A study examined the effectiveness of teaching five adolescents with mental retardation and behavior disorders to lead their own Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. Students learned to introduce others at their IEP meetings, review their past IEP goals, discuss their future IEP goals, and close their meetings. (Contains references.)…

States that in early 20th century Germany, elementary school teachers were seen as low-level civil servants and their teaching methodology was dictated to them by the state. Explains that to free themselves from political and religious authorities, school teachers began advocating a child-centered, active-learning approach based upon recent…

Presents five individual narratives which describe the internal struggles experienced by teachers in resolving the empowerment issue, while learning to support and trust their students' learning. (MM)

Whereas participative management and quality circles have foundered in American schools, teacher and principal empowerment, a more focused process, has great potential for facilitating significant, long-lasting school improvement. For empowerment to succeed, educators must be trained to take risks and be exposed to challenging conditions. (MLH)

Sets forth three calls to education: (1) "Education begins when people are seeking to be whole"; (2) "Education must use memory and her/history as crucial sites of resistance"; (3) "Education must serve to name and to voice." Various strategies for educational change and social empowerment are given. (BF)

Presents an overview of current research on strategies being utilized to develop the teaching/learning process to reflect the current learning community. Indicates that cooperative learning, critical thinking, andragogical considerations, and reading, writing, and storytelling processes are steps toward restructuring postsecondary education. (33…

Reviews an ethnography of the life experiences in home, school, and community of 14 Mexican American immigrant children as they struggle with acculturation processes. Argues that the authors fail to achieve an "ethnography of empowerment" that puts theory into practice and improves the living conditions of its subjects, and that this notion is…

Presents findings of a project that interviewed students and staff at five Georgia elementary schools to discover students' attitudes toward their schools and teachers. Some students expressed powerlessness; some felt they could make a difference. Issues involving friendship, fairness, and fun predominated. Teachers must participate in their own…

Sudden empowerment of Canadian Aboriginal communities has raised many dilemmas concerning community controlled education, including issues related to educational planning and decision making by inexperienced administrators, focusing educational goals on the community versus mainstream society, discontinuities between community and school culture,…

Asserts that social educators promote the civic competence of young people by conveying the knowledge, skills, and dispositions for taking productive social action. Maintains that quality trade books introduce children to people of diverse backgrounds who model difficult aspects of civic competence. (CFR)

Based on a Phoenix (Arizona) school district's experience, this article shows central office administrators how to empower individual schools without abdicating control. Administrators should first identify all influential parties, seek successful pioneers in other districts, examine research findings, allow time for change, and delegate someone…

This article argues that the trend toward supported employment and transition services still rests on a dependency model of disability. It proposes a model of education for the empowerment of full citizenship in which persons with disabilities are seen as one of many groups disadvantaged by current social prejudice and exclusion. (DB)

Empowerment evaluation is the use of evaluation concepts and techniques to foster self-determination, focusing on helping people help themselves. This collaborative evaluation approach requires both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. It is a multifaceted approach that can be applied to evaluation in any area. (SLD)

Addresses feminist pedagogical issues concerning whether the instructional methods and content of self-defense courses truly result in the empowerment of women in response to violence against them. Reviews research on the utility of learning resistance techniques, lists recommendations for self-defense teaching methods, and outlines a sample…

Discusses how mobility, education, family adjustment, social relationships, and emotional adjustment to adolescence influence health adjustment. Social-work implications suggest a holistic approach emphasizing the concepts of youth and family empowerment and quality of life as the key professional endeavors in practice with youths with…