Journal of Education

This study analyses children’s drawings and verbal expressions as evidence of emerging spatial understanding in early childhood. Children aged 5–6 years from five Chilean kindergartens participated in multimodal activities, in which they depicted the flight of a mosquito through storytelling, movement imitation, and drawing. A case study examines the drawings (n = 137) and the accompanying educator-recorded verbal explanations using content analysis. The results showed an initial understanding of horizontal and vertical directions, indicating the development of early spatial notions. This research highlights how dynamic process is represented through static drawings and language, providing innovative perspectives of multimodal activities in early spatial learning.

This study addresses challenges in translating inclusive education policy into practice in resource-constrained grassroots schooling, drawing on qualitative data from 51 participants including children, caregivers, teachers, and local officials. Focussing on Shishu Shiksha Kendras (SSKs) in Murshidabad, West Bengal, it uses classroom observations, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis to examine the educational experiences of children with disabilities. The findings identify interconnected structural, pedagogical, socio-cultural, and economic barriers that shape participation and learning. While inadequate infrastructure, limited teacher preparation, stigma, and household poverty constrain inclusion, local coping strategies such as peer support, caregiver mediation, and teacher improvisation create fragile spaces for participation, highlighting persistent gaps between policy intent and practice.

This study examines an inclusive education course’s impact on 111 Arab-Israeli preservice teachers’ attitudes and practices. Given the limited research on this population, it addresses a gap in understanding how cultural context influences teacher preparation. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the research investigates how attitudes influence inclusive practice intentions. Results reveal significant positive attitude shifts toward inclusion and diversified teaching methods. Participants prioritized academic and behavioral domains, indicating a nuanced understanding. This study contributes to research on Arab-Israeli preservice teachers’ inclusive education responses, offering insights for teacher preparation.

Past research typically assumes that an instructor is either a high school or college instructor, but not both. However, some educators work across institutional levels, teaching dual enrollment courses or holding positions in both high school and college. To better understand these educators, we conducted a qualitative study on their Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK). Here, we discuss our qualitative survey, data collection, coding, and major themes from these educators’ self-reported practices. We conclude with a practical suggestion to reframe our view of PCK as collective knowledge within an educational ecosystem rather than an individual teacher’s responsibility.

This study examined barriers and enablers of academic freedom in Ethiopian public higher education institutions using a qualitative design based on interviews and document analysis across three universities. Findings indicate that academic freedom is constrained by political interference, limited institutional autonomy, funding dependence, ethnic polarization, hierarchical academic cultures, and patronage-based administration, prompting academics to adopt strategies such as self-censorship, negotiated compliance, and selective collaboration. Despite these challenges, enabling conditions include policy reforms, growing governmental commitment to autonomy, an expanding research culture, and international collaboration. The study underscores the need for stronger legal protections, transparent governance, and greater autonomy, contributing Global South perspectives to academic freedom scholarship and informing policy and practice.

Teacher turnover remains a persistent issue. Effective teachers represent a critical factor in student success; however, high-poverty schools tend to experience more turnover than low-poverty schools. In this mixed-survey study, the researcher investigates how limited instructional autonomy in Title I-funded elementary schools may challenge teachers’ professional identities, leading to decreased job satisfaction. Bandura’s (1985) reciprocal determinism theory frames the complexity of teachers’ environments, a trilateral connection among working conditions, teachers’ beliefs, and associated responses. By addressing the relationship between teachers’ instructional autonomy and sense of professionalism, leaders can improve teachers’ job satisfaction and retention in high-poverty schools.

Little is known about how postsecondary students experience instructors’ disclosures of mental illness and/or neurodiversity in the classroom. This exploratory study queried students’ (n = 330) understandings of how these revelations shaped their perceptions of disclosing instructors, behavioral intentions, and attitudes toward mental illness. Most students reported that instructors’ disclosures had positively influenced their perceptions of these educators and their attitudes toward mental illness. In addition, lower mental health stigma predicted more positive perceptions of, and behavioral intentions toward, these instructors. Implications for instructors, students, and postsecondary institutions are discussed. Study limitations and suggestions for further research are also delineated.

While studies have linked culturally responsive teaching to positive student outcomes, developing teachers’ dispositions and practice for culturally responsive teaching remain challenging. This study investigates the antecedents and conditions that facilitated increases in culturally responsive dispositions among middle school teachers following the summer of 2020. Using survey data from 533 middle school teachers and follow-up interviews with 15 teachers, the study explores changes in teachers’ personal commitments to culturally responsive teaching and examines factors influencing their increased attention to race and equity. The findings have implications for developing teachers with the commitments to advance equity and inclusivity in schools.

In educational research, teachers are universally acknowledged as pivotal to institutional effectiveness. This study investigated the relationships between job satisfaction, pedagogical knowledge, and resilience among 168 English as a Foreign Language teachers in Iran. Utilizing established questionnaires and analyzing the data through Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses, findings revealed a strong positive correlation between job satisfaction and both pedagogical knowledge and resilience. Furthermore, pedagogical knowledge showed a moderate relationship with resilience. Significantly, job satisfaction emerged as a key predictor of resilience, highlighting significant implications for enhancing the teaching and learning environment within English as a Foreign Language settings.

This paper explores the lived experiences of six South Asian Bangladeshi and Indian international doctoral students using a phenomenological approach, guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (EST). The study has one central research question: How do South Asian Bangladeshi and Indian international doctoral students experience their transition to higher education institutions in the U.S.? The findings identified four themes that influence the lived academic experiences of these students. The study underscored the institutional commitment to integrating the experiences of these marginalized student subgroups, developing relevant measures that address their specific needs, and fostering an inclusive campus climate.

