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Introduction to Student Engagement
Authentic student engagement goes beyond "telling the stories" of young people; these stories also need to be linked to school-improvement discussions.1 Student engagement strategies need to be deeply embedded in district improvement efforts. Otherwise, student voice will be limited to certain charismatic students or the sporadic efforts of educators, administrators, and community organizers.
> Tips: Go to Student Engagement Tips
Authentic Roles for Young People
The Forum for Youth Investment defines student engagement as "an active, voluntary construct, a verb rather than a noun, and an action that adults intentionally support and young people intentionally choose. . . . Engagement must be a set of well-thought-out strategies that institutionalize authentic roles for all young people by creating a range of engagement opportunities from the classroom to the school and district level."2
Michelle Fine, whose student participatory action research projects include the "Opportunity Gap," describes her experiences:3
When we started working with students on the achievement/opportunity gap, we were, of course, tuned into the gaps with respect to finances and tracking. What we did not know was the depth of young people's experience with the gap in relation to respect. We didn't understand the depth of the gap in relation to external supports. We didn't understand that privileged kids were profoundly uncomfortable with the inequities in their schools. . . . [T]he everyday micro practices of inequity in their school.
Models for Student Engagement
The projects and programs described in the Student Engagement Web pages illustrate practices in which youth are engaged in the processes of evaluation and reform, in partnership with adult decision-makers, in various settings in the classroom, district, and community.
Institutionalizing Student Engagement
shows how Boston's school district incorporated student engagement practices systemwide to address disruption in classrooms and other issues.
Students as Researchers shows how students can learn to apply tools and produce data that maximize the impact of their unique voice on policy-makers and other adults.
This section also contains further Resources on Student Engagement.
FOOTNOTES
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1 Wilson-Ahlstrom, Alicia, Joel Tilman, and Kenneth Jones. Youth Action for Educational Change: A Resource Guide. (2004). The Forum for Youth Investment.
PDF [12 pp., 147 KB]
2 Forum for Youth Investment. Youth Engagement in Educational Change: Working Definition and Lessons from the Field, pp. 1–2. (2005).
PDF [4 pp., 101 KB]
3 "Recognizing the Knowledge of Young People: An Interview with Michelle Fine and Maria Elena Torre on Youth Action Research."
PDF [7 pp., 131 KB]
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