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This study examines the challenges and successes of implementing and sustaining lesson study (LS) as an approach to in-service teacher professional development (PD) in primary schools in Portugal and England, highlighting the impact of institutional contexts.

Two schools that used LS as an approach to PD over a period of at least three years were identified. The theoretical framework of institutionalism guided the methodology and analysis of findings, seeking to explore relationships between institutionalised PD practices at national and school level, and how interactions between actors in schools helped or hindered the institutionalism of LS. The qualitative case studies included document analysis, observations of LS practices and interviews with teachers and leaders engaging in LS.

The findings reveal the importance of institutional entrepreneurs, who create a narrative to support LS, allocate resources to enable it and create a “relational space”, in which it can be tested and tweaked before sharing with others in the school. An institutional entrepreneur is particularly vital when national regulatory frameworks prescribe specific PD types that are not conducive to LS (such as in Portugal). However, even in more open frameworks, the entrepreneur needs to frame the LS model to fit institutionalised expectations.

This study, with its analysis of strategies that support sustained use of LS in schools, advances the growing field of LS research. This field of research is moving its focus from short-term LS projects that concentrate on immediate impact on teachers and students, to a sustainable approach that uses LS for in-service, school-based teacher PD, a practice with a long history in Japan.

In this chapter, the author makes the case for how disability affects a family and, therefore, that clinicians should adopt a wider lens when providing treatment to disabled clients. In the review of research findings on disability in the family, there are three parts: (a) models of disability, (b) disabled children, and (c) disabled adults. In the next section, the author presents ideas from medical family therapy (MFT) and discusses family systems models that provide a structure for thinking about a family’s response to disability in any of its members. Brief case examples throughout the chapter illustrate how families are involved in an individual member’s disability. Implications for clinicians include knowing the core tenets and common factors of family systems therapy; familiarity with disability affirmative therapy; attention to the reality of microaggressions and courtesy stigma; comfort with disability topics such as pain, fatigue, and sexuality; having an accessible practice; thinking systemically; and the ability to hold all the parts of the family and the disability in one place.

This research analyzes accountants’ perception of the normative legitimacy of accounting reforms in local governments across Latin America.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 accountants from seven Latin American countries. This qualitative, inductive and interpretive study employs a comparative thematic analysis.

The results show that accountants in the analyzed Latin American countries have different perceptions about convergence to IPSAS and accounting standards legitimacy, which may affect IPSAS implementation and application in the countries.

The research focuses on the accountant’s perception as one of the agents of change in accounting reform. It offers an in-depth analysis of the IPSAS adoption process and highlights factors to consider in the development of the accounting reform.