The purpose of this study was to explore how teacherpractitioners in a Canadian middle school perceive students' experiences of well-being in student-led service learning projects (SLPs). Through semistructured interviews, we explored five school practitioners' accounts of how SLPs contributed to student relating and functioning in a well-being…

In recent years, digital fabrication, and especially its associated activities of 3D design and printing, have taken root in school education as curriculum-based and maker-oriented learning activities. This article explores the adoption of 3D design and printing for learning by fourth, fifth and sixth grade children (n=64) in multidisciplinary…

As institutions strive to improve teaching and learning for all, educators must consider equitable instruction. This includes equitable distributions of authority and agency among students. The authors define distribution of authority as shared opportunities for decision-making in enacting mathematical tasks and agency as the power to carry out…

This paper describes one child voice enabling strategy that allowed children in sixth class in an urban primary school in Ireland to have a say in the organisation of their learning. The lack of involvement that children have in the organisation of their school week was questioned and this prompted an investigation into a new approach to enabling…

This study explores the association between school-level poverty rates and young peoples' perceptions of student empowerment, drawing on survey and administrative data from a large urban district. Participants included 29,318 diverse youth in grades 6-12 from 211 schools. We used multilevel linear regression models to estimate the relationships…

Building on the various works of theorists pertaining to curriculum negotiation, the Negotiated Integrated Curriculum (NIC) initiative detailed in this article attempts to redress the imbalance within curricular decision-making whereby student voice and learner agency is largely absent. The NIC initiative enquires into students' concerns about…

This study examines the experiences of 15 Latinx sixth-grade students in Los Angeles who participated in a yearlong journalism-based media literacy program embedded in their social studies classes. Students researched, interviewed, wrote, and published articles on the Internet about social justice themes, like immigration, racism, and LGBTQ…

The barriers to school attendance that affect young Aboriginal people in Australia are diverse, immense and well documented; however, except for a handful of studies, Aboriginal students' voices receive no platform for policy makers to hear them. In this paper, we present results from yarning circles about barriers to school attendance conducted…

As middle school teachers, the authors want their students to develop voice and agency because they want them to be able to make productive decisions about how to approach mathematics, communicate mathematics, and use mathematics to interpret and transform the world in which they live. They use this article to present two vignettes that examine…

Conceptualizing educational inequality as equivalent to the "achievement gap" has fueled the expansion of no-excuses charters, which purport to raise test scores and thereby equalize opportunities for low-income students of color. In contrast, I argue that the individual provision of opportunity is inadequate to address the structural…

This paper aims at deepening the understanding of how the relation between home and school is negotiated in the mind of Grade 6 students attending an International Baccalaureate (IB) school in Qatar. Students reported mainly frustration and confusion. The Thematic Coding Analysis used in the study revealed two strategies students use to negotiate…

Research suggests that a girl's career interests in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) declines between grades 6 and 8. Similarly, in middle school, there is a decrease in physical activity among girls. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island (URI) conducted a chemistry-based science camp that took place…

The purpose of this research is to document and describe the experiences of 15 sixth-grade students in an urban, after-school program entitled Drama Through Reading (DTR), as they co-construct and recreate their interpretations of literature through performance. Through rigorous, systematic observation, listening, re-listening, and documentation…

This study examined the relationship between a middle school initiative to develop student voice, interpersonal relationships, and intrapersonal relationships and students' sense of belonging. The literature indicated a strong connection between students' sense of belonging in school and positive outcomes in and out of the classroom (Deci &…

In the fall of 2009, Van Meter Community School in Iowa adopted a one-to-one laptop initiative in grades 6-12 and a strong technology focus throughout the district. Since that time, an atmosphere of respect, creativity, collaboration, and connection as well as independent thinking and learning has prevailed at the school. Today, Van Meter has…