Family-professional partnership is an essential component of the special education process for children with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD). However, many families face barriers to participation in the special education process. Latino families especially face systemic barriers when participating in educational…

This study aims to unfold the framework of empowerment pedagogy by describing an approach of listening to the children, supporting their rights, and enhancing participation through the lens of a learning community. The authors draw from the literature that acknowledges children as active agents and supports them in participating in their daily…

Competency education, an educator-led reform, is taking root in schools and districts across the country. In some states, state leadership has cleared the path with policies to advance competency education. This paper seeks to map out the terrain of the district implementation strategies being used to convert traditional systems into personalized,…

This paper focuses on child-initiated pedagogy that is based on the process of co-construction of learning experiences between children, adults and the environment, being part of longitudinal research project that analyses child-initiated pedagogies in formal early years settings with 3-6-year-old children. Drawing on an ethnographic approach this…

This study investigated the relationships of teacher efficacy, perceived organizational control, and the teacher-student age gap with teachers' retirement attitudes. Stratified random sampling was adopted to collect survey responses. A total of 498 valid surveys from 33 elementary schools were collected. Correlational analyses revealed significant…

This article, grounded in the belief that art is a way of understanding, describes when faculty asked young people of various ages to draw themselves as writers. Several examples of students' work are coupled with a discussion and a rationale for integrating drawing into the assessment process. Asking students to draw, write, and talk about their…

This study used a semi-structured interview tool with elementary students in an inclusive charter school in a western state in the United States. Students with and without disabilities were asked to comment on their participation in their classroom and their perceptions of the classroom climate in order to begin a dialogue with their teachers that…

The idea of collective decision making in schools has been a popular democratic educational reform model. One of its claims is that participation in school decision making empowers teachers and improves teaching. This research investigates this claim by exploring seven teachers' experiences with a unique democratic school reform in Porto Alegre,…

The principle of "pupil voice" has attained a high profile over the past decade and its key principles of encouraging pupil consultation and participation are evident in official policy and guidance in many countries around the world. While there has been official endorsement of the notions that pupils have a right to voice their…

This article discusses how a radical approach to teacher education encourages both pre-service teachers and high school students to embrace a paradoxical model of leadership. A project that positions high school students as teachers and learners in an undergraduate secondary teacher certification course challenges pre-service teachers to learn to…

Purpose: To investigate the extent to which secondary schools practiced aspects of total quality management (TQM). Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. A sample of 300 teachers in a residential session during a school holiday provided their perceptions on the practice of TQM in their schools. Data…

Participatory education is a collective effort in which the participants are committed to building a just society through individual and socieoeconomic transformation and to ending domination through changing power relations. This book describes participatory practices in many environments, including educational and penal institutions,…

Youth development lies at the heart of the Workforce Investment Act and the Youth Opportunity Movement. Like employment training programs for adults, employment training programs for youth should focus on acquisition of skills, gainful employment, and productive citizenship. Beyond these three characteristics, it is essential that programs for…