The importance of student engagement in schools is ever-increasing, particularly in the middle years area. Student achievement is directly linked to a student's level of engagement. Middle years teachers have a responsibility to work hard to understand the needs of their adolescent students, establish connections with their students, and provide…

This "Quick Fix" describes the author's use of a single-use "Life Happens Waiver" as a modification of an otherwise typical late work policy. The strategy is intended to empower students, to establish rapport, and to provide a combination of structure and flexibility that enables students to meet learning goals.

Many educational researchers discuss policy implications of their work and aspire to have an impact on policy. However, shaping policy requires academics to step away from the "comfort zone" of critique in the academy and into the world of politics, where they must act in unfamiliar ways and understand their role and positioning as…

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has administered the "Cultivate" Survey, a rigorously developed student voice survey that captures students' experiences of their learning conditions, twice annually (fall and spring) since the 2022-2023 academic year. "Cultivate" is grounded in extensive research on youth development, finding…

Because most instructional communication research has been conducted within the United States, the purpose of this study was to develop an enhanced understanding of the student--instructor relationship outside the United States using the instructional beliefs model and rhetorical and relational goals theory. Specifically, we examined the effects…

There now exists a sizeable body of work around student voice, predominantly through the intervention of researchers. However, given the critical role of teachers in the fruition of student voice efforts, there is a need to further our understanding of such efforts carried out by teachers themselves, particularly within non-Western contexts. Using…

Mainstream secondary school can be a challenging environment for autistic students, in part due to social and sensory factors. Research to date has focussed on identifying the negative aspects of school experience; however, few studies have identified factors that promote positive experiences. We take a neuro-affirmative approach when exploring…

Semi-structured interviews with 22 faculty at a fronterizx HSI located at the U.S.-Mexico border revealed the ways faculty perceive, enact, and engage with servingness practice. Findings provide critical insights into the relationship between servingness and faculty as empowerment agents through three culturally relevant themes:…

Background: Active learning, on average, increases student performance in STEM courses. Yet, there is also large variation in the effectiveness of these implementations. A consistent goal of active learning is moving students towards becoming active constructors of their knowledge. This emphasis means student engagement is of central importance.…

One of the biggest challenges on a college campus is finding a way to bring student voice to faculty in a way that is not intimidating to the students and creates a safe space for faculty to talk about their practices and how it affects students. This is a challenge that the author has faced as the director of Faculty LIFE (Learning Innovation and…

This article investigates the roles of language teachers in a language and integration programme in Denmark. The results show that the teachers' work goes beyond the role of language teacher per se. The teachers are shown to take on the role of integration workers, who, as part of the integration system, contri­bute to socializing the students…

In Chinese vocational colleges, students often avoid classroom challenges and lack persistent academic engagement. This was perceived as a deficiency in self-efficacy and a need for greater teacher-student engagement. The rapid advancement of information technology in educational contexts indicates that the dynamics among teacher support,…

In recent years, there has been a growth in the amount of literature and a resurgence of interest in what Jools Page identified as 'professional love'. This research builds upon and extends Page's work considering what love looks like in practice and describing a 'loving pedagogy'. Despite recent research, love is still seldom talked about in the…

This article looks at a specific intervention carried out with forty young children over the course of an academic year. The aim of the intervention was to give opportunities for creative thinking, with the ultimate goal of promoting learning free from preconceptions and judgements of ability. The intervention resulted in learning through…

To encourage student empowerment, teachers must recognize and discuss the tension between their own instructional power and students' power and agency--especially in the fraught area of grading. To truly invest students with power in learning, educators must ask the tricky question of whether they are willing to give kids more ownership over the…