This book explores the wide range of contexts in which research into creating connections in learning and teaching may take place. Creating connections can encompass making links, crossing divides, forming relationships, building frameworks, and generating new knowledge. The cognitive, cultural, social, emotional and/or physical aspects of understanding, meaning-making, motivating, acting, researching, and evaluating are explored as constituent forms of creativity in relation to such connections. From this exploration the authors identify varied connective contexts and means which include the learner, the educator, the organisation, and the relevant community. The crossing of divides, forming learner-educator relationships, bringing together diverse groups of learners, establishing networks and partnerships among educators, and establishing links between organisations and communities are all considered as connections which can be created by and within the learning and teaching dynamic. By examining the factors which help to facilitate and/or restrict the possibilities for creating connections in educational contexts, implications for and outcomes of learning and/or teaching arise from the connections created. The final chapter of this book will explicate the realisations that have emerged for educators and researchers working to create connections. These offer suggestions for future directions and enunciate what and how connections might contribute to both educational institutions and the broader society.

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface, Lindy Abawi, Joan M. Conway, and Robyn Henderson. Foreword, Bryan T. Connors. Acknowledgements. About the Authors. Exposing Threads: Creating Connections in Teaching and Learning, Robyn Henderson, Lindy Abawi, and Joan M. Conway. SECTION I: CONNECTING WITHIN SCHOOL CONTEXTS. Connecting Early Childhood Educators, Action Research, and Teaching for Social Justice, Karen Hawkins. Inspire to Connect a Learning Desire, Brad McLennan and Karen Peel. Shared Values Connecting Parents, Teachers, and Students, J. Anne Casley. Engaging Students Through Student Voice: Negotiating Pedagogy, Ian Fraser. Relational Trust as a Core Resource for Building Capacity in Schools, Richard Scagliarini. International Teachers Making Connections in Times of Change, Marie Davis. SECTION II: CONNECTING BEYOND SCHOOL CONTEXTS. Enhancing Relationships in Doctoral Student Supervision: Shibboleths, Signifiers, and Strategies, P. A. Danaher and Henriette van Rensburg. Productive Partnerships: Cross-Departmental Connections in a Tertiary Context, Karen Noble and Robyn Henderson. Addressing Offshore Disconnection's Between Chinese and Western Business Academics and Students, Joe Peng Zhou and Cec Pedersen. Curriculum Connections: Lessons from Post-Compulsory Vocational Education and Training, Lindsay Parry, R. E. (Bobby) Harreveld and P. A. Danaher. SECTION III: MAKING MEANING FROM LIVED EXPERIENCES. Look Who’s Listening: Using the Superaddressee for Understanding Connections in Dialogue, Warren Midgley. Effective Cluster Collaborations: Transformation Through School and University Connections, Joan M. Conway and Lindy Abawi. Linking Pedagogical Documentation to Phenomenological Research, Laurie Kocher. Juggling Research with Teaching: Building Capacity in a University Research Team, Margaret Baguley and Helmut Geiblinger. Sharing Japanese and Australian Culture: A Case Study in Second Language Learning, Junichi Hatai and Robert D. White. SECTION IV: MAKING VIRTUAL CONNECTIONS. A New Zealand Tertiary Educator’s Online Journey, C. E. Haggerty. Connecting Learners in Virtual Space: Forming Learning Communities, Lyn Brodie and Peter Gibbings. Bridging a Discipline Divide Through the Lens of Community of Inquiry, Petrea Redmond and Christine McDonald. Finding the Right Online Learning Connections: Comparing Models in Practice, Tina van Eyk. Linking the Threads: Creating Clearer Connections, Lindy Abawi, Joan M. Conway, and Robyn Henderson.