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The Southeast Ohio Teacher Development Collaborative (SEOTDC) represents a regional professional community-of-practice with leadership as a key component of educator and organizational capacity building. This chapter highlights the work of this collaborative partnership among five teacher preparation programs in Appalachian Ohio that responds to regional contexts in planning and delivering professional development. Individuals from representative public and private institutions of higher education, state and local educational agencies, and school districts engage in action planning to improve teacher preparation, professional development, and mentoring processes for educators. This is accomplished through recruitment, retention, identification, support, promotion, encouragement, and involvement in a variety of SEOTDC initiatives. Professional development to build educator capacities is considered in terms of people and their contributions, the synergies that are created during the process of collaboration, and organizational arrangements that are designed to support renewal, reform, and personal and interpersonal development. After setting the context within which SEOTDC operates, the chapter identifies concerns, solutions, and outcomes related to four collaborative initiatives.

This chapter discusses a new understanding of how leadership is performed and internalized, from which a sustainable model of supporting and promoting educational leadership at the institutional level can be developed. It focuses on what is actually happening in an institution to capture “leadership” in an English higher education institution (HEI). It considers leadership in the context of a continuous professional development route for Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) at a Post-1960 English HEI. HEA Fellowship and the UK Professional Standards Framework (UKPSF) are increasingly used within British HEIs to support the professional formation of university teachers. The SFHEA is an internationally recognized accreditation for experienced university staff (academics/support/administrative) able to provide evidence of a sustained record of effectiveness in their practice, incorporating leadership of specific aspects of teaching and learning provision. Participants are evaluated against the criteria and dimensions of practice set by the UKPSF (UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning in Higher Education), which identifies the areas of competence that need to be demonstrated to achieve Descriptor 3, Senior Fellow. In the UK, it is increasingly the case that HE teacher development programs for new and experienced staff are accredited by the HEA against the UKPSF (Land & Gordon, 2015). There is a dearth of literature on program leadership and sustainable leadership in higher education. This chapter is, therefore, particularly timely and suggests that continuing professional development programs “model” good practice, which participants transfer to their own teaching.

The importance of early and developmentally appropriate science education is increasingly recognized. Consequently, creation of common guidelines and standards in early childhood science education has begun (National Research Council (NRC), 2012), and researchers, practitioners, and policy makers have shown great interest in aligning professional development with the new guidelines and standards. There are some important issues that need to be addressed in order to successfully implement guidelines and make progress toward accomplishing standards. Early childhood teachers have expressed a lack of confidence in teaching science and nature (Torquati, Cutler, Gilkerson, & Sarver, in press) and have limited science and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) (Appleton, 2008). These are critical issues because teachers’ subject-matter knowledge is a robust predictor of student learning outcomes (Enfield & Rogers, 2009; Kennedy, 1998; Wilson, Floden, & Ferrini-Mundy, 2002) and is seen as a critical step toward improving K-12 student achievement (National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st Century (NCMST), 2000; NRC, 2000). We argue that the same is true of preschool teachers.

This chapter discusses: (a) theories and practices in early childhood science education (i.e., preschool through 3rd grade) in relation to teaching for conceptual change, (b) research on methods of professional development in early childhood science education, and (c) innovative approaches to integrating scientific practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas with early childhood professional development.

Training, particularly in the form of comprehensive professional development, continues to be a need for paraeducators (also known as teacher assistants). Training needs begin with an initial set of knowledge and skills and is built based upon the paraeducator’s role with individual students and the educational settings. Standards or guidance documents are available from a few individual states within the United States, higher education systems, and professional organizations that serve individuals with exceptional needs and agencies. An international professional organization, Council for Exceptional Children [CEC] (2011), identified a common skill set that reinforces standards for defining curricula when providing training to paraeducators. Key to their ongoing professional development is the on-the-job coaching by the education professional (teacher), to support the application of skills into the inclusive setting. Various forms of professional development are available including online trainings in addition to face-to-face.

A shift from a medical model to a social model of including learners with disabilities has occurred over the past 25 years (Stella, Forlin, & Lan, 2007). This shift has impacted both preservice teacher preparation and in-service teacher professional development. This chapter utilizes a conceptual framework built on the work of Forlin and colleagues (Forlin, Loreman, Sharma, & Earle, 2009; Sharma, Forlin, Loreman, & Earle, 2006; Stella et al., 2007) to guide teacher preparation and professional development. This conceptual framework provides a model for (1) addressing attitudes and perceptions; (2) increasing knowledge of disability policies, laws, and evidence-based practices for providing instruction in inclusive settings; (3) and increasing experiences with individuals with disabilities, including experiences within inclusive settings. In addition, the framework incorporates aspects of the context within which inclusion is to occur. Implications include recommendations for teacher training and professional development to improve inclusive education for learners with LID.

