Student voice, namely the institutionalisation of students' contributions to the evaluation, and increasingly, the day-to-day running of higher education, has a wide-ranging influence. It shapes the concerns of management and academics; it changes the organisation and content of degree courses and, at times, challenges authority. Through her…

This is a response to Liggett's (2014) call to implement "deliberate democracy" in English language education classrooms. While the concept of participating in deliberate democracy is a solid ideal and worthy of pursuit, I present questions and scenarios that illustrate the complicated nature of the tasks. By sharing my…

Concerned that various reforms promising greater professional autonomy and status as well as student success are actually disempowering teachers, impoverishing intellectual life in schools, and serving as a portal for the marketization of teaching and education, editors invited teachers to respond to the ways in which the proliferation of…

Actions that promote confirmation and empowerment of parents, students, and teachers improve the learning climate. The school principal plays a pivotal role in generating a positive atmosphere that encourages such actions. (IAH)

To witness greater success with technology, educators should begin their planning with a set of assumptions that consider staff fears and frustrations. Staff's personal needs include control, creativity, caring, challenge, and commitment. Professional needs include empowerment, time, assistance, leadership, communication, and opportunity. (MLH)

Most instructors today feel that using computers in classrooms to create electronic forums automatically results in a more egalitarian setting, but technology can become an effective cloak for otherwise oppressive practices. These settings can potentially reinscribe dominant ideologies, stifling students rather than empowering them. These…

School choice means instant empowerment for those who receive it, and it significantly alters the relation of chooser and chosen. Six distinguishable sets of positive and negative dynamics that the provision of choice in schools seems to set in motion are discussed. (BJV)

Presents five individual narratives which describe the internal struggles experienced by teachers in resolving the empowerment issue, while learning to support and trust their students' learning. (MM)

Uses ecological perspective to discuss the basic needs of young homeless or transient children and how early-childhood practitioners can meet their immediate and long-term needs. Presents suggestions for supporting homeless/transient children in the classroom. Discusses how empowering teachers can create more positive attitudes toward, and…

This paper addresses the decline of teacher, student, and parental power over the past several decades and the importance of moving away from the remedial models of teaching at-risk learners to approaches which accelerate their achievement. It supports the need for collaborative ventures, and especially those which join the power of teachers and…

This paper investigates the importance of responsible teaching, examining how professionally empowered teachers can move students in the direction of becoming empowered and independent learners. It explains that empowerment is integral within teacher education. Teachers must provide minimum conditions for success in terms of responsible teaching…

The narratives of three Mexican immigrants to El Rincon, a fictitious name for a California town, illustrate the process of empowerment fostered by education. Narratives include those of a mother, a fourth-grade teacher, and a high school student aspiring to an engineering degree. Cultural context, working conditions, and the role of language in…

This series of roundtable papers explores the attempt of writing instructors to empower students by teaching them both to write within the discourse of the academic community and to write critically against it, resisting its accepted forms of thought and discourse. (CJS)

Schools of choice, which enable families to select among deliberately diversified schools and programs, benefit teachers. They facilitate empowerment, professionalization of practice, collaborative activity, and collegiality. The choice debate in Minnesota is reviewed, and issues confronting stakeholders are discussed. Educators should be…

This personal report of classroom experiences at an urban commuter college relates the experiences of a teacher and a group of working-class students studying the book "Utopia," which is also the metaphor for the hoped-for learning experience. The book, illustrated by excerpts from student-submitted work, shows how pedagogical theory leads to…