If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.Abstract Empowered teachers participate in critical decisions that directly affect teaching and learning. Empowering work environments may enhance professionalism, facilitate teacher leadership, improve the quality of work life, and enable effective implementation of school reform. Process-based views of empowerment suggest associations between school organizational structures and teacher empowerment, while psychological perspectives on empowerment suggest potential relationships between the phenomenon and cognitive and affective outcomes. Empowerment is considered in terms of teams and teamwork in schools, and relationships between empowerment and commitment to the school are examined.

Families who have twins encounter unique needs and circumstances. Insight into issues twins encounter can improve parental and counseling treatment of twins as well as foster a healthy identity formation. These special issues that twins encounter will be addressed through the following: parenting influences, twin comparisons, sharing, competition, differentiation, bonding, empathy development, separation anxiety, identity development, and various recognized patterns of twinship. Through an understanding of twins' specific needs and challenges, counselors can be influential in fostering a healthier family system.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop a comprehensive understanding of the roles and responsibilities of vision education professionals who are dual-certified as teachers of students with visual impairments and orientation and mobility specialists. Through three phases, the study combined interviews and observations of the vision professionals with interviews with their administrators.

Recent increases in the use of Web-based resources by faculty in higher education appear to be reaching a plateau. To better understand how to encourage the use of Web resources a survey was designed to examine faculty perceptions about the navigability and content of a specific Web-based resource and their attitudes about the instructional use of Web-based resources in general. Results of the survey indicated that faculty with more years of experience and those teaching at research and doctoral institutions expressed the most favorable attitudes toward the provided Web resource. In addition, gender differences were found pertaining to the factors most likely to influence the use of Web resources. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for increasing the use of Web-based resources in higher education.

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