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This is a study integrating Second Life (SL) and the currere approach to develop a virtual curriculum demonstration. The overarching purposes of this study were to understand the perceptions, self-reflection, self-understanding and educational growth of graduate students in education toward teaching and learning in a virtual interdisciplinary curriculum. Data was collected in two education graduate courses with a total of 31 participants in 2011 at a central Texas public university. The results revealed how SL exhibitions, based on the four-step currere approach, benefitted the participants. Using the exhibitions' target knowledge, individuals were able to develop a self-understanding, which propelled them toward self-mobilization and educational reconstruction.

This book presents a new and important scholarship on teaching, at the time when studies on teaching in teacher education are long overdue. This book is designed to put together such a set of chapters contributed by those teacher educators who are not only taking teaching as a professional practice, but also upholding teaching improvement as a scholarly pursuit that needs collaboration and systematic studies.

Large group interventions (LGIs) are a type of multi-stakeholder process designed to \"get the whole system in the room\" in order to develop shared understandings and agreements. LGIs are said to be well-suited to the conditions of complexity, plurality, and uncertainty that are often associated with community visioning and planning settings. However, there is little research regarding what reasonably to expect from large group intervention processes and how best to design them. Sharing findings of a multi-stakeholder large group visioning and planning process in the Pacific Northwest, this article informs understanding of how and why large group interventions work, and their applicability to community visioning, planning, and development.

Economic development succeeds at the interface of people, place, and prosperity. Sometimes referred to as the triple bottom line, this concept recognizes the interconnections between economic, environmental, and social factors and provides an important framework for engaging in economic development. This article introduces the concept of triple bottom line economic development, discusses its centrality to the profession, and provides examples of what it might look like in practice. There is not one way to do triple bottom line economic development, no magic formula. There are, however, strategies that support achievement of desired outcomes. To succeed, economic development needs all three -- people, place, and prosperity. Economic development exists in relation to people and planet. For economic development to succeed, triple bottom line performance is required. It's not an option or alternative way to do economic development. It is the essence and core; the bottom line.

Multi-Stakeholder Collaborative Learning and Action (MCLA) is defined as a type of multi-stakeholder process that convenes diverse system members for the purpose of increasing individual and system knowledge and facilitating individual and collaborative activity supportive of movement toward a shared vision or goal. Despite increased theoretical and practitioner attention to the topic, questions remain regarding what reasonably to expect from MCLA processes and how best to design them. Further, little research has addressed the assertion that certain MCLA processes can facilitate domain development. Addressing these questions, this case study applies quantitative and qualitative methods to the analysis of two components of a MCLA process: a large group intervention and an interorganizational collaborative alliance. A range of direct and indirect, tangible and intangible effects was identified at individual and domain levels. Examples include increased understanding about domain issues and partners, new and enhanced relationships, knowledge transfer and creation, belief and value clarification, behavior and programmatic change, improved collaborative capacity, and sense of inspiration or connection. This research confirms the effectiveness of whole systems, participatory, and dialogic design principles, as well as the importance of attending to diverse learning styles and establishing a positive tone. Research questioning the reasonableness of expectations for self-organization regarding both action agendas and collaborative alliances is affirmed. With respect to domain development, this research confirms that large group interventions can facilitate problem setting, direction setting, and/or structuring. Further, they can foster the system appreciation, networks, and shared vision identified as important to domain development. The importance of referent or bridging organizations is validated, though difficulty structuring such alliances is also confirmed. MCLA processes are identified as valuable to community and movement development and adaptive governance. A positive but qualified assessment is provided regarding expectations for the potential of MCLA processes to support social change and sustainability. This research advances understanding of likely effects and key design considerations regarding MCLA, however, questions remain pertaining to stakeholder participation, dominant discourses, engagement practices, the role of referent organizations, effect measurement, comparability and appropriate use of various processes, and support of sustainability and social change.

Teaching plays an important role in all of our lives and provides us opportunities to learn from others including parents, friends, and of course, our classroom teachers. It can occur in formal as well as informal settings and is a form of practice that is so common in our society that it often goes unnoticed.

This brief glimpse into how schools responded to a national tragedy only hints at the magnitude of responses. No school board policy or university program had prepared American educators to respond to events like those of September 11 attack. Teachers and principals simply found themselves confronting a tragic event. Still, they quickly determined to participate in personal and national efforts of recovery from the trauma. Margaret S. Branson, associate director for the Center for Civic Education in Calabasas, California, observed that, during times of crisis educators, most often focus attention on common values. Following the terrorist attacks, consequently, educators focused on the ideals of democracy, freedom, and camaraderie. Much remains to be learned about how or if the national crisis impacted American schools' security and curriculum over an extended period of time.

Since 2006, undergraduate education students from Texas A&M University have traveled to many countries in Europe, Asia, and Central America following intensive preparation courses in which they, prior to their travels, study and research the literature, art, history, and culture of a particular country and, in some cases, develop lessons to teach students who are English as a Foreign Language Learners (EFL).