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The purpose of this paper is to report on a longitudinal study that explored the perceptions and experiences of part-time doctoral students using the researching professional development framework (RPDF) as they progressed through the first year of their EdD programme at a research-led English University.

Following an initial questionnaire completed by students and supervisors (n = 18), six students were interviewed at the beginning, middle and end of the year.

The findings suggest that students found the RPDF had been of particular value early in their studies and had helped them realise that they were developing their identity as researching professionals, ready to make a difference to professional practice through their research.

While Doctorate in Education (EdD) courses have been around for some time, supporting frameworks have tended to be based on traditional PhD routes of study, with the unique development needs of part-time students (who are often working full-time and undertaking research into their professional context) often being ignored. To fill this gap, the authors recently proposed a new framework – the Researching Professional Development Framework – which was specifically developed to support EdD students by offering them an opportunity to reflect on key areas of their professional development as they progress through their studies.

The increased demands for access to and accountability for mastery of social studies curriculum by all students, including students with disabilities (SWDs) and diverse learning needs, is a current reality within secondary schools. Research has suggested classroom implementation of evidence-based instructional practices to improve content literacy. However, the lack of descriptive data related to classroom implementation of instructional practices seems to be an area of concern, especially following professional development (Correnti & Rowan, 2007). Research related to the context and conditions of classroom implementation is needed. This manuscript describes a district-wide professional development initiative within secondary social studies classrooms, outlines qualitative research, reports findings related to teacher perceptions of classroom implementation, and describes the considerations and implications related to implementation of professional development as part of comprehensive school reform.

The MOFET Institution, which began under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, is Israel’s national center for research and professional development on teacher education. It consists of three communities: (1) the Writing Channel; (2) the Study Channel; and (3) the Research Channel. MOFET additionally has an Academic Committee that assists the aforementioned communities in their deliberations if needed. Although the MOFET Institute deals with multiple and sometimes conflicting agendas (i.e., Ministry of Education, participating teacher education colleges, the institute’s own goals), it remains one of the most unique and powerful ways to nationally address teacher education research and dissemination and the development of teacher educators in the world.

This chapter describes how a college of education sponsored child development laboratory school responded to P-12 school reform movement efforts, particularly related to the establishment of professional development schools for the preparation of teachers. In its efforts to create a diverse learning community where all constituents (teachers, preservice teachers, and parents) are engaged in collaborative inquiry, the school sought inspiration from other sources, most notably the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education. In both the professional development school standards and the principles of the Reggio Emilia approach, emphasis is given to learning to teach within practice, teachers as researchers, making teaching and learning visible and egalitarian roles in carrying out the work of the school.

The purpose of this paper is to determine an effective approach to developing university vocational lifelong learning (VLL) professionals as researchers.

Two quite different approaches to developing VLL professionals as researchers were piloted, one involving face‐to‐face training and the other distance learning. These approaches were evaluated by the VLL professionals who underwent the training, and the organisers of the training. Qualitative and quantitative research methods were employed in the evaluation.

Evaluation of the two development methods revealed that the fact‐to‐face method was more successful due to its greater impact in the affective domain of learning, although some VLL professionals are able to develop through distance learning with close tutor support via electronic communication. Overall, the evaluation findings indicate that a combination of face‐to‐face and distance learning methods is likely to prove most effective.

The pilot national research study involved small numbers of trainees across the UK. The training may be more effectively carried out at an institutional level.

VLL professionals in higher education are increasingly called upon to conduct and to manage research. There are many calls on their time, and this research project has demonstrated an effective approach to their training in VLL research within a very limited time period.

No methods for developing university VLL professionals as researchers have previously been piloted or evaluated. The research demonstrates the effectiveness of a training method combining face‐to‐face and distance learning.

The private club industry is undergoing major change as it forges new links with academia in the areas of research, teaching and management development. This bodes well for hospitality management programmes. Indeed, the primary mission of most hospitality programmes in North America includes the dissemination of information in ways that will translate into tangible benefits for the greater hospitality industry. This article examines the context within which changes are taking place in the relationship between private clubs and hospitality education in North America, discusses the current research agenda on club management and reports the results of a survey of club managers about the nature and importance of industry/education linkages. It concludes by proposing a framework for continued collaboration that would strengthen both academic and industry partners while emphasizing a renewed and refocused research agenda.

This paper represents a written, expanded, version of a keynote address presented at the Vitae Researcher Development International Conference, at the midland Hotel, Manchester, UK, in September 2011. It is intended both to contribute towards defining researcher development as a field of research and scholarship, and to motivate those with an interest in the field to go beyond mere description and to incorporate clarity, rigour and analytical depth into their work. Its specific objective is to propose a research agenda for researcher development and to present the case for this agenda.

This is an analytical and conceptual paper. It presents the author's subjective views, illustrated, where appropriate, with examples of the author's conceptual and theoretical work. These underpin the research agenda for the field of researcher development.

There are no “findings” as such, only the author's perspective and observation that, as an emerging field of research and scholarship, researcher development must follow the path of academic rigour (e.g. analytical depth, conceptual clarity, definitional precision, and the development of theory and theoretical perspectives) if it is to achieve credibility within the academic community. The field also needs to widen its focus, it is argued, reflecting a broad interpretation of the concept of researcher development.

This is the first paper dedicated to an attempt to define the field. Its value also lies in its definitions and conceptualisations of researcher development, and its presentation of a taxonomy that deconstructs researcher development, revealing it to be multidimensional.

In this article, we highlight ways in which disability critical race theory (DisCrit) (Annamma et al., 2013), inclusive education and community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be used within professional development schools (PDS) to provide students with disabilities with more access to inclusive classrooms. At a grade 4–6 elementary school, we developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms. We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model. Findings suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice. This study can inform tailored professional development efforts to improve educators’ inclusive practices.

We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model.

The findings of this study suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice.

This study can inform tailored professional development efforts aiming to improve educators’ inclusive practices.

We developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms.

The aim of this paper is to present an interview and postscript that examine the specific meaning, rationale, conceptual framework, assessment and teaching of critical reflection in and on professional development in management and higher education from an action research perspective.

This article is presented in the new genre of PIP (Zuber-Skerritt, 2009): Preamble – Interview – Postscript. The Preamble (P) sets out the background, purpose, structure and conduct of the interview (I), which addresses six probing questions and is followed by a Postscript (P) that reveals additional comments and reflections on the interview, and identifies learning outcomes and implications.

Reflective practice is essential for a deep approach to learning, research and professional development and it is a driving force to enable learners to be adequately equipped for constant and complex change in today's and tomorrow's turbulent world.

The article is positioned to inspire further R&D in the current debate on urgently needed radical and rapid change in higher education for the twenty-first century.

As well as the article's practical suggestions about why and how to develop reflective learning/practice, the PIP conceptual model applied in this article offers a useful practical approach for researchers to explore self-ethnography through interviews.

Two conceptual models illustrate the essence of this article, providing practical help to academics and other professionals to advance reflective practice in research and learning.