Transformative Student Voice: Extending the Role of Youth in Addressing Systemic Marginalization in U.S. Schools
The approach and case example described in this article build on and extend the role of student voice and authentic youth–adult partnerships in prior work of the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (2009), a national technical assistance and dissemination center funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs. I describe and illustrate how the conceptual tools of critical consciousness, systemic change, and transformative student voice are applied to a process of critical civic inquiry within one school community where students and adults come together to identify issues of racial inequity that need to be addressed through policy and practice shifts, along with ongoing work to remedy these issues.Abstract
Contributor Notes
Author Bio
Dr. Shelley Zion is Professor of Urban Education in the Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Education Department at Rowan University. Her work is situated within a framework of sociopolitical development, informed by a range of critical theoretical perspectives, and advanced by an understanding of the nature of both individual and systemic change. Her research is focused on issues of school and community reform, centering the voices of youth as key informants in systems change approaches. From 2001–2007, she served as the associated director of the National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (NCCRESt).
