In times of deep crisis, the most powerful critical contemplative pedagogy available to us is that of supporting all children and youth in learning to teach and teaching to learn as a primary path toward self-realization, social inquiry and civic contribution. This vital opportunity should be made accessible to all students, regardless of…

To spur agency and critical thinking, educators can take steps to position students as knowledge builders rather than just consumers. Drawing on Indigenous pedagogy and her own work on the value of "street data" in education, author and consultant Shane Safir discusses the importance of creating more space for student voice in…

As of 2022, more than 400 students serve as members of state boards of education or state advisory councils in 33 states. Over the last five years, eight states have added at least one student member on their board, a state student advisory council, or a combination of board membership and advisory council. Although the number of students engaged…

This report aims to take the pulse of each vital element of digital learning and offer steps to recovery through child-centered, equity-driven and innovative solutions, particularly as technologies and digital learning have come center stage since COVID-19. The five interlinked vitals for effective digital learning proposed in this brief are: (1)…

In this article, we outline how we implemented an honors-level add-on course to complement standard university-level introductory physics courses. We explain why it was necessary to do this. We then explain the strategies we have adopted for attracting students, engaging them, and assessing their performance. Our goal in creating this course was…

Much has been written in recent years about research methods used when conducting research with and about children, with many approaches taking cognizance of the children's rights agenda. This article proposes adopting a philosophical approach, through Community of Philosophical Inquiry (CoPI), as a research method that pays attention to…

The purpose of this conceptual paper is to provide an overview of an alternative approach to advising Black students at Historically Black Colleges or Universities (HBCU). The appreciative advising approach assists advisors in not defining their students by their current and past situations. Rather, it embraces the unique individuality of each…

Using the techniques presented here, teachers can apply findings from neuroscience research to the classroom to support social-emotional learning.

Since 1987, the College of Health and Human Services at San Diego State University has facilitated two-way exchanges of information and service with the Republic of China, a model of a newly industrialized country of the Pacific Rim. The challenges of working creatively to educate the College and University to international opportunities with the…

To build collective teacher efficacy, teams must agree to (constructively) disagree, say assistant superintendent B.C. Preston and educator-author Jenni Donohoo. Leaders who mindfully organize team actions, alongside the team itself, empower teachers through processes and protocols to confront ineffective instruction and assessment practices--and…

People with intellectual disabilities (IDs) have experienced involuntary and inhumane research practices. Consequently, researchers have shifted towards "excluding" those with IDs; caregivers, teachers, or peers compose study samples, dominating a space they "indirectly" experience. Researcher bias regarding intellectual…

This chapter provides a framework for using life narratives as a powerful pedagogy to move youth from simple reflection to critical self-reflection. This increases learner agency, generates counter-narratives that challenge dominant norms, and increases learners' awareness of positionality.

Most social work students receive only limited instruction about disabilities in their general coursework despite a growing need for trained social workers in this area. In this paper, we argue that coursework dedicated to the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) needs to be implemented as an essential component of a…

The students at the author's alternative, academic-recovery school come from their base schools and at the author's school are able to rewrite their own school stories. Some of that rewriting naturally happens in the library. Many of the students have experiences at multiple schools, but it is not until they come to the author's school that many…

When student agency is amplified by the integration of modern technologies, students have great potential to solve real-world problems and learn in a deep and engaging way. And yet often schools are hesitant to provide students with true agency. Richardson looks at some powerful student projects and inventions that were possible through agency and…