This paper contributes an autoethnographic account of how Paulo Freire's work shapes understandings of education, social change and the possibilities and practices of social research. Drawing on connections between anthropology and education (Schultz, 2014) that underpin "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" (McKenna, 2013), I explore spaces and…

Notable theorists have argued that theatre and drama play positive roles in the moral education of children and adults, including cultivating their capacity for empathy. Yet other theorists have expressed concerns that plays and educational practices involving improvisation might not lead to positive changes in real life, and might even have…

This article examines three examples of inquiry-based curricular loops, each of which focuses on a particular social studies concept. The article begins with a civics teacher (Andrew Danner) who uses a series of structured inquiries highlighting the concept of power as it relates to the three branches of government and the role of citizens in a…

Drawing on questionnaire (n = 697) and focus group (n = 18) data from 18 publicly managed schools in Ireland, the current study explores the views of second-year students towards their participation in school life. Questionnaire results indicate that students, in general, showed a strong level of agreement towards their participation in aspects of…

Early childhood education is steeped both in historical and ideological traditions which value play as a powerful pedagogy. From an Irish perspective, early years research tends to be framed with a sociocultural perspective. This research presents a reinterpretation of play episodes using a Foucauldian lens. It documents a re-imagination of…

Agency and its role in the early literacy classroom has long been a topic for debate. While sociocultural accounts often portray the child as a cultural agent who negotiates their own participation in classroom culture and literacy learning, more recent framings draw attention from the individual subject, instead seeing agency as dispersed across…

Faculty members perform essential roles on campuses, including teaching, research, and service, yet norms of the academic profession inhibit faculty from bringing their full selves to the work. Revealing vulnerabilities, such as identifying as a survivor of sexual violence, is generally unwelcome in the neoliberal postsecondary landscape. This…

The authority given to teachers within the school setting is vital to any educational work. According to its most widely accepted meaning, this concept signifies teachers' legal and social right to teach, counsel or guide that derives from a formal recognition of their ability to do so. As a concept, authority in the education system has undergone…

The third wave of college student development involves the use of critical and post-structural frameworks to reimagine formative constructs and concepts that have been key to understanding development in higher education settings. Using data from a constructivist grounded theory study centered on 20 queer Students of Color and their identity…

This article considers the challenge of epistocracy to the political philosophies of music education. Epistocracy has recently resurfaced in the form of Jason Brennan's criticism of representational democracy. Brennan claims that only the brightest citizens are capable of using decision-making power. As there is only a small number of such…

Over the last several years, there has been an increased awareness regarding consensual sexual relationships (CSRs) between professors and students. Specifically, there has been a growing movement for academic institutions to develop policies addressing, discouraging, and/or prohibiting these relationships due to the potential for sexual…

Purpose: Power, policy and politics set the landscape for technocratic approaches in the educational system. Efficiency and money-saving initiatives that adhere to a one-size-fits-all approach drive the response to complex and multifaceted challenges within education. This has been made apparent through the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.…

Theories of distributed leadership suggest that organizational learning and change results not from the efforts of a single individual, but rather from a network of people working within their broader systems. Team empowering leadership enhances human resources development of the organization to promote the sharing of knowledge that is necessary…

This article uses a self-reflective autoethnography to critique colonisation and whiteness as systems of marginalisation and racialisation. I examine concepts grounded in post-colonial and anti-racist theories, and I interweave these with my experiences in white spaces in Colombia, the USA and Canada as an educator and researcher. I provide…

This report underscores that the prevailing view of community schools is "just a beginning" for their ongoing development and contribution to improving schools. We stress that defining the initiative as a "community-based effort to coordinate and integrate ... services" raises some concerns and limits their evolution. We…