating questions about the phenomena of the university-profession divide (UPD), analysing constituents of the UPD, and developing a language system to represent our findings about the UPD. The questions guiding our examination were: How do we conceptualize this divide? How are these concepts represented in the literature? How can a Teacher Education Program (TEP) respond to the divide? The theoretical inquiry was conducted within a singular case study of a TEP in order to explore the chasm between these two settings in a limited and focused manner. Our inquiry led to the identification of three key concepts: competing cultures, competing expectations, and theory-practice dichotomy. In analyzing these concepts and responding to questions which drove this inquiry from the beginning, we assert that these concepts contribute to the divide and therefore, have implications for teacher education programming. We summarize findings about these three concepts, suggest causes for the chasm, and offer recommendations to address the divide. Finally, we argue that while it is important to address the divide to enhance teacher education, the divide itself is a potentially rich site of possibilities. We contend that a reconceptualization of the UPD in this way might mitigate its negative impact on teacher education curriculum and programming. Cet article se concentre sur l’écart qui existe entre l’université en tant que lieu de formation des enseignants et la profession d’enseignant en exercice. Nous avons employé une méthodologie d’enquête théorique basée sur une seule étude de cas qui comprenait des questions sur l’écart entre université et profession, l’analyse des composantes de cet écart et le développement d’un système de langue pour représenter nos résultats concernant l’écart entre université et profession. Les questions qui ont guidé notre examen étaient les suivantes : Comment conceptualisons-nous cet écart? Comment ces concepts sont-ils représentés dans les publications? Comment un programme de formation des enseignants peut-il répondre à cet écart? L’enquête théorique a été menée sur une seule étude de cas d’un programme de formation des enseignants afin d’explorer le gouffre qui existe entre ces deux domaines d’une manière limitée et ciblée. Notre enquête a permis d’identifier trois concepts clés : la concurrence entre les cultures, la concurrence entre les attentes et la dichotomie entre théorie et pratique. Suite à l’analyse de ces concepts et aux réponses obtenues aux questions qui étaient à l’origine de cette enquête dès le départ, nous pouvons affirmer que ces concepts contribuent à l’écart et, par conséquent, ont une incidence sur les programmes de formation des enseignants. Nous résumons nos résultats concernant ces concepts, suggérons des raisons à l’origine du gouffre et proposons des recommandations pour remédier à l’écart. Pour finir, nous suggérons que, bien qu’il soit important de remédier à l’écart afin d’améliorer la formation des enseignants, l’écart lui-même est un lieu potentiellement rempli de riches possibilités. Nous soutenons qu’une reconceptualisation de l’écart entre université et profession selon cette manière pourrait mitiger ses effets négatifs sur le curriculum et les programmes de formation des enseignants.

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This paper documents research regarding the roles, practices, and identities of three faculty members who mentor teacher candidates during practicums. Using a collaborative self-study (Hamilton, 1995), the authors examine the implications of implementing “particulars of practice seminars” (POPS) where practice issues are surfaced by candidates and examined collaboratively through focused conversation. The POPS are designed to develop candidates’ authority of experience (Munby & Russell, 1994) and foster candidates’ agency in professional learning yet these aims are highly dependent upon the faculty mentors’ practices and how these seminars are conceived and enacted. Using reflections, email threads, and meetings, this self-study focuses on the authors’ conceptions of their practice, identities, and roles as faculty mentors participating in the POPS and introduces “braiding” as a metaphor to illustrate the weaving together of multiple data sources. Results include assertions regarding programmatic recommendations, faculty development, and methodological approaches used in self-study research.

Online school leadership (OSL) is of particular interest given the growing number of online education opportunities. As school districts develop more online and blended learning programs, particularly for secondary grade students, the need to examine leadership in these programs is paramount. The literature suggests that most studies focus on effective leadership in bricks and mortar schools, while limited research focuses on leadership in online programs. In this study, we aimed to explore teachers’ perceptions of leadership in online secondary schools in two districts. Our questions focused on secondary teachers’ experiences with leaders in their online schools and how these experiences contribute to perceptions of what makes for effective leadership practices. Using phenomenology, we interviewed six teachers, analyzed for themes and categorized these into a sense of community, organizational learning and empowerment to represent teachers' perceptions of OSL. Based on these results, we suggest that OSL consists of both foundational and contextualized practices, and that both are necessary for effective OSL. This research has implications for educational leadership broadly, but specifically for leadership in online education.