This chapter documents monthly meetings of Bank Street College Reading and Literacy alumnae between October 2002 and December 2004. It describe the ways in which case study and self-study methodologies enabled participants to support their own professional development and that of colleagues. Findings suggest that the process enabled participants to revisit, reconsider, and reframe understandings and perspectives both in the minute and later as they shared experiences with a broader audience. Outcomes include a more extensive professional knowledge base, increased ability to meet the needs of children and parents, and a stronger sense of self as professional identity.

In Hawaiʻi, two public library systems exist – a traditional municipal branch system and a Native Hawaiian rural community-based library network. The Hawaii State Public Library System (HSPLS) is the traditional municipal library system that services the state’s diverse communities with 51 branch locations, plus its federal repository, the Hawaii State Library for the Blind and Print Disabled. The HSPLS primarily serves the local urban communities of Hawaiʻi, diverse in its citizenry. The Native Hawaiian Library, a unit of ALU LIKE, Inc. (a Hawaiian non-profit social services organization), boasts multiple locations across six inhabited Hawaiian Islands, primarily serving rural Hawaiian communities. The HSPLS focuses on traditional public library services offered by MLS-degreed librarians. In contrast, the Native Hawaiian Library (ALU LIKE) focuses on culturally oriented literacy services offered by Hawaiian cultural practitioners. As the state’s only library and information sciences (LISs) educational venue, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s LIS program (UHM LIS) is a nexus point between these two library systems where LIS students learn the value of community-based library services while gaining the traditional technical skills of librarianship concerning Hawaiʻi as a place of learning and praxis.

This book chapter focuses on outcomes from the IMLS-funded research project called “Hui ʻEkolu,” which means “three groups” in the Hawaiian language. From 2018 to 2021, the HSPLS, the Native Hawaiian Library (ALU LIKE), and the UHM LIS Program gathered as “Hui ʻEkolu” to create a community of praxis to share and exchange knowledge to learn from one another to improve professional practice and heighten cultural competency within a Hawaiian context. Native Hawaiian values were leveraged as a nexus point for the three groups to connect and build relationships for sustainable mentorship and culturally competent connections as a model for librarian professional development. The result is a model for collective praxis that leverages local and endemic cultural values for sustainable collaborative professional development for public librarianship.

Understanding the complexity of the change process is critical if early childhood improvement initiatives are to result in lasting change. One of the keys to effective programs and efficient use of resources is an understanding of readiness to change. This chapter presents a theoretical approach to understanding readiness to change in the field of early education and care. We describe applications of this approach used within a community-wide initiative in Rochester, New York, funded by an Early Childhood Educator Professional Development grant. The goal of the initiative was to create an integrated professional development system from entry level through the completion of a bachelor degree, with the priorities of increasing access, alignment, and articulation. We describe interventions at the community, organization, and individual level, and explore the impact of readiness to change at each of these levels.

Evaluation results show that educators enrolled in the research-based mentoring program offered by this grant became involved in other types of professional development programs, made significant gains in the quality of the classroom environment, and had children who made gains in overall development and vocabulary beyond developmental expectations. We conclude with a discussion of these results as well as implications for policy, practice, and future research.

By 2006, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards had offered advanced certification to 50,000 accomplished teachers using performance-based assessments of their teaching knowledge and practice (about 2% of the US teaching force). However, the Board has had much greater impact than the initial numbers of certified teachers suggested. As the first professional effort to define accomplished teaching, it has also had an enormous influence on standard-setting for beginning teacher licensing, teacher education programs, teacher assessment, on-the-job evaluation, and professional development for teachers throughout the United States. This chapter describes some of the results of the Board's work, evaluates its impact, and discusses issues that it raises for the future of teaching and the nature of the teaching career.

This chapter charts the recent evolution of research focused on reflective supervision provided to practitioners delivering services to young children and their families through early intervention programs. The authors explore research focused on defining reflective supervision, identifying five essential elements or “active ingredients” of reflective supervision as a professional development model and demonstrating the impact on practitioners. The impact studies described in this chapter have produced empirical data demonstrating an increase in reflective supervision behaviors as a result of participation. In addition, the studies provide qualitative accounts of practitioners’ experiences, conveying positive effects on intervention practice and reduction of practitioner job stress.