The pedagogical foundations of student voice practices: The role of relationships, differentiation, and choice in supporting student voice practices in high school classrooms.

Although teachers and administrators increasingly support the idea of student voice, questions remain about what "student voice" looks like in practice. This mixed methods study in two urban U.S. high schools explores what student voice practices in the classroom entail and how these practices relate to other pedagogical strategies. Findings reveal that student-teacher relationships, differentiated instruction, and choice serve as core building blocks for the use of student voice practices in the classroom. Findings also underscore the rarity of the student voice practices of seeking student feedback and input and engaging in collaborative decision-making with students.

Intersectional politicization: A facet of youth activists' sociopolitical development.

This article explores the sociopolitical development (SPD) of youth activists involved in climate justice and gun violence prevention movements. Interviews with 52 youth members of five different youth-led activist organizations and follow-up surveys supplied the data. We found that involvement in youth-led activist organizations facilitates a particular kind of SPD we term "intersectional politicization." Intersectional politicization involves critical intersectional reflection paired with critical intersectional action. Critical intersectional reflection entails analysis of how marginalized populations are impacted by particular social problems and how various social issues and forces of oppression interconnect. Critical intersectional action consists of participating actively in multiple movements or activist organizations to address distinct issues simultaneously. Intersectional politicization is fostered through organizational trainings and programming, collaborative work with other organizations, dialog with fellow activists, and online activist content. Intersectional politicization raises new considerations for research on critical consciousness and youth SPD.

The Relationship Between Student Voice and Student Engagement in Urban High Schools.

Drawing on student self-report survey data, this study examines student engagement across 67 urban high schools in the School District of Philadelphia. Results show that schools with higher rates of affective, behavioral, and cognitive engagement differ significantly from schools with other engagement profiles in students' average reports of teacher care and student voice. Path analyses lend support for self-determination theory and corroborate qualitative research that observes that student voice can improve student engagement. By highlighting the roles of teacher care and feelings of competence and belonging, this study identifies key means by which student voice influences student engagement. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11256-022-00637-2.

Negotiating Power: How youth organizers recast the debate about school reform.

In the context of a neoliberal policy landscape, urban high school students who are constructed by policymakers as either dependents or deviants have little to no agency in the larger policy debates that shape what kinds of educational opportunities and choices are available to them. In this article, we explore how the Philadelphia Student Union (PSU), a youth organizing group, engaged in the debate around educational change and attempted to shift public opinion and understanding. Specifically, we examine how PSU derived and deployed power in a contest with school policymakers about educational reform. Understanding this exercise of power as a means of advancing youth voice and developing equitable systems of public accountability for all stakeholders can help us better appreciate the role youth can play in negotiating the terms of the debate over how best to improve the schools serving our nation's most vulnerable students.

Not just robo-students: why full engagement matters and how schools can promote it.

Research has long linked academic engagement to positive social, psychological, and physical developmental outcomes; however, qualitative studies in high-performing schools find that some students who work hard in school may be compromising their mental and physical health in the pursuit of top grades. Such research calls for closer and more contextualized examinations of the concept of engagement. This study examines academic engagement in a sample of 6,294 students (54 % female; 44 % White, 34 % Asian, and 22 % other racial or ethnic background) attending 15 high-achieving schools. Findings show that two-thirds of students at these schools are not regularly "fully engaged" in their academic schoolwork; that is, they do not regularly report high levels of affective, behavioral and cognitive engagement. Although most students report working hard, few enjoy their schoolwork and find it valuable. This lack of full engagement, particularly the absence of affective and cognitive engagement, is associated with more frequent school stress, higher rates of cheating, and greater internalizing, externalizing, and physical symptoms of stress. The study also finds that full engagement is strongly related to positive teacher-student relationships. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.