Curricular decision making is foundational to teachers’ practice—every facet of the instructional process is the result of teachers’ decisions. For new teachers, learning to make curricular decisions that will satisfy institutional, public, and professional demands and facilitate learning in their classrooms can be especially challenging given today’s standards-based educational climate. In the primary grades, teachers find themselves having to manage competing demands of accountability and their own beliefs about effective instruction for young children. Despite the field’s renewed interest in studying teachers’ thinking as it relates to post-NCLB curricular decision making, few studies examine curricular decision making among beginning primary grade teachers who share the same accountability issues as their more experienced colleagues. Utilizing case study methodology, this investigation explored how five novice primary grade teachers approached curricular decision making for the core content areas within accountability-driven Texas public schools. Data included classroom observations, interviews and post-observation conversations, lesson planning think-alouds, and curricular documents. Cross-case analyses indicate that participants' curricular decision making was characterized by professional judgment in response to various dilemmas they encountered while attempting to address personal, professional, administrative, and organizational expectations. In many ways, the standards-based contexts in which participants taught made teaching especially difficult for these teachers who were only beginning to accumulate the wisdom of practice. Findings also suggest that participants' curricular decisions were informed by a combination of internal and external influences. Most significantly, curricular decisions were deeply rooted in who teachers are and who they hope to become as professional educators. Professional identity permeated all five teachers' approaches to curricular decision making, from the types of decisions they chose to address to the actual decisions they made in the classroom. Concomitantly, these teachers' conceptions of the teaching profession helped shape the nature of their curricular decisions. The study also reveals that professional colleagues played a strong role in guiding curricular decisions among the participants, although not all support offered to novices was necessarily beneficial for their development as effective decision makers. Finally, the study raises questions about incongruities between teacher preparation programs and the expectations graduates will face as beginning teachers. / text

There is little known about the daily lives of gay teachers at school. Studies have been conducted in this area, but the wide range of individual life experiences makes it difficult to define the gay teacher experience. Gay teachers geographic location, gender, age,and race, are a few of those factors that will have a direct influence upon their lives.Therefore, I believe more focused, regional or case studies will yield better understandings of the lives that gay teachers lead at school. Until now, no other study had investigated the lives of gay teachers in West Central Florida. I decided to focus this study on male teachers who teach in secondary schools because I believe the lesbian experience at school differs to such a degree to warrant aseparate study for them. I also believe that secondary teachers must confront controversial issues that are connected to the mandated curriculum and a more mature student audience that will be more apt to ask questions about those issues to a far greater extent than elementary school students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experiences of gay male teachers in West Central Florida and uncover their understandings of various key issues:the perceived impact of their sexual orientation on curricular decision-making, the perceived impact of their sexual orientation on classroom management, and their understandings of the perceived barriers to addressing homophobic language and coming out at school. After six months of conducting personal interviews, engaging in telephone conversations, and exchanging electronic mail messages with the seven participants inthis study, my analysis of the data resulted in the emergence of ten themes: (1) gay themed materials in the classroom, (2) interactions with students perceived to be gay, (3)separation of informants private lives from life at school, (4) informants perceptions ofproper conduct by a gay male teacher, (5) challenges and problems faced by the informants at school, (6) informants understandings of how students use homophobic language, (7) informants use of humor in the classroom, (8) informants relationships and interactions with colleagues at school, (9) informants perceptions of the acceptance of gay male teachers, and (10) informants perceived special talents of gay male teachers. In the end, all seven informants shared their unique stories, but demonstrated some commonalities as well. All of them addressed gay-themed issues when they came up in class, all addressed homophobic language to some degree, and, with the exception of one individual, most agreed that it was best for gay male teachers to remain closeted at work, even if they personally wished that it could be different. I believe the one dissenting voice offers hope that at some time in the near future, gay male teachers will be able to be out at school despite the negative stereotypes that surround them. Further, the one dissenter demonstrated his ability to help all students better understand diversity, and his presence increases the possibility that someday teachers, administrators, and students will all be more open to accept the existence of and the performance of multiple forms of masculinity at school.

