The idea that children are not objects nor subjects but participants constitutes children as social actors with a part to play in their own educational processes and research connected to these processes. As a consequence, there is growing awareness that knowledge about children should be constituted on the basis of listening and hearing them.…

Service-learning is a wide-spread educational strategy in K-16 education. Currently 64% of all public schools and 83% of public high schools have community service. Researchers have proclaimed the many benefits of service learning in terms of student empowerment, but does it have the power to create a counter-hegemony that provides an alternative…

This article presents a model for conceptualising learner involvement in online environments. It takes as its starting point the emerging approach to service-user engagement in public-sector change in the United Kingdom. This is focused upon civic inclusion and empowered decision making. In turn this personalisation is related to issues…

This manual, accompanied by a 22-minute videotape recording, provides information for constructing an Individualized Transition Plan as a component of Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings for secondary students with disabilities. The video, based on an actual IEP meeting with a student and his parents, illustrates a meeting that focuses…

IndTech, "Independence through Technology," is a program in the New York City Public Schools (District 75) in which special-needs students mass produce adaptive devices for special-needs students of that district. Discussion includes research and development, the production sites, and empowerment of all participants. (AEF)

This paper constructs a history of empowerment and critical pedagogies in U.S. composition studies, building on the idea that critical pedagogies arise out of social constructs and exigencies, and they are not divorced from the realities of students' academic concerns and growths. Primary sources for the paper are table of contents pages in…

The Gulf of Maine Institute (GOMI) is striving to empower youth to take on stewardship roles in their communities. Through its Community Based Initiative (CBI) program, GOMI addresses environmental degradation by working with teams of students, teachers, and community members from around the Gulf of Maine to inspire youth to be stewards of the…

This booklet addresses student membership on local boards of education. It is intended to serve as guide for boards considering adding youth to their membership. It discusses the following topics: (1) the benefits to both students and the board of youth serving as board members; (2) researching issues before accepting students on boards; (3)…

Discusses the move toward teaching strategies designed to empower students, sharing one university professor's experiences with a cooperative learning method of student assessment in a teacher training multicultural education course that utilized an empowering model. (SM)

To promote empowerment, student teachers participated in service learning projects. They had received training for service learning and thus knew more about it than did their cooperating teachers. So they were empowered as leaders in the student teacher setting. Factors contributing to successful empowerment included student teacher initiative and…

Suggests that student affairs professionals must continue to encourage ethnic minority students to become widely involved in student governance activities. Notes that this involvement will help to foster an environment that promotes human growth and development; it will also aid the institution in retaining these students. (Author)

Teachers and students must become empowered to be active participants in educational improvement and school decision making. They need opportunities to develop professionally. Empowered schools and their principals are very different from schools with little empowerment. Their principals understand how to foster empowering environments. Empowered…

Collaborative, shared leadership among administrators, students, faculty, and staff is a key component to creating campus environments that foster student success. Collaborative work groups can be powerful vehicles for launching and institutionalizing student-friendly policies and practices and for developing complementary programs such as…

An approach to assessment is described that allows students to understand and help decide the criteria for good work. It is called "negotiable contracting." Negotiable contracting consists of giving students shared ownership in their own learning. The teacher serves as a facilitator of discussion of the assessment process. Students and the…

Seventh grade students in three schools in different communities in the Midwest were described by parents and teachers as not exhibiting acceptable responsibility for their own learning and not showing respect or ownership for their learning environments. This paper describes a program designed for improving these students' responsibility for…