In dialogue with science education and learning sciences research, in this article we develop a disciplinary-specific view on youth and community agency for community-based technology education. Cultivating agency is a central principle in our design and empirical study of the Young People's Race, Power, and Technology Program (YPRPT), a program…

Critical pedagogues advocate a constructivist approach to learning emphasising the self-directed construction of knowledge from the learners' experiences while also expecting students to develop an explicit critique of the social order. However, the use of a constructivist approach for the pursuit of explicit ideological goals leaves educators…

This article explores the usefulness of detective role-play as a research method to facilitate young children's critical thinking. The study examines four specifically designed detective play experiences, adopting an ethical rights-based approach to research with children. This qualitative multiple-case study is grounded in play-based pedagogy…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine effects of the human aspects of the learning organisation (i.e. continuous learning; inquiry and dialogue; team collaboration and learning; and employee empowerment) on the performance of a public university's administrative staff. Differences in the human aspects of the learning organisation…

Despite growing studies on Appreciative Inquiry (AI), rooted in positive psychology, its application in a research laboratory and its associated impact on students' mental health and well-being are underexplored. Thus, this study explores how a positive environment affects students' mental health and wellbeing. Interpretive descriptions guided the…

There is an overwhelming presence and dominance of white-centric methodologies in educational research. To create necessary re-envisionings, we theorize how approaches to methodology can be disrupted and rethought through Black feminisms, Chicana feminism and Womanism. While each are distinct in their standpoints and contours, they have strong…

Purpose: There is a need for precollege learning designs that empower youth to be epistemic agents in contexts that intersect burgeoning areas of computing, big data and social media. The purpose of this study is to explore how "sandbox" or open-inquiry data science with social media supports learning. Design/methodology/approach: This…

Scientific inquiry has been advocated as a common curriculum goal in school science education in South Africa, and also throughout the world. In South Africa, the introduction of inquiry-based instruction in a reformed science curriculum has met with serious challenges, such as the under-preparedness of in-service teachers. The purpose of this…

Purpose: Empowering students has become one of the primary goals of education in the 21st century. The current trend of education is moving towards student-centred and independent learning. The core success of student empowerment lies in the teaching and learning approaches used to engage students. Thus, the present study aims to examine how…

While a renewed national dialog promotes the importance of science education for future technological and economic viability, students must find science personally relevant to themselves and their communities if the goals set forth in recent reform movements are to be achieved. In this paper, we investigate how incorporating an ecological…

The central focus of this multilayered educational action research project was three-fold: (1) to provide opportunities for public school student leadership activities grounded in participatory and youth participatory action research; (2) to support a group of teacher-researchers in practicing and innovating in participatory action research…

The authors of this article explore democratic practices in the classroom by using student-selected literature. After multiple class sets of student-selected young adult novels were purchased using grant money, the authors set out to see what happens in a classroom when student choice is at the forefront of pedagogical decision-making and how…

Current cutting-edge research conveys that pedagogical change using models-based practice and integration of digital technology (DT) to enable teaching and learning is most successful when supported by a learning community. Overall, the research literature acknowledges that empowering teachers to believe in themselves and their ability to tackle…

This study sought to understand challenges that teachers (N = 15) in poverty settings encountered during information literacy instruction (ILI) and inquiry-based learning. First order barriers focused on insufficient support for instruction (training to align ILI in poverty settings; integrate diverse information resources/technology tools),…

This paper reports on a study that investigated the potential of using Appreciative Inquiry for exploring the development of three beginning science teachers in the Solomon Islands. Using the four phases of an Appreciative Inquiry framework, the teachers followed a process that allowed their strengths to be identified through the analysis of their…