Outlines 10 areas requiring teacher leadership in schools; discusses benefits for students, teachers, the school, and the principal; and lists impediments (workload, time, testing constraints, colleagues' disapprobation, and unsupportive principals). Determined, goal-driven teachers have the power to unlock one another's leadership potential and…

George Mason University, Virginia, prepares teachers through a professional development school model, which empowers teachers to assume leadership roles as clinical faculty and site coordinators. Classroom teachers and the former Director of Teacher Education describe the effects of teachers' experiences as teacher educators on their roles within…

An Appalachian college professor describes his efforts to merge political activism, scholarship, and teaching, and offers some thoughts on transformative education that prepares students for their role in a democratic society. An important approach to transformative education is service learning programs that incorporate local issues and politics…

This article describes a pilot program, initiated in 1999 by Smoky Hill High School in Colorado, to help gifted students overcome barriers to their success. The program addresses issues in all components or subsystems of a person's life: emotional/psychological, mental/intellectual, physical, spiritual, social, and family. Tips for parents are…

Dichotomy between students' attitudes and their actions is highlighted in data collected by Cooperative Institutional Research Program that shows students' interest in keeping up with politics is declining just as their participation in volunteerism is rising. Author interviews Paul Rogat Loeb, author of "Soul of the Citizen," about potential…

This article describes a project that will make a positive impact in today's special education classroom. Teachers will learn how to use Problem Based Learning (PBL) units as a tool to empower students with special needs to become more confident, independent, successful students. It will also shatter the stereotype that students with special needs…

Using personal narrative, this article examines how masks function to subordinate African American and Latina women in the academy. The article uses Critical Race Theory and more specifically critical race gendered epistemologies, including Black feminist thought and Chicana feminist epistemology, to understand how females of color resist in the…

This qualitative study explores the educational experiences of an African-American adult woman with disabilities. The intersections of gender, race and disability are theorized through the lenses of disability, feminist and critical theory. Specifically, I address the following three questions. What are the experiences of an African-American woman…

This article draws on the authors' experiences of undertaking health and social research involving children in Australia and England and focuses on securing the informed consent of children to participate in such research. A clear trend within literature, service provision, legislation and international conventions recognizes children as…

The concept of interpersonal trust has been linked to empowerment. Managerial-practices literature has asserted that trust strengthens relationships and enables empowerment, which may result in increments in individual performance and organizational productivity. High levels of mutual trust and empowering work environments ostensibly reinforce…

Social work principles of strengths, empowerment, and consumer-centered care for persons with mental illness are currently being adapted to broader contexts. This article presents study findings on practice wisdom about custodial parents with mental illness, a potentially increasing group of consumers in light of mental health reform. The research…

This grounded theory qualitative study investigated the major influencing factors in the United States that empowered six Vietnamese women who had been in abusive relationships to take actions, to make changes in their intimate relationships, unlike many of their abused counterparts in their homeland. Interviews of two focus group sessions,…

This article addresses the international positioning and role of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL). The article argues that the college stands as an initiator, exporter, importer and disseminator of leadership research and practice and that the role it adopts in regard to these will determine its international influence. The first…

Recently, many treatments for children with disabilities have shifted from a purely clinician-implemented model to one that focuses on a parent education component. In the current study, a repeated reversal design was employed to compare the effects of a parent education intervention that incorporates the principles outlined in the parent…

A poorly performing school is like a complex puzzle with its pieces haphazardly scattered. To achieve coherence and improve performance, a principal must have a vision of how the completed puzzle should look. Schools that have effectively implemented instructional models have principals that are puzzle solvers. To fit diverse needs into place and…