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This paper explores a five-year case example of two educators engaged in practice-based professional development (PBPD) for the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model in a middle school. It examines the transformative effects and challenges of improving writing instruction, the activities involved and alternative PBPD delivery methods. Highlighting a collaborative effort between an institute of higher education (IHE), a middle school and ThinkSRSD, a PBPD for SRSD developer, the example underscores the long-term benefits and innovative insights into engaging with PBPD for SRSD over multiple years.

The case involves analyzing survey data collected over five years. These surveys, which included specific SRSD-related queries and open-ended questions, were instrumental in assessing the evolution of the educators’ perceptions regarding SRSD and their engagement with PBPD. Additionally, the paper details PBPD activities as documented in a research journal, providing a comprehensive account of the developmental process.

Through a cross-institutional partnership, two middle school general educators participated in PBPD for SRSD for 30 h across five years. Their engagement with PBPD progressed from initial introduction and implementation to facilitating PBPD for SRSD among peers and at the national level. Over time, the most consistently enacted SRSD action was “memorize it,” while actions such as “discuss it,” “support it” and “independent performance” showed greater variability. Both educators consistently praised SRSD and sought continued PBPD engagement over the five years.

Our case example is the first five-year analysis of PBPD for SRSD among general middle school educators, highlighting the benefits and challenges of adopting evidence-based writing instruction. Our example emphasizes the need for continuous and focused professional development in areas crucial for student success, including self-regulation, prewriting strategies and techniques for fostering independent performance. Moreover, the two middle school educators’ critical feedback is invaluable for refining PBPD for SRSD. This work also enriches professional development schools (PDS) literature by offering effective strategies to support middle school teachers in developing a vibrant writing community, a cornerstone for student advancement in writing.

There is an urgent need for teacher preparation programs to equip teachers to teach in innovative and transformative ways, meeting the needs of diverse learners. Coaching is an instrumental tool for supporting change and development, especially in contexts with decentralized teacher preparation guidelines.

This multicase study examines cross-institutional programmatic innovations for coaching teacher candidates (TCs) and centering equity using improvement science and equity coaching. The authors explore the networked improvement community’s (NIC’s) examination of problems of practice through plan–do–study–act cycles in three coaching contexts within and across seven institutions.

Qualitative methods revealed that adapting coaching protocols can center equity and build equity-focused practices. This work highlights revisions to coaching within and across teacher preparation programs (TPPs), which the authors hope inspires extending equity-centered coaching and improvement science to new contexts. This cross-case analysis revealed program innovations for coaches, digital technologies and alignment.

This study addresses ongoing challenges faced by TPPs in the United States, including TCs' understandings of equity in teaching and decentralized teacher preparation that results in varied and incongruent understandings about quality teaching. This study builds on previous scholarship that examines shifts in coaching practices by disrupting silos in TPPs as examined innovations.

The paper offers a unique view of cross-institutional collaboration in coaching to improve transformative teaching experiences in teacher preparation field experiences.

This paper shares findings from a multi-year literacy professional development partnership between a school district and university (2014–2019). We share this case of a Literacy Cohort initiative as an example of cross-institutional professional development situated within several of NAPDS’ nine essentials, including professional learning and leading, boundary-spanning roles and reflection and innovation (NAPDS, 2021).

We asked, “In what ways did the Cohort initiative create conditions for community and collaboration in the service of meaningful literacy reforms?” Drawing on social design methodology (Gutiérrez & Vossoughi, 2010), we sought to generate and examine the educational change associated with this multi-year initiative. Our data set included programmatic data, interviews (N = 30) and artifacts of literacy teaching, learning and leading.

Our findings reflect the emphasis areas that are important to educators in the partnership: diversity by design, building relationships through collaboration and rooting literacy reforms in teacher leadership. Our discussion explores threads of reciprocity, simultaneous renewal and boundary-spanning leadership and their role in sustaining partnerships over time.

