Encouraging Student Initiative

The purpose of this paper is to present a summarization of the following article:

Wade, R.C. (1995). Encouraging student-initiative in a fourth grade classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 95(4), 339-354.

The article begins with a review of the different perspectives of empowerment in education. The point is made in the review that the meanings and interpretations of the term as well as the views of the motivational forces behind the work on empowerment in education vary as a function of differences in the experiences, values, and social contexts of the educators commenting on the subject.

Examples of these differences are offered. It is noted, for example, that educators such as Apple (1982) and McLaren (1989), both of whom are critical theorists, characterize empowerment in terms of its social purposes. On the other hand, educators such as Kieffer (1981) characterize empowerment in terms of its psychoemotional purposes.

Wade does not attempt to defend or argue for any given definition of empowerment; rather, it is noted that most definitions and discussions of empowerment are related to either school reforms or to the teacher. In other words, the research on the empowerment of students is sparse. Thus, what is needed is more research in this area. Wade's study is thereby justified in that in does address this under-researched area.

Wade goes on to offer a definition of the term empowerment as it applies to students. Specifically, empowerment is define

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events and attributes that characterized the empowerment process and/or the contextual influences on said process (see: Wade, 1995, p. 343). Efforts to maintain the internal validity of the study despite its subjective nature included: exploration for experimenter bias effects, the construction of rival explanations for interpretations of observances, eliciting feedback from study participants, utilization of multiple sources of evidence, and lengthy observational periods. The results of data collection are reported in narrative. First, Wade provides a description of the community within which the school is located; this is followed by descriptions of the school itself, the classroom and the classroom teachers' instructional style. It is noted that in any attempt to generalize the findings of the study, these contextual features must be considered. In other words, what works for a small rural middle-class public school in New Hampshire with a teacher of a given instructional style may not necessarily generalize to an educational setting where one or more characteristics are different. Following this profile of the contextual influences, efforts to empower the students and student reactions to these efforts are then descri

Category: Psychology - E