Chapter 1. What Does an Empowered Student Look Like?

While these two are known to millions, there are countless everyday examples of students in our classrooms who have taken stands for themselves and their own right to self-determination, for their classmates and communities, and for what they feel is right. In this chapter, we explore the interconnected attributes of empowered students—their habits, traits, and mindsets—and examine how these attributes support positive outcomes in their learning and beyond. We'll do this by considering the following topics, for the following reasons:

• The dynamically changing definition of an empowered student. Historical context sheds important light on our current practices and values.
• Critical factors in diverse classroom contexts. These factors must guide how we tailor education practice to serve changing student populations.
• Preconditions for student empowerment. These set the stage for successful autonomous and collaborative learning.
• The intersection of personal responsibility and social interaction. Exploring this topic clarifies how students can share responsibility for creating a safe and empathetic community focused on the greater good.
• Empowerment through adaptation. Our students must be able to successfully respond to ever-changing environments.

Student empowerment is a complex concept that has evolved over time. To understand it more thoroughly, we need to grasp both its historical meaning and its current definition and application in contemporary education. A first step toward taking action to help all our students to be empowered is to explore what we mean by an empowered student.

The Dynamically Changing Definition of an Empowered Student

Let's dig a little deeper into why Malala Yousafzai and Emma Gonzalez might so frequently be offered as examples of empowered students. We would argue that their empowerment is rooted in two factors: personal action and collective responsibility. Both of these young women seized opportunities to gain a sense of control and assert agency in decisions that affected their lives. They took initiative, acting with confidence and autonomy. Drawing on personal experience, they identified a collective need in the public sphere. They bore responsibility and made contributions to a collective good.

While Malala Yousafzai and Emma Gonzalez are singularly dramatic examples of empowered students, all students possess the potential to take ownership of their own learning and choices by applying the skills and knowledge that they have acquired through personal experience (Gauvain, 2001, 2013; Rogoff, 2003). This can take many forms, such as deciding what independent study to undertake, raising a hand to state an opinion, seeking help, asking questions, and expressing needs. Each of these are examples of actions students take when they feel able to exercise their own agency in their particular situation.

The examples of Malala and Emma clearly illustrate how empowerment is commonly seen today as a combination of autonomy and collaboration. This is something of a departure from past views. The student's traditional role has been obediently following a set of explicit and implicit expectations, rules, and directives handed down by authorities. Present-day examples include high school students following a school schedule that's controlled to the minute, completing assigned and monitored tasks, and participating in mandatory examinations. Expectations like these date from the early days of a universal public education, the point of which was to help all students acquire the skills and dispositions necessary to promote the acquisition of knowledge and involved citizenry (Alexander & Alexander, 2011; Labaree, 2011).

Underlying the foundation of a universal education was the assumption that children were empty vessels who would receive the knowledge, attitudes, and moral leanings presented to them by teachers, who acted as stand-ins for their parents and religious authorities. Indeed, when public schools began in the United States in the 1800s, they reflected an uncritical and unwavering English Protestant doctrine, with moral lessons embedded in the curriculum. Consider these reading exercises from McGuffey's Eclectic Reader, the most common school textbook of the 19th century:

12. When Ralph found that he could not have the white rose, he began to scream, and snatched it. But he was soon very sorry. The thorns tore his hand. It was so sore he could not use it for some time.

13. Ralph did not soon forget this. When he wanted what he should not have, his mother would point to his sore hand. He at last learned to do as he was told. (McGuffey, 1879)

In those days, students were expected to learn through "quiet attention, obedience to teachers, and recalling and repeating material" (Cohen, 1988, p. 12). They would have been expected to exhibit the characteristics listed in Figure 1.1, because those were the attributes that they would need to achieve those goals.

Figure 1.1. Descriptors of Virtuous Students in 19th Century Classrooms

It was in the first half of the 20th century that our contemporary sense of an empowered student took root. Educational scholar and reformer John Dewey advocated for a revolutionary model of education, proposing that a public school enterprise should be a place of vision, discovery, intellectual challenge, adventure, and excitement—a place where "all individuals have the opportunity to contribute something, and in which the activities in which all participate are the chief carrier of control" (Dewey, 1938, p. 56). This dramatic shift to learning by doing rather than learning through a lecture model called for cooperative classrooms where teachers would limit or reduce their all-knowing authority and elevate students' contributions as highly valuable and necessary to promote the ideals of social responsibility in a democracy.

