Through Students' Eyes

Through students' eyes

Students offer fresh insights into social justice issues in schools

By Alison Cook-Sather

Categories: Collaboration, Continuous improvement, Reaching all students

Like most policies and practices in education, agendas for achieving social justice in classrooms are defined and pursued by adults. Missing are the perspectives of those most directly affected by what educators decide and do: students. Research tells educators how to support diverse students’ learning and thus to foster more equal opportunities for school success. Methods include building teaching approaches around themes that are relevant to and that emerge from students’ own lives, developing wellinformed strategies for countering discriminatory and exclusionary tendencies in education, and creating situations within which students feel empowered and motivated to participate constructively in their schooling. But students are best positioned to teach educators how to construct such approaches, strategies, and situations. Only students can tell educators what it feels like

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Authors

Alison Cook-Sather

Alison Cook-Sather ([email protected]) is professor of education and coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Initiative at Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pa.

References

Cook-Sather, A. (Ed.) (2009). Learning from the student’s perspective: A sourcebook for effective teaching. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Cushman, K. (2009). Accessing students’ perspectives through discussion groups. In A. Cook-Sather (Ed.), Learning from the student’s perspective: A sourcebook for effective teaching. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Demetriou, H. (2009). Accessing students’ perspectives through three forms of consultation. In A. Cook-Sather (Ed.), Learning from the student’s perspective: A sourcebook for effective teaching. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Lodge, C. (2005, June). From hearing voices to engaging in dialogue: Problematising student participation in school improvement. Journal of Educational Change, 6(2), 125-146.

Nieto, S. (1999, May). What does it mean to affirm diversity? The School Administrator. Available at www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=14894.

Rudduck, J. & Flutter, J. (2004). How to improve your school: Giving pupils a voice. London: Continuum Press.

Rudduck, J. & McIntyre, D. (2007). Improving learning through consulting pupils. London: Routledge.