This paper contributes to our understanding of building and sustaining a cohort model of multi-year professional development through the voices, perspectives and experiences of teachers, faculty and district administrators.

Since the early 1990s, Brazil has adopted an experimental approach to environmental management. Its reforms continue to this day and have produced robust water-management policies. This article reveals the different positions, the power structures involved, and the result of the disputes and agreements concerning the social construction of legitimate environmental behaviour in jeans manufacturing.

Comparative case study. Data collection for this research started in 2017 and ended in 2020. The data were gathered by concentrating on a few cases in two clusters. The author visited public agencies, trade associations, and firms of all sizes and levels of specialization in the industry and conducted semi-structured interviews with them. The intention was to acquire systemic and deep knowledge of the local industry.

The article's findings demonstrate a divergence in typologies that reflects the ecological limits in the use of natural resources, law-enforcement policies, and firms' legal status. The article extends our understanding of the ability of organizations to respond to institutional pressures to become sustainable. This study's findings provide insights for policy design in times of increasingly catastrophic pollution in regions that are immersed in global competition.

The study focuses only on two industrial textile clusters in Brazil, which may not be representative of the wider industry in the country or in other regions. The findings may not be generalizable to other industries or locations with different ecological limits, legal frameworks, and firm structures.

The article's practical implications include the need for tailored regulatory frameworks, effective law enforcement policies, promoting a culture of environmental responsibility among businesses, and collaboration among stakeholders in promoting sustainability. Policymakers, regulators, and businesses in industrial textile clusters in Brazil and other regions facing similar ecological and regulatory challenges can use these insights to develop more effective policies and practices that balance economic growth with environmental sustainability.

State actors emerge as the most important stakeholder group in forging the upgrading of water-management systems and technology. The optimal solution to the problem is cross-institutional and multilevel collaboration and coalitions between the different authorities and organizations involved who need to pay due attention to the relevant ecological limits and social needs. Only when this multilevel collaboration is achieved and maintained will the state's agents be able to collaborate with industrial actors and society at large.

The article examines the various factors that influence water usage and analyses the dynamics of change in two distinct locations in an emerging market. It demonstrates that, despite the existence of the same regulatory framework in both locations, different outcomes can arise due to the construction of diverse coalitions between social actors.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-03-2023-0154

This paper will discuss one university’s efforts to initiate a process to better support PK-12 continuous school improvement goals for all 13 schools in their PDS network as a way to broaden the university’s mission and respond more formally to the individual school communities with which they partner.

The paper is conceptual in that it presents an innovative idea to stimulate discussion, generate new ideas and advance thinking about cross-institutional collaboration between universities and professional development schools.

The paper provides insights and ideas for bringing about change and growth in a seasoned PDS partnership network by connecting PK-12 continuous school improvement efforts to PDS partnership work.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how seasoned partnerships can participate in simultaneous renewal by offering ideas that school–university partnership leaders can build upon as they make efforts to participate in the process of growth and change.

Many researchers partner with schools but may be unfamiliar with practices for initiating contact and sustaining relationships with school leaders. Partnering with schools requires significant effort from the researcher to nurture communication and trust. This can pose challenges for researchers who are new to the field, have relocated to a new university or need to rebuild relationships due to transitions in school staffing.

In this mixed-methods study, we interviewed and surveyed school and district leaders in Delaware to learn how researchers can best communicate and form relationships with schools and districts.

We found no singular best method exists to initiate contact with schools and districts. Rather, researchers should consider the unique needs of the local context. Leaders’ decision to participate in research was most influenced by their own interest in the research topic, alignment with schools’ needs and researchers’ willingness to build a relationship with the local education agency.

Despite broad acknowledgment about the importance of school–university partnerships, few studies directly engage educators in discussing their goals, preferences and needs when working with researchers. We sought to formalize an understanding of best practices researchers can consider when initiating contact and building relationships with schools, directly from the perspective of school and district leaders. Developing these understandings from practitioners ensures the information authentically represents the perspectives of those who researchers seek to connect with, rather than assumptions of the researcher.