As we embark upon the 21st century, the world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Yet, despite increasing globalization, educational systems are not reflecting this phenomenon. The overwhelming majority of countries, including the United States, still emphasize nationalistic curricula (Parker, 2008; Tye, 2009). Global education is a movement whose supporters advocate an education reflecting the push towards globalization by providing students with the components necessary to live and thrive in an increasingly interconnected world system. Global educators have a common bond as advocates that a global perspective needs to be developed in the classroom. The degree to which this is being done is unknown. Further, how a global educator is prepared and formed is unknown. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research in global education (Gaudelli, 2003). Personal experiences have a major influence to what a teacher attributes his or her beliefs and values (Lincoln, 2005), and this is an area of study that has not been examined in global education. Using a mixed-methods design that includes a background survey, a global-mindedness survey and interviews would provide a better understanding of what self-identifying global educators attribute their global-mindedness. By presenting a rich account of the perspectives of high school social studies teachers who are involved with a global education initiative, social studies teacher education programs can gain insight about providing the best preparation that will lead to teacher candidates gaining the skills necessary to teach from a global perspective The case study presented here consisted of 2 surveys, multiple interviews, and examination of program documents. Analysis resulted in 8 themes identified by the participants as being attributed to the development of a global perspective: (a) family, (b) exposure to diversity, (c) minority status, (d) curious disposition, (e) global education courses, (f) international travel, (g) having a mentor, and (h) professional service. Additionally, the themes were perceived to influence curricular decision making by providing strategies, resources, and empathy towards students. The participants‘ perspectives have implications on social studies teacher education programs and future research. These implications include the types of instructional methods, themes, and global dimensions that should be addressed in teacher education programs. Future research should focus on issues underlying the nature of global education courses being taught in social studies teacher education programs, the teaching methods being used by graduates of those programs, and further analysis on emerging themes perceived to be critical in developing a global perspective.

The researcher found few studies that explore decisions of social studies teachers as they plan what and how to teach their classes. Over a century, social studies educators have adapted and responded to political, social, and economic changes. From educating immigrants a century earlier to addressing contemporary cross-border issues, social studies educators inherit unique challenges in today's increasingly globalized world. In addition to these external forces, constraints are placed on teachers which prescribe what content must be included in an already crowded curriculum. This qualitative approach using a case study provides a better understanding of the influence a globally oriented program has on participants' teaching social studies by investigating how participation in UNA-USA Global Classrooms program influenced how social studies teachers teach social studies. The goal was to provide a rich, compelling account of experiences of high school social studies teachers so that others can understand the issues reflected in their experiences better. The primary method of gathering data was the hour-long interview, in a case study approach. Analysis resulted in six themes: (1) teachers' perceived influence of Global Classrooms on student interest and engagement, (2) content expertise and confidence, (3) challenges to teaching global perspectives stemming from students, (4) challenges to teaching global perspectives stemming from school environment (5) innovative pedagogy and learning activities, and (6) projects and advocacy dimensions evolved from Global Classrooms experiences. Participants' unique experiences underscore the importance of studying the influence of globally oriented curriculum programs on social studies instruction. Implications include (1) teacher preparation and inservice training needs to be responsive to the need to develop an emerging cadre of teachers who are becoming increasingly aware of the need to infuse global perspectives into the social studies curriculum, (2) it is important that school districts realign professional development programs to help teachers gain content knowledge and expertise on global issues (3) participants in this study confirm that globally oriented programs such as the UNAUSA Global Classrooms Curriculum enable teachers to build pedagogical content expertise in teaching about global issues, and (4) as pedagogical knowledge improved, participants became more adept at reinventing the curriculum and infusing components to serve the courses they taught.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the implementation year of state mandated, site-based management in a rural elementary school in north-central Texas.