Working the Crevices: Granting Students Authority in Authoritarian Schools

Schools are beset with a serious “alienation gap” between teachers and students that is no less a problem than the “achievement gap.” Increasing student voice is thought to be one means to fill the gap, for it activates agency and thereby decreases passivity. The extent of agency ranges from attenti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of education 2011-05, Vol.117 (3), p.375-398
Main Authors: Goodman, Joan F., Hoagland, Jessica, Pierre-Toussaint, Nadel, Rodriguez, Celeste, Sanabria, Christina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Academic achievement gaps
Academic freedom
Alienation
Alternative Teacher Certification
Children
Classroom Environment
Delegation of authority
Disadvantaged Schools
Educational administration
Educational Change
Educational leadership
Graduate students
High school students
High Schools
Middle Schools
Power Structure
School Culture
Self Esteem
Self Expression
Student Empowerment
Student Leadership
Student Participation
Student teachers
Teacher Student Relationship
Teachers
Urban schools
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Schools are beset with a serious “alienation gap” between teachers and students that is no less a problem than the “achievement gap.” Increasing student voice is thought to be one means to fill the gap, for it activates agency and thereby decreases passivity. The extent of agency ranges from attentive adult listening to strong student leadership. Here we concentrate on distinguishing elements of freedom, power, and authority in the enactment of agency, particularly how these elements can be distributed to students in urban authoritarian schools. In this article, four second-year Teach for America graduate students describe and reflect on their separate initiatives. Following the descriptions, the senior author, in a cross-case analysis, suggests factors associated with successful outcomes—enhanced self-esteem, individual rather than collective pride, careful consideration of the external context, constrained objectives, and the transfer of authority rather than power. We conclude that in troubled, impoverished schools, incremental change in distributing genuine authority is a promising possibility for enhancing school attachment.
ISSN:0195-6744
1549-6511
DOI:10.1086/659212