This article discusses the advantages of student-led conferences for students with and without disabilities and their families, including increased student involvement, student goal-setting, student reflection, and student responsibility. It describes the steps and positive results from one school district that has adopted the student-led…

Argues that student ownership of drama/theatre work encourages an unparalleled level of commitment and collaboration. Discusses four criteria signifying student ownership; teacher reluctance towards student ownership; effective roles for the teacher; and student benefits from ownership in drama work. (SR)

Discusses Harmonium Inc., a community-based agency that counsels adolescents who are at moderate to high risk of developmental defeat because their behavior either threatens their health or jeopardizes their future. It is designed to assist these adolescents using a collaborative, strength-based counseling model built in the integrative capacity…

Describes an outdoor adventure and environmental program for young people in Cumbria (England) that aims to raise social and environmental awareness through ecological, artistic, and adventurous activities. Non-hierarchical, learner-centered residential and nonresidential projects empower young people to become interested in their local…

An adventure education program combines environmental education, character education, and service learning with ropes courses, orienteering, and rock climbing to offer Romanian youth opportunities for trust building and reconciliation in the wake of the economic, environmental, and moral devastation left by the Communist dictator. An ecotourism…

For site-based management to succeed, supervisors must progress from advising teachers to empowering them to make classroom changes. The author changed her communication style by becoming aware of the subtle yet powerful role of communication in school leadership, discovering how unconscious scripts interfered with empowerment efforts,…

According to National Center of Educational Statistics data, principals perceive that their influence on schoolwide issues has increased slightly (from 75% in 1987-88 to 85% in 1993-94). Teachers perceive their own influence as remaining the same and primarily confined to classrooms. Only 35% of teachers said they had considerable influence in…

The Family Empowerment Scale was completed by 161 families of children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) or SED along with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Results indicated that membership in a parent support group was a strong predictor of family empowerment, particularly of the systems advocacy and knowledge dimensions of…

Investigates the relationship among principal leadership power; teacher empowerment; teacher compliance; and conflict within self, with peers, and with the principal, based on a survey of 250 teachers. Factor analysis and regression analysis revealed a strong association for expert power and referent power with each conflict dimension and teacher…

Presents a theoretical systems model for computer-mediated conferencing. Discusses Habermas' criteria for emancipative discourse (i.e., liberation or emancipation is increasing a person's abilities and opportunities to make rational choices about matters important to that person). Demonstrates why computer conferencing is best suited to…

The superintendent, a central-office supervisor, the principal, and an external consultant began discussions to address the specific needs of an elementary school in Scottsboro, Alabama. The process involved completing a pre-assessment and feasibility study, developing and introducing a staff-development change model, creating an action plan,…

The author shares ways technology may empower students and how it has enabled her as a teacher to expand beyond some of the traditional boundaries for writing, reading, and assessment. In the discussion, the importance of economic and environmental equity and the need for theory to inform pedagogy are emphasized. (AEF)

This article discusses the movement toward focusing on the individual rather than the disabling condition when referring to people with disabilities and contrasts acceptable and unacceptable terminology for people with different types of disabilities. The terms "impairment,""disability," and "handicap" are defined. (CR)

Reviews recent brain research in education. Provides five implications for teaching in art: (1) use emotion; (2) use different sense; (3) promote student self-direction; (4) enable social learning; and (5) encourage pattern finding. Describes two sample art units demonstrating how the five implications and art instruction can be integrated. (CMK)

Presents one college professor's reflections on the challenges of mediating the boundaries of race, class, and professorial authority in an undergraduate multicultural education course. After discussing current debates about multicultural education, the paper examines assumptions underlying a multicultural discourse, poses questions about…