Identifying Classrooms and School Characteristics That Lead to Student Empowerment

In 1837, educator Horace Mann proposed a standardization of public school curricula for the United States to equalize the opportunities provided to students in the U.S. (Mann 1957) Theoretically, this should have ensured that all children could have the same high-quality education from any school regardless of where they lived. Fast forward to today and there are dramatic disparities and gaps in academic underachievement in the U.S. educational system (Kirk et al., 2015). While many policies and programs have been deployed to help reduce these disparities, many of these efforts have ignored the role of power in the school setting and instead it shifts the focus to a “deficit” paradigm that blames students for their lack of achievement (Kirk et al., 2015).

By focusing on deficit paradigm, educators often use a banking form of education in which students are seen as ignorant vessels into which information is deposited by superior teachers (Freire 2009). This results in many students coming to school feeling disempowered and lack the capability and experience to control the outcomes of their educational journey. Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, argues to use a system where students become “student-teachers” and teachers become “teacher-students” (Kirk et al., 2015). One way to do this is to increase student empowerment. Student empowerment is the process by which students gain the power needed to meet their individual needs, work with others, and to achieve collective goals (Kirk et al., 2015).

Researchers at Atlantic Health System and Wichita State University conducted a study on the concept of “power” on school climate. The study used a case study approach to identify characteristics of one school that were linked to student empowerment and to explore the mechanisms by

Along with existing literature, the results of the study were

used to create a Student Empowerment Model (Figure 1, Kirk et al., 2015). This model demonstrates the process by which student empowerment, which is affected by individual characteristics, ecological contexts, and characteristics of empowering classrooms and schools, can lead to empowered outcomes.

The development of the Student Empowerment Model applies to conceptual models of empowering settings and youth empowerment explicitly in schools. Models of student involvement and participation encourage greater autonomy and student-initiated leadership at higher levels, which parallels the process of empowerment (Kirk et al., 2015). This model can be used as a tool to inform future research and educational practices in a movement towards educational equity and empowering school settings for all students. As future educators, we need to work towards creating schools that empower, engage, and excite students to learn and teachers to teach.

References:

Freire, P. (2009). From Pedagogy of the Oppressed. In A. Darder, M. P. Baltodano, & Torres, R. D. (Eds.). The Critical Pedagogy Reader, 2nd ed. (pp. 52-60). New York: Routledge

Kirk, C. M., Lewis, R. K., Brown, K., Karibo, B., Scott, A., & Park, E. (2015). The empowering schools project: Identifying the classroom and school characteristics that lead to student empowerment. Youth & Society, 49(6), 827-847. doi:10.1177/0044118x14566118

Mann, H. (1957). The republic and the school: Horace Mann on the education of free men. NY: Teachers College, Columbia University.