Climate change poses risks to society and the demand for carbon literacy within small and medium-sized enterprises is increasing. Skills and knowledge are required for organizational greenhouse gas accounting and science-based decisions to help businesses reduce transitional risks. At the University of Copenhagen and the University of Northern British Columbia, two carbon management courses have been developed to respond to this growing need. Using an action-based co-learning model, students and business are paired to quantify and report emissions and develop climate plans and communication strategies.

This paper draws on surveys of businesses that have partnered with the co-learning model, designed to provide insight on carbon reductions and the impacts of co-learning. Data collected from 12 respondents in Denmark and 19 respondents in Canada allow for cross-institutional and international comparison in a Global North context.

Results show that while co-learning for carbon literacy is welcomed, companies identify limitations: time and resources; solution feasibility; governance and reporting structures; and communication methods. Findings reveal a need for extension, both forwards and backwards in time, indicating that the collaborations need to be lengthened and/or intensified. Balancing academic requirements detracts from usability for businesses, and while municipal and national policy and emission targets help generate a general societal understanding of the issue, there is no concrete guidance on how businesses can implement operational changes based on inventory results.

The research brings new knowledge to the field of transitional climate risks and does so with a focus on both small businesses and universities as important co-learning actors in low-carbon transitions. The comparison across geographies and institutions contributes an international solution perspective to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

The purpose of this study was to examine how beginning teachers’ participation in a microcredential based on trauma-informed classroom management and restorative discipline (TIMRD) practices might enhance their self-efficacy (SE), through an understanding of their own trauma response, its neurobiological basis and classroom interventions that focus on student wellness and teacher self-care.

Using a single case study design, participants completed a pre- and post-assessment before and after completion of a TIMRD microcredential.

A total of seven teaching fellows completed the microcredential process. Results indicate that the use of a microcredential for professional learning assisted with decreasing sense of burnout while increasing professional SE, SE related to classroom management and instructional strategies (ISs).

New teachers commonly struggle with a lack of professional efficacy for a variety of reasons, yet all teachers present with their own personal trauma. Increasing new teachers’ sense of resilience through addressing their own trauma and the impact of student trauma is integral to increasing teaching SE and reducing rates of burnout.

This study aims to identify a sustainable university’s key features. It is an essential step in tracing the topics discussed in the context of a sustainable university and their evolution in the scientific discourse.

This paper relies on a systematic literature review (SLR) conducted using two scholarly databases: Emerald and Scopus. The timeframe selected by the authors for reviewing the available sources spans from 2001 to 2021.

The analysis distinguished seven sustainable university categories, each revealing critical features of sustainable higher education. Each of these categories represents an intriguing area for in-depth analysis. The SLR reveals gaps requiring further scientific exploration.

The performed literature review was determined by the choice of entries (keywords) to identify the scientific papers in the selected databases. Moreover, as the authors aimed to focus on peer-reviewed sources, this SLR did not include books and doctoral dissertations dealing with the studied issues.

The results of the analysis can be used practically by both researchers and practitioners in the field of sustainable development (SD). Identified scientific gaps become a potential research field, and practitioners interested in the transition toward SD may contribute by accompanying universities in this journey. Collaboration and networking with business stakeholders are critical vectors for spreading the idea of SD.

Society’s growing concern for climate change requires accurate and specific actions from institutions. As entities educating future generations, universities have a unique role in transforming toward SD. The findings allow us to get acquainted with the existing main activities undertaken by higher education institutions in this field and understand the importance of this topic for researchers.

SLR is a cornerstone of research synthesis and helps integrate scientific evidence from qualitative and quantitative published studies. Conducted research presents knowledge about university sustainability and can help scientists find research gaps.