Search results

This chapter is a collection of reflections on the broader concept of my “story to live by” (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990; Craig, 2008, 2014) as a beginning English Language Arts teacher. Burrowing deeply into the impact of a single phrase from a conversation with a found mentor at the close of my first year, the chapter explores the journey of sustaining in the profession by examining what is here within discussed as a narrative undercurrent that carries each educator toward his or her “best-loved Self” (Craig, 2013; Schwab, 1954/1978). This concept is introduced, and then reflected upon in correlation with the development of knowledge communities (Olson & Craig, 2001; Craig & Huber, 2007), narrative authority (Olson, 1995), and narrative identity (Connelly & Clandinin, 1999; McAdams, Josselson & Lieblich, 2006).

In meditating on the broader narrative, I arrived at the conclusion that the conversation referenced initiated my discovering essential elements of my best-loved Self, and my seeking to actualize them within a forged knowledge community. I moved forward and expanded my knowledge “for,” “in,” and “of” practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1998). Through this process, I authored and re-authored myself through conflicts noted across the literature as factors contributing to beginning teacher attrition rates (Craig, 2014; Schaefer, 2013) and preserved my story to live by.

This study aims to address the possibility of integrating some elements of the “radical constructivist” approach to management accounting teaching. It answers the following two questions: to what extent should management accounting educators construct a “radical constructivist” foundation to guide active learning? Then, in which ways can management accounting educators use qualitative methods to facilitate “radical constructivist” education?

The study uses a teaching cycle that implements innovative learning elements, e.g. learning from ordinary people, designed following the principles of “radical constructivism”, to engage students with “externalities” at the centre of their knowledge construction. It adopts an ethnographic approach comprising interviews and participant observation for the data collection, followed by the application of qualitative content and narrative analysis of the data.

The study findings and reflections illustrate that the majority of students respond positively to radical constructivist learning if the educators can develop an innovative problem-solving and authentic environment that is close to their real lives. The radical constructivist teaching cycle discussed in this study has challenged the mindsets of the management accounting students as it altered the traditional objectivist academic learning approaches that students were familiar with. Its use of qualitative methods facilitated active learning. Student feedback was sought as part of the qualitative design, which provided a constructive mechanism for the students and educators to learn and unlearn from their mistakes. This process enriched the understanding of learners (students) and educators of successful engagement in radical constructivist management accounting education and provides a base upon which to design future teaching cycles.

The paper provides proof of the ability of accounting educators, as change agents, to apply radical constructivist epistemology combined with multiple qualitative research methods by creating new constructive learning structures and cultures associated with innovative deep-learning tasks in management accounting education.

An educator’s work is gratifying but highly stressful. Stress arises from external factors such as school, accrediting agencies, students, and parents, as well as internal factors like the teacher’s own skills, beliefs, and emotions. The phrase ‘to catch stress’ is used metaphorically in this chapter as it refers to an individual reaction to a situation that has a negative impact on the educator’s wellbeing, just like catching a disease has a negative impact on a person’s health. Working with people of different ages and personalities creates a variety of stressful situations that can negatively impact the ability of educators to do their job effectively. Stress might lead to job dissatisfaction and the desire to quit. Teachers’ stress also impacts students, since educators may become less concerned about students’ learning and put less effort into teaching when under stress. While the external causes of stress cannot be eliminated, educators can use techniques that reduce internal stress. This chapter offers a list of practical recommendations that might help educators manage their emotional reactions to stressful situations.

Reports the findings of a study that examined the relative impact of various marketing strategies on the performance of mature products in a rapidly developing country, South Korea, from a contingency theory perspective. The results indicate that the competitive environment of the maturity stage in the product life cycle in Korea can be classified into four distinctive types and that different strategies have different effects on product performance for each type of environment. The results also suggest that generally, vertical integration and product/ service improvement strategies have the most significant influence on the performance of the mature products in Korea. Discusses implications of the results for domestic and international marketers in the country.

The expertise in the fields of science and special education are being blended in today's classrooms as a result of all students being expected to meet state standards. Having high standards can be positive, yet for many science and special educators finding ways to blend the expertise of these two fields has not been clearly defined. This chapter provides an overview of the status of both fields, as well as providing specific ideas related to the changes that need to occur for a more blended approach to instruction. The chapter concludes with an example of a co-taught lesson using the 5E Learning Cycle as well as future directions for these two fields to work together to meet the needs of all students.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that taking the educational purposes of schools into account is central to understanding the place and importance of facilities to learning outcomes. The paper begins by observing that the research literature connecting facility conditions to student outcomes is mixed. A closer examination of this literature suggests that when school facilities are measured from an engineering perspective, little connection to learning outcomes is evident. By contrast, when school facilities are rated in terms of educational functions, a connection to learning outcomes is apparent.

