The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived effectiveness of leadership in a Missouri rural K-8 school with a high incidence of poverty that consistently met federal and state accountability mandates. The concepts of accountability as measured by student achievement, the unique educational needs of children from poverty, and the…

DRACON (DRAma for CONflict management) is an interdisciplinary and comparative action research project aimed at improving conflict handling among adolescent schoolchildren through the use of educational drama. The main purpose of our research has been to develop an integrated programme using conflict management as the theory and practice, and…

This paper revisits the question of "voice" in the context of neo-liberal social and educational reform. "Voice" has been one of the key concepts of feminist and critical pedagogies in the theory and practice of producing social transformation. I argue in this paper, that the political effectiveness of this concept needs to be…

Beginning in the 1990s, the education departments of Hong Kong and Shanghai began to actively initiate reform with a focus on the quality of education. In reviewing the implementation of educational reform in these two societies, we found that Hong Kong teachers tended to only adopt those policies which they felt were beneficial for students'…

The Specialized Training of Military Parents, better known by many as STOMP, is a federally funded Parent Training and Information (PTI) center established to assist military families who have children with specialized education or health needs. STOMP exists to empower military parents, individuals with disabilities, and service providers with…

This book focuses on enabling and empowering women in higher education, and it draws both on research and experience with women-centered teaching and learning practices and professional development and training of women staff. The first section of the book concentrates on women students in higher education. Chapters include: "Women Students and…

Nagorik Uddyog (Citizen's Initiative) is a non-profit, non-governmental Bangladeshi organization focused on empowering women at the grassroots level through human rights education. Although women constitute half of the total population of Bangladesh, their participation in social, cultural, and political activities is limited. Recently,…

Since the 1920s, the focus of adult education has shifted from social change to professionalization to an emphasis on literacy and lifelong learning in a changing workplace. The adult education literature reflects ongoing debate over whether adult education should focus primarily on individuals or society and whether it should serve as a means of…

Evaluators frequently experience the dilemma of how to empower a program staff if the staff and other stakeholders are compelled to participate in activities that they don't believe they need or believe may actually harm the program. A framework is proposed to empower program staff and other stakeholders and to reduce potential dilemmas. The…

The Transformational Leadership theory proposed by J. M. Burns (1978) may be profitably applied to the role of debate/forensic coach. A Transformational Leader aims to fulfill the personal needs of followers by giving them the power to think and act for themselves, thus empowering them to work toward the group vision. A Transformational Leader…

Abolitionist-feminist Angelina Grimke's "Pennsylvania Hall" address in 1838 is more than an important early feminist document. Through the use of rhetorical techniques (such as those known to contemporary feminists as elements of "consciousness raising"), Grimke empowers herself and her women listeners through the act of…

In this article, dedicated to the revolutionary educational work of Peter McLaren, we will deal with the question of practical teaching methods in higher education from the point of view of critical pedagogy. We argue that nowadays teaching and learning in educational and social sciences are too often meaningless from the point of view of critical…

This article argues that students who have leadership skills are empowered toward better learning and decision making and ultimately are more disciplined. Herein, the author offers a number of techniques teachers can use to put group leadership skills into practice in the classroom.

Raising professional standards and improving teacher preparation programs will have little effect unless teaching becomes a more attractive career. Local administrators should involve faculty members effectively and satisfactorily in the decision-making and management process so that teachers don't need to enlist collective bargaining to force…

This article describes Kid-to-Kid, a group discussion program that gives students a strong voice and lets them connect with their peers in an environment where it is safe to be honest, where feelings and thoughts can be expressed without fear of judgment, and where the teacher talks less than the students. Guidelines for starting such a program…