ERIC Number: EJ1030977
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Aug
Pages: 39
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-161X
EISSN: N/A
How Listening to Student Voices Informs and Strengthens Social Justice Research and Practice
Mansfield, Katherine Cumings
Educational Administration Quarterly, v50 n3 p392-430 Aug 2014
Purpose: The purpose of this research article is to illustrate the value of including students' voices in educational leadership and research practices, to more fully understand what students are actually experiencing in transformative learning spaces, and to determine what we might learn from them in terms of how to improve both leadership practice and our research efforts. Method: The first 2 years of an ongoing ethnography used participant observation, photography, a student survey, and focus group interviews to discover and describe the emergent school culture and the lived experiences of female secondary students in a single-sex public magnet school. Findings: Findings illumine why the young women in this study chose to attend an all-female STEM academy and what makes their schooling experiences at this particular school different from their prior experiences. Students' voices also bring to the fore unintended negative consequences associated with attending a school devoted to social justice praxis and point to the ways leadership practices must evolve to provide an even more powerful, transformative learning space that better meet students' needs. Implications: Findings have implications for leadership preparation programs as well as continuing professional development. That is, true transformative and social justice leadership is not static or linear. Rather, it is a fluid process that is dialectical and requires adaptation based on new knowledge and interaction with people and with systems. Moreover, findings implicate the need for educational leadership researchers concerned with social justice to include listening to students' voices in their research endeavors to more adequately capture the lived experiences of students as well as promote more inclusive research and practice.
Descriptors: Secondary School Students, Females, Single Sex Schools, Magnet Schools, Ethnography, Participant Observation, Photography, Student Surveys, Focus Groups, School Culture, Student Experience, STEM Education, Social Justice, Instructional Leadership, Transformative Learning
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A