Following this train of thought, if we use Dewey's thinking to guide our thinking about the characteristics of an empowered student, we wind up with a very different set of descriptors (see Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2. Descriptors of Collaborative Students in Post-Dewey Classrooms

Among the terms in Figure 1.2 are several that earlier generations of educators would recognize as student virtues. But notice how many skew active rather than passive and how many seem collaborative and creative rather than receptive. It is not that the post-Dewey shift in philosophy completely abandoned the norms or mission of the past; the teaching profession simply expanded its definition of empowerment to be broader and more complex.

When we (Debbie and Michael) completed this reflection task, we found that many words from both lists fit our concept of an empowered student, among them observant and respectful (i.e., students who can learn effectively from seeing models and are considerate of the needs of others) from the first list and adaptable, daring, flexible, mindful, and open-minded from the second. This collection of terms illustrates how the phrase empowered student represents a paradox in contemporary education. Today's students are expected to be autonomous yet collaborative, and they are to make the most of their individual contributions toward the common good while also working within the explicit and implied rules set forth by their learning communities.

Critical Factors in Diverse Classroom Contexts

Before going any further, we must acknowledge the long-standing barriers to empowerment that many students face. Prior to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1954, a K–12 public school education was not applied equally and equitably across minority and underrepresented populations; it was mostly for white Americans (Flores, 2017).

The 1960s marked a major shift in educational practices to address entrenched inequities. President Lyndon Johnson began what he called a War on Poverty, and his administration implemented the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which earmarked funds to better serve students from poor and underrepresented communities (Stone, 2009). Many seminal Supreme Court cases were brought forth during the 1960s to address the inequality experienced by the nation's students who were poor, nonwhite, non-native English speakers, and homeless, as well as students with disabilities (Alexander & Alexander, 2011; Stanford University, n.d.). In his research on social recognition, Peter Gabel (2018), a public interest lawyer and theorist, describes these unification efforts as transformative toward the mutually agreed-upon societal shift toward social justice and equity in the United States. They signaled a new role for student empowerment and an elevated responsibility for attending to it.

Across U.S. rural, suburban, and urban communities, the school-age population continues to diversify, and with this shift has come a good deal of research documenting the value of student collaboration. Almost 100 years after Dewey's philosophical contributions on the importance of students' contributions, we have significant scientific evidence showing cooperative learning to be an invaluable method of supporting autonomous learning and citizenry in a democratic society. It is especially effective in diverse student populations (Cohen & Lotan, 2014). However, a teacher limiting his or her direct authority and giving students cooperative learning tasks is no guarantee that students will take the initiative and assume responsibility for their learning, let alone the responsibility of supporting their peers' efforts to learn. Students' success in cooperative learning environments depends on an array of factors involving the skills and agreements that allow for autonomy and collaboration. An essential one is students' perceptions of their own status as well as the status of others (Cohen & Lotan, 2014).

Social psychologist Claude Steele (2010) researched a phenomenon called stereotype threat, which is what certain groups of students can feel when they perceive themselves to be in an ethnic, racial, cultural, economic, or gender group that is not expected to show mastery or success. Steele found that, without intervention, stereotype threat has a significantly negative effect on student outcomes. Given this finding, it's educators' responsibility to intervene—to intentionally provide a certain set of conditions that disrupt stereotype threat and promote student empowerment. According to Steele, when students perceive themselves or others as largely incapable of being successful in school, this prediction is likely to become self-fulfilling. Conversely, the internalized attitudes associated with being in a group that is expected to experience success can make that outcome more likely.

Let's pause to consider an example of two 5-year-old students preparing for their first public school experience. Dyana is the daughter of migrant farm workers, and she has grown up watching her parents plant and harvest fruits and vegetables. The family lives sometimes in housing furnished by the owners of the land they work, and sometimes in whatever other housing they can afford (including, occasionally, their car). While Dyana was born in the United States and is a citizen, her parents are undocumented, and she has grown up observing their uneasiness and fear of deportation. Now, at age 5, she is increasingly aware of their tenuous situation even though she is still too young to fully understand its meaning. In public, she has learned to make herself quiet and unobtrusive, as her parents do.