The paper provides an empirical test of the educational relevance of how school facilities are measured. Using the schools in a Canadian division, the condition of school facilities was measured in two ways, including both conventional, engineering tools and a survey capturing principals' assessments. School facility ratings using these alternate measurement methods were correlated with schools' quality of teaching and learning environments (QTLE).

Two central findings emerge. First, engineering assessments of facilities are unrelated to the QTLE in schools. Second, educators' assessments of school facilities are systematically related to the QTLE in schools.

The findings indicate that more research needs to be directed at developing sound tools for measuring school facilities in terms of their educational relevance. In addition, school administrators need to reconsider policies that devalue the contribution that facilities make to learning outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the discussion about the complexity and heterogeneity of entrepreneurship education. In order to achieve this objective, this paper combines educational psychology with perspectives from entrepreneurship education research to make explicit educators tacit assumptions in order to understand how these assumptions guide teaching.

Using ethnographic analysis, the paper reports data from the continuous development and implementation of a single course over a period of ten years bringing in the educator’s and the students perspectives on their achievements and course content.

The authors find that it is sometimes advantageous to invoke and combine different learning theories and approaches in order to promote entrepreneurial awareness and mindset. It is also necessary to move away from entrepreneurship education as being teacher led to being more student-centred and focused on experiential and existential lifelong learning practices.

Practically, the authors make suggestions for the design and delivery of a course that demonstrates how four diverse learning theories can be combined to consolidate entrepreneurial learning in students invoking experiential and curiosity-based learning strategies.

There are very few examples of concrete course designs that have been researched longitudinally in-depth using ethnographic methods. Moreover, most courses focus on the post-foundation period, whereas this paper presents a course that is a primer to the entrepreneurial process and exclusively centred on the pre-foundation phase. Rather than building on a single perspective, it combines a range of theories and approaches to create interplay and progression.

This chapter highlights Freire's history and ideologies allow the text to act as in introduction work for those interested in looking at education from a Freireian perspective, and as such it also helps pull together the many aspects of Freire's life and ideas. These points are important because a lot of existing texts and journal articles tend to view Freire from very distinctive perspectives. For example, far and away his most popular text is Pedagogy of the Oppressed, but this chapter explores what he wrote about in the 20 other books and dozens of journal articles he wrote. Freire wrote about oppression in education, but also in government, by race and language, and throughout these explorations is a myriad idea about how oppression works, and why the oppressed let themselves be controlled by a minority. Highlighting these facts is a key starting point to the book.

The point of this study is to review the effect of entrepreneur education on the venture intention among the female undergraduate in the Nigeria University. The structural equation modelling was used in the equation analysis. The findings of the study will increase the awareness and acumen of entrepreneurship among female students. The analysis will help in developing entrepreneurial skills and aptitudes in the university’s business curriculum, which provides far-reaching exposure of critical thinking sessions that stimulate the generation of business ideas. It also helps to tailor business ideas to study and interest activities to motivate active participation, inspired progressively in the Nigeria ambience.

The purpose of this paper is to present information about a team‐teaching course on sustainable development (SD) for educators in an institution of higher education, Monterrey Campus of ITESM in México.

Four faculty members were invited to work together with the Sustainable Campus Programme coordinator in the process of developing the “Educate‐the‐Educator's” SD course. The course was structured using lectures, readings, class role play activities, homework, and general discussion. Additionally, a workshop‐format was woven throughout the course; its function was to help the educators incorporate SD issues within their own courses.

It was found that a multi‐disciplinarily developed and delivered course is an effective vehicle for educating educators on SD. Documentation of some facets of the learning process further helped the “students” and the course leaders to better understand the whole learning process.

The paper's value rests on the interconnected structure, showing resonance with the triple bottom line, as well as many other dimensions linked with sustainable development. This structure increased the course participants' comprehension of sustainability. Furthermore, the use of concept maps and digraph theory to evaluate “faculty participants'” comprehension of the interconnections and dimensions of SD proved to be a successful innovation.