This study examined classroom performance evaluation of secondary teachers in Vietnam. Specially, it sought to determine the possibility of applying supervision into the evaluation for teaching development. Data were collected from interviews with 34 (n=34) participants: ten evaluators and 24 teachers in different school contexts: rural areas, towns, and cities. Data showed considerable impacts: (a) more favorableness on ‗evaluation conference‘ and ‗post-conference analysis‘ among stages, (b) the high appreciation on open discussions—being willing to share ideas co-existing differences in favorableness of feedback of strengths; and (c) being ready to give or receive appropriate feedback while keeping own ideas for a win-win strategy due to the barrier of the perceived power differential. Suggestions were on more emphasis on classroom performance—discussions before and after class classroom observation rather than inspecting teaching dossiers and on feasible strategies for teacher development—supervision     should     be     referred—rather     than     executing  the ‗bureaucratic‘  procedure.

In this study, I recount my experiences teaching elementary literacy methods courses and interacting with my racial Others—my White preservice teachers/students, senior faculty, and administrators at a predominantly White university in the rural Mountain West. Using an ethnographic approach (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995), I analyzed students‘ course evaluations, anonymous in-class notes, and administrators‘ annual evaluations for six semesters. The findings show that my White undergraduate students ―policed‖ my English language use and racial characteristics, and resisted authority and expertise. Administration participated in preserving mainstream values and superior White group positions over mine by blaming my cultural values when student complaints surfaced. However, once relationships were established between my students and me, drastically different interactions and teaching/learning occurred. This study breaks new ground in expanding our understanding that: 1) cultural mismatch and racial tensions are still some of the most divisive issues in education; 2) building sensitivity toward and mutual respect among racial Others is the precursor to creating hope and possibility for working with racial Others; and 3) creating racial harmony may not result from changing individual attitudes alone. The responsibility for change in valuing and understanding Others rests critically on university policies and practices.

This article examines Ronald Barnett‘s notion of an ontological turn in higher education as a language for framing the current existential demands and emerging learning needs of young adults.  After presenting different interpretations of ontology, I make a case for how contemplative approaches can be applied to communication- based higher education classes to support ontological learning processes and outcomes. I then introduce a case study, drawn from a graduate course entitled Dialogue Processes, that I have taught over the past seven years at University of Massachusetts (Boston). Here I illustrate how a contemplative approach  to  instruction helps develop conversational leadership, a central learning objective of the course.

Research has highlighted the factionalizing of pre-service teachers into two groups: Ethnic Minorities who understand diversity, and Whites who do not. In an exploration of the relationship of this distinction to the resources pre-service teachers actually bring into  diversity courses,  this  study utilizes  an  innovative  instructional strategy, ―Film Reflection And Multicultural Education‖ (FRAME) to access the cultural assumptions in pre-service teachers‘ understanding of ―others.‖ Using FRAME, data analysis of 133 pre-service teacher reflections revealed distinctions that fell within expectations related to pre-service teacher ethnicity, but also uncovered variations within ethnic groups. Findings suggest that bifurcating pre-service teachers along ethnic lines, therefore, does little to advance our understanding of the resources with which students enter teacher education programs. Assuring diversity instructors recognize the capacity of all their pre-service teachers to understand diversity is critical to protecting the rights of students (of all ages) to an equitable education. The results of this study show FRAME can help us achieve this goal.

This study explored the perceptions, perspectives and viewpoints of the  students about the reasons for turning the schools into uninteresting and unaffectionate places for the students eventually leading to the increased drop out ratio. This qualitative study was conducted in four secondary schools, which provide education to the children in four different educational systems of Gilgit- Baltistan, Pakistan. A number of six students from each school and altogether twenty four students were selected as the primary participants of this research. Semi structured interviews were the main tools of data collection. The findings highlighted the ethical, moral and behavioral aspect of teacher‘s personality as the most prominent feature for determining the degree of likeliness and affections of the students with their schools. The  improvement in the ethics and moral aspect of the teacher‘s personality has all the potentials to improve the other aspects of the unattractive school environment.

In Canadian public primary schools, newcomer West African refugees like other ethnic immigrant students are a visible minority group, often referred as Linguistic and Culturally Different (LCD) students. In the province of British Columbia, newcomer immigrant students are subjected to a battery of tests, as soon as they enroll in the primary public school system. These tests are the provincial Standardized Assessment Tests (SAT) and classroom Teacher Assessment of Learning (TAL) that aim at obtaining data for diagnostic purposes of students‘ learning and teaching purposes. Specific to LCD refugee and immigrant students, they are also assessed on English Language Communication Proficiency (oral and written), Social Skills amongst others, regardless of the degree of proficiency in English language as members of the Anglo-phone Commonwealth countries whose curriculum and medium of instruction is British related. More often, the African immigrants and refugee students of the Anglo-phone African countries are most times diagnosed with English Language Communication Disorders (ELCDs), which has been questioned by some Canadian researchers of Learning Disabilities (LDs) and  Multicultural Education (ME), especially with regards to the cultural compatibility of the assessment process/diagnostic tools, and criteria used to assess these LCD refugee  and immigrant students. The article discusses the above discourse, with the support of findings of a qualitative ethnographic research findings and related literature.

This article examines three interlinked problems facing public schools today: how to recruit, retain, and pay our teachers. The article begins with an overview of the  current situation in the United States, paying particular attention to schools in areas where minorities are the majority. It goes on to examine some of the causes of teacher attrition, with a special section on charter schools, which have a unique set of problems. Finally, it looks at the effects of in-school policies such as teacher pre- service and in-service programs, and then discusses several successful programs around the country, including the TAP model and the Missouri Career Ladder.