In order to provide equitable learning environments for all students, particularly multilingual learners (ML), educators must utilize engaging and culturally relevant-sustaining educational methods. Infusing digital storytelling (DST), creating a story or disseminating information through digital means, with a cultural lens is promising for MLs. This small-scale study’s purpose was to determine students’ and teachers’ perceptions about the Heritage-Based Digital Story Intervention, a culturally relevant-sustaining educational DST. Second grade MLs researched their heritage countries to create a DST. Students and teachers were interviewed after the intervention. Results showed both groups had very positive perceptions of the Heritage-Based DST Intervention.

This study investigates the perspectives of pre-service and newly qualified elementary teachers on the use of comics in science education. Drawing on interviews with 19 participants, it reveals positive views of comics as engaging and inclusive tools that support conceptual understanding and student competencies. However, their effective use is seen as dependent on careful pedagogical planning and contextual adaptation. Participants identified external barriers, such as limited resources, curriculum constraints, and time pressure, as well as internal challenges, including traditional beliefs and insufficient training. The findings highlight the need for investment in teacher education and resources to support meaningful comic integration.

Student voice (SV) can drive equity in schools if all students feel comfortable sharing their perspectives. This mixed-methods study finds that while SV is a challenging proposition for many students due to embarrassment, fear of retaliation, skepticism about its efficacy, and favoritism, it is particularly discordant for those Latiné students whose cultural values of respecting their elders and not drawing attention to themselves may conflict with expectations that they will express their needs and preferences as learners. Racism and a cultural disconnect with white teachers can further deter Latiné students from speaking up, highlighting the need for culturally sustaining SV practices.

This study explores how social media usage affects academic engagement and distraction among Indonesian university students. Drawing on the Theory of Planned Behavior and Social Cognitive Theory, it examines the mediating roles of content consumption and time management, and the moderating roles of self-regulation and purpose of use. Data from 200 undergraduates were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results show that social media positively influences academic engagement when used purposefully and managed effectively, but excessive use leads to distraction. Taken together, findings suggest that universities should actively promote digital literacy and self-regulation to maximize the academic benefits of social media.

This qualitative study examined factors influencing teacher retention in the post-pandemic context using hope theory. Participants were tenured elementary teachers who intended to remain in the profession. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using deductive coding aligned with Snyder’s components of hope: goals, pathways, agency, and support. Findings indicated that all components of hope were present across narratives of increased and diminished hope. Teachers shared long-term goals, described strategies for navigating barriers, emphasized professional agency, and highlighted collaborative grade-level teams. Implications highlight the value of strengthening goal-setting practices, flexible pathways, collaboration, and autonomy to support teacher retention during ongoing and future challenges.

The Covid-19 pandemic heightened teachers’ daily stressors, threatening performance and well-being. This study explored how teachers navigated transitioning to online teaching, while addressing behavioral and mental health challenges along with attending to educational inequities. Using the 3C model for framework and a pragmatic qualitative approach, eight high school teachers were interviewed early pandemic and again one year later. Pragmatic-constructivist data analysis resulted in four themes surrounding district support, technological journey; student concern; and educator wellness. Findings increase understanding of the effects of traumatic community events on teacher wellness and attrition while emphasizing leadership support to promote educator and student success.

This mixed-methods study examined the impact of Transcendental Meditation (TM) on stress and burnout among bilingual teacher-leaders. Sixty-two educators were randomly assigned to TM or waitlist control groups. Quantitative results showed significant reductions in emotional exhaustion, perceived stress, and mood disturbance for the TM group. Qualitative findings, interpreted through Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework, revealed that meditation enhanced access to cultural assets (i.e., familial, linguistic, and resistant) that supported well-being. Rest emerged as a form of resistance. This study expands CCW theory and offers evidence for the effectiveness of culturally responsive wellness practices in sustaining educators of color.

This mixed methods study examined doctoral students’ (N = 22) perceptions of mixed methods research, as well as their training needs. We used descriptive statistics to analyze closed-ended survey data and axial coding to analyze open-ended survey responses, course discussion boards, and qualitative interview data. The findings have implications for education doctoral programs as they consider requirements for research methods sequences. Findings suggest that there are advantages to including mixed methods coursework for doctoral students in schools of education and that the experiences can help strengthen students’ overall research skills, influence future research experiences, and aid in identification of needs for more training.

This study explored resilience pathways among rural Zimbabwean students whose development and coping are shaped by socio-ecological risks such as isolation, cultural context, and colonial legacies. Guided by the Social Ecology of Resilience Theory (SERT), data were generated from 15 students (aged 13–18) in Forms 1–4 using interviews and reflective journals. Thematic analysis revealed internalised limitations, resilience through support systems and personal strengths, a need for self-regulation and guidance, and community collaboration. The findings highlight the importance of strength-based interventions and school–community partnerships to promote adaptive coping, holistic development, and improved mental health care in rural contexts.

This qualitative case study examines how two doctoral students in a Curriculum and Instruction program negotiated scholarly identity through sustained participation in a faculty-led Elementary Education Special Interest Group (SIG). Guided by a situated framework of scholarly identity, the study analyzes mentoring transcripts and participant reflections to examine how scholarly participation and positioning were mediated within a practice-based research context. Findings identify five themes across three domains: entry into scholarly practice, collaborative engagement, and evolving scholarly identity. The study offers implications for mentoring structures that support practitioner-scholars in non-traditional or part-time doctoral pathways.