Teachers Who Empower: Learning to Develop Student Leadership at a Transformation School

• In Event: Teachers and Teacher Educators Using Action Research to Inform Practice

Abstract

After being named a “transformation school” in 2010 and threatened with closure in 2012, teachers developed a student empowerment curriculum meant to support youth and adults to work collaboratively and to give students voice and self-advocacy skills. As part of an action research project, three teachers came together to better understand how they could develop student leadership at their school. They developed LIC Cares, an after-school program at Long Island City High School (LIC) in New York City. The goal of LIC Cares is to develop a tradition of student leadership at LIC, by providing students with the advocacy skills needed to be successful at school and in the outside community. Teachers will describe the process of developing and implementing the curriculum, and they will share their plans for expanding the curriculum to include more students.

Authors

• Ashleigh Staton, The New School

• Isabel Ochoa, The New School

• Johanny Arias, The New School