This article explores some of the theoretical underpinnings of radical approaches to student voice and examines a number of practical issues we need to address if we wish to move towards a more transformative future. The framework within which the notion of voice is explored and critiqued falls primarily into two categories. The first,…

This paper examines how to incorporate a feminist pedagogy into teaching World Regional Geography in order to empower students to seek social change. This paper also addresses the fragile relationships that develop in the feminist classroom, such as challenging students' inherent prejudices in a safe and comfortable setting.

Multiculturally congruent classroom learning environments have remained elusive in United States higher education as colleges strive to recruit, retain, and educate an increasingly diverse population. Frustrations run high amongst domestic and international students of color who find collegiate classrooms in the United States difficult to…

In this dissertation, I study how Taiwanese vocational students as an oppressed group within the higher education system perceive, interpret, adapt or resist, and struggle to change the inequitable social structure. The theoretical framework in this research is constructed from Paulo Freire's ideas in "Pedagogy of the Oppressed,"…

The present study explored the ways in which the production of digital media, specifically podcasts (i.e., downloadable digital audio files), rooted in the key tenets of critical literacy, can support education for democracy, in addition to the overall benefits and barriers of podcasting in an elementary classroom. The project can be considered a…

Yes We Can: Improving Urban Schools through Innovative Educational Reform is a empirically-based book on urban education reform to not only proclaim that hope is alive for urban schools, but to also produce a body of literature that examines current practices and then offer practical implications for all involved in this arduous task. This book is…

Originating as counter normative pedagogies, both service-learning and critical pedagogies hold a common commitment to subvert and transform facets of school life that may alienate and oppress students. This article explores how critical pedagogies and service-learning might provide complementary benefits and become a more compelling emancipatory…

Argumentation skills are frequently touted as archetypal tools of democratic empowerment, yet theorization of ways to use such tools to achieve concrete social change is rare. As a result, the emancipatory "telos" anchoring American academic policy debate tends to gallop ahead of practical efforts to build empowerment through the debate…

Explores literacy performances as a way for students to empower themselves and effect social change. Describes a literacy group called Story Time in a youth-run center for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youths. Concludes that literacy performances are a way into opportunities for social change for any marginalized reader and…

Empowering children to use the Internet safely and responsibly is essential. Students can also be taught to communicate positively with others. The CyberSmart! School Program offers a framework that teachers can use to discuss the Internet with students and raise awareness. Tips regarding etiquette, advertising, and privacy protection are also…

Argues that the artists workshop, a parallel approach to readers-writers workshop, empowers children to express inner thoughts and feelings and helps students and teachers form a classroom community of learners. Describes routines of the workshop, the ways in which writing and literature connect to art, and the climate that encourages children to…

Describes a teaching framework that allows instructors to become facilitators rather than the knowledge source; it also encourages social construction of knowledge and independence. Cites the seven stages of EMPOWER: elicit, monitor, pose, organize, web, engage, and reflect. Notes that these stages take students through a prereading strategy, a…

Examines empowerment as a communicative process among teachers and students at a Midwestern Montessori school. Explores the praxis of empowerment in the organizational context of three Montessori classrooms. Observes the praxis of empowerment in three specific areas: the nature of the environment; the management of discipline; and the social…

Explores possible causes of low durability and impact for minority mentoring programs. Recommends designing such programs with a conceptual base to ensure meaningful goals and practices. Emphasizes designing programs based on a cogent definition of mentoring, reflection on roles within mentoring relationships, and consideration of cultural and…

Outlines "Bullybusters," a psychoeducational drama developed by a school's counseling and drama departments. The program depicts the negative consequences of the various forms of bullying, while informing students how they might overcome bullying's adverse effects. Subsequent classroom discussion sessions were successful in getting students to…