Interactive fiction has great potential for use in schools, providing engaging and empowering opportunities for learning and literacy. Experiences with interactive fiction provide two key components lacking in contemporary storytelling mediums: autonomy (the ability to act and change on its own) and interactivity (or the ability to think and react…

This article attempts to explore why and how student involvement is a necessary, but under-developed and under-utilised strategy for enhancing quality distance education in South Africa. Any critical analysis of education in South Africa needs to consider the historical and current social contexts, and in this case the analysis needs to explain…

This brief addresses how to engage and mobilize young people in order to prepare them for when disaster strikes. Perhaps more importantly, this brief seeks to do so in sustainable ways to avoid desensitizing youth to the effects of disaster, and prevent wavering attention. There are two ways to serve students--help them when disaster strikes their…

Although there is no lack of interest in social action among children, educators often lack necessary skills and experience. Teaching citizenship involvement requires not a new curriculum, but extension of a subject into real life. To succeed, teachers must grasp four concepts (problem, process, products, and presentation) hinging on students'…

Responds to an article in the same issue of this journal describing a high school play director's use of "democratic" directing methods. Explores questions about methodology and study design and the role of the researcher in examining her own practice. Argues that the study makes a strong contribution to the field, especially for those involved in…

Student self-assessment is a popular practice for enhancing student empowerment in the assessment process. However, in recent times various writers have questioned whether the practice of student self-assessment automatically enhances student autonomy. Some writers have even warned that students' participation in the assessment process may…

The Youth Empowerment Strategies (YES!) project is an afterschool empowerment program and research project for underserved early adolescents. Central to YES! is an empowerment intervention that provides early adolescents with opportunities for civic engagement with other youth around issues of shared concern in their schools and neighborhoods.…

A popular term in contemporary special education circles is "empowerment," but what does it actually mean to be an empowered individual? Although many definitions exist in the literature and include such terms such as self-determination and self-advocacy, at the core of empowerment is the understanding that an individual is truly empowered the…

Evaluated classrooms within four Accelerated Schools Project (ASP) schools, operationalizing the ASP principles, values, and concepts of a "powerful learning environment" (PLE), examining how similarly PLE was implemented in different classrooms and schools, and analyzing the relation between degree of implementation and differences in…

In the current educational reform movement, schools have become the new scapegoat for the American economy's increasing failure to compete in the world market. The Bush Administration needs to articulate a vision linking public education to democratic imperatives, rather than the marketplace's narrow demands. Education for empowerment should be a…

National Issues Forums enables citizens to teach themselves about issues and encourages reflective action and informed public policy. The Tennessee Home Economics Association used the forum approach to involve students in environmental discussions and develop leadership skills. (SK)

Describes how the author used "democratic" directing methods in her after-school play rehearsals of Shakespeare to help high school students navigate the shifting space between their own creative freedom and the conventional confines of a public high school. Details her use of unorthodox rehearsal strategies involving student…

A study investigated the efficacy of an intervention model to promote student involvement in transition planning. The intervention included coaching youth in student-directed planning skills to achieve transition goals, peer-based mentorship and parent support, and in-service education for staff. Participants demonstrated significant increases in…

Colleges and universities face a variety of challenges in meeting the needs of students, and one of the greatest is their ability to respond to student needs while protecting institutional and academic integrity. For those working with students, a primary example of this challenge is the involvement of students in shared decision-making, a process…

This guide provides teachers with a nine-step process to empower students to plan and implement civic participation projects in their community. The guide lists the materials students need and outlines the procedures for guiding students in the civic action project. It suggests that the teacher: (1) decide on a project in advance; (2) introduce…