As 'self-law', autonomy contributes to people's psychological health and helps secure meaning in one's life. Within higher education, it enables students to navigate this environment and prepare for professional life, empowering them to take ownership of their learning and development goals. Autonomy is multidimensional, encompassing the local…

This article tells the story of a university community engagement project that began in the late spring of 2020 when the world went into lockdown. Increased concern over women's welfare and well-being was brought into question in relation to those who are vulnerable with complex needs and had suffered societal-induced hardships. In conjunction…

In this collaborative autoethnography, three female professors sought to reflect on personal discoveries from their recent research examining the benefits of women supporting women in academia. The findings of their study indicated that women who are mentored and supported by other women in academia feel empowered to continue with this work…

This article provides a foundational framework for understanding student leadership training. The authors categorize the article into three key areas: the "who" defines student leadership trainers as educators who intentionally foster leadership development, with a strong focus on identity exploration, leadership knowledge, and…

Many music educators view activism through the gaze and experience of the U.S. civil rights movement and the protests of the 1960s. This article examines how two Brooklyn, New York-based music educators engage in activism in their school communities by centering student identity and cultivating joyful musical experiences. The authors share their…

We explore the history and position of the foundational communication course (FCC) in communication education. The material impact of calling the course basic since the 1940s has caused internalized oppression, which results in a lack of innovation and general disempowerment. The use of the term basic to describe the foundational communication…

This paper addresses the issues of knowledge production, which interrogate and disrupt dominant narratives that subjugate Black females related to their identity. We contextualize our discussion through the lens of critical consciousness and critical media literacy by exploring the role of popular media in identity development/imposition for Black…

This paper examines the development of a 'pedagogical voice', based on feminist pedagogy, among female teacher trainees after one year of supervision and study. The underlying assumption was that the development of a pedagogical voice needs certain learning conditions that help in strengthening awareness of the patriarchal learning culture, as…

Much of social research in language learning in the past twenty years has been devoted to explore issues of identity construction and its sociological implications in terms of mobility and inclusiveness. There are a large number of studies on the areas of culture and identity, and how they relate to the investment and empowerment of language…

Education is naturally transformative, but the acquisition of new skills and construction of new knowledge are only possible when we empower students instead of forcing their conformity. Our current compliance-based teaching methodologies rely on coercion, conditioning and external motivators that engender submission and fear in students and…

Among many challenges in the space of education in the global South, we find that curricula are often out of touch with the contextual reality of students and that classroom or lecture-hall sizes are too big to engage a critical majority. Therefore, reimagining educational processes, or aspects thereof, becomes imperative. This article proposes…

This paper considers the work of James Gee as a methodological lens for conceiving of the teacher-writer identity. Gee's (2000) Four Ways to View Identity are employed to examine the way that teachers discuss their writing identity. The paper reports on findings from a broader qualitative study that examined the writer identity in subject English…

Scholarship underscores the experiences of Appalachian students who must confront a social reality that consistently expects less from them because of their circumstances and the narratives surrounding their social context (Collins, 2020; Piene et al., 2020). Traditionally, the Appalachian people have been viewed by educators from a deficit…

The personal essay remains pervasive in high school classrooms, but many curriculum leaders have shifted to stressing the importance of evidence-based, argumentative writing. Some teachers have rightfully lamented this shift, noting that the evidence-based turn in writing instruction comes at the expense of student voice and expression. Students…

Contemporary school contexts present challenges for novice teachers seeking to support students' literacy development by bringing content into dialogue with students' lives. These challenges, framed as wobble moments, often contribute to high rates of teacher attrition. However, dialogue with peers, colleagues, and mentors can help teachers learn…