Suzanne is a kindergarten classmate of Dyana's. Her parents own and operate a local store and have branched out to include quite a few franchises in their professional real estate portfolio. Both of Suzanne's parents have advanced degrees in accounting, and the family lives in a large, beautiful home in a wealthy section of town. Suzanne thrived in preschool, and her parents encourage behaviors in their daughter that they expect will be valued in her kindergarten classroom: be curious, be adventurous, listen to the teacher, try hard, and follow the rules but also your interests. They want Suzanne to experience the kind of success that they did as students.

We provide this example as a reminder of a few of the ways that circumstances can contribute to some students coming to school as tentative learners and others as confident ones. The stereotype threat that Steele (2010) and developmental psychologist and social scientist Roseanne L. Flores (2017) describe (and that Dyana and Suzanne are experiencing) is epitomized in a Forbes article titled "How the Rich Raise Their Kids" (Moyer, 2007). The article shows the sweeping differences between wealthy and poor families, particularly in expectations and perceptions. For example, the expectation of children being reared by wealthy parents or guardians is that they will attend college; these families have ample access and resources, and they rarely consider the possibility of an alternative. Conversely, children of poor and working-class families are described as living in a survival-oriented world reminiscent of the one in the dystopian young adult novel The Hunger Games; only a small percentage have the opportunity to attend college, and the majority try to succeed by graduating from high school into a working world where fewer and fewer jobs offer the promise of economic security, homeownership, and health care.

While some people may consider this an overly dramatic comparison, what is beyond question is that too many students lack the opportunities they need and deserve to achieve empowerment. That's where educators must step in.

The Intersection of Personal Responsibility and Social Interaction

An additional strand of our construct of student empowerment is social responsibility toward fellow community members and the intention to serve a greater good.

Let's look at an example of what we mean by social responsibility. A class of 4th grade students is on a field trip, taking a group hike up a mountain trail as part of their study of geological rock formations. One student, Devin, lags behind the rest. Two of Devin's classmates, Jackie and Louie, decide on their own—that is, autonomously—to walk back down the trail to where Devin has paused to catch his breath. Without any prompting from their teacher, the two accompany Devin the rest of the way to the summit. We overhear their exchange:

Devin: I'm totally out of breath.

Jackie: We got you.

Louie: Yeah, I had to catch my breath, too.

Jackie: Don't worry; we'll take our time and get there together.

These words of mutual support are expressions of how students can share the responsibility of creating a safe and empathetic learning community. These are quieter versions of the public courage and character embodied by empowered student leaders like Malala Yousafzai and Emma Gonzalez.

To take such actions, students must have a good deal of awareness and the capacity to pick up the verbal and nonverbal messages others are sending. Take, for example, what Jackie and Louie saw when they observed Devin, before any words had been exchanged. They saw a classmate lagging behind. They realized he was struggling. They actively demonstrated their sense of care for and fellowship with Devin.

It's fair to say that practicing social responsibility begins with awareness—with paying careful attention to others. These skills do not come naturally to all students and may need to be encouraged or explicitly taught and practiced. Teachers can model such skills by being empathetic with students and seeking to identify personally with the situations they face. Both Jackie and Louie took actions that implied an understanding of what it must have felt like for Devin to lag behind the rest of the class. They also used the social and emotional language needed to express themselves appropriately in the situation, paying attention to Devin and responding in ways that were intended to help him feel safe, that he belonged, that he was valued, and that he was just as competent as everyone else.

As we will see in later chapters, this kind of solidarity among students is the obtainable result of the intentional cultivation of community within a school and within a classroom. Whether in the form of an elementary grade morning meeting or a secondary classroom gathering, moments when all students are seen, are heard, and have a chance to greet one another and share information about their lives, their work, their interests, and the challenges they face make a difference. Students need opportunities to experience, build, and nurture relationships.

Let's check back in with Devin and his classmates on the way to the summit. Devin initially responded to his peers nonverbally, by smiling at them to express gratitude that they had come to climb with him. Here's a look at the conversation as they continued up the trail:

Louie: Wow, this is so steep!

Devin (nodding vigorously): I am not used to doing this type of uphill hiking. I'm so slow.

Jackie: Maybe it's better to go slow. We have more time to look around.

Devin: I guess we do, yeah. Everