ABSTRACT
The articles contained in this issue are an outstanding tribute to Jan Hawkins the scholar, the researcher, and the person. Like most special people Jan found many ways to have an impact on those around her. In commenting on the connection of these works and Jan’s life we highlight three themes of her guiding ethos. As Jan did, the work in this issue urges us to consider the power of diversity to facilitate our understanding and improvement of the social world, the transformative nature of powerful tools on practice, and the reports described here place in stark relief the propositions that a commitment to improvement should lie at the very foundation of the science and research on teaching and learning. In the following paragraphs, we highlight each theme as it occurs in this issue and connect it to Jan’s life and work. And, Roy reflects on how the settings he shared with Jan Hawkins, at Rockefeller University (1977-1979) and Bank Street College (1981-1986), provided important theoretical and methodological influences on her orientation that we can continue to learn from today.
