Student Leadership Group at Greenberg Elementary School: Building and Sustaining Change

• In Event: The Challenges and Possibilities of Including Students in School Leadership

Abstract

A new youth-adult leadership group emerged at Greenberg Elementary after its advisor studied the principles, processes, and outcomes of student voice in a regional professional learning teacher grassroots organization—Teacher Action Group. Applying theory to practice, the development of the Student Leadership Group provided a foundation of knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for establishing youth-adult leadership practices at Greenberg. However, scaling up reform within was more challenging because building youth-adult co-leadership into school involves individual, group, and organizational capacities (Mitchell & Sackney, 2011). Using Coburn (2003), Authors (2015), and autoethnographic methodology, the researcher unpacked experiences, as a teacher, building a Student Leadership Group and efforts made to tackle inequitable school policies at Greenberg. Outcomes suggest that more work is needed to shift the ownership of this reform to additional teachers and students, including carving out appropriate time and space in the school’s schedule and program of studies.

Author

• Katherine Cohen, School District of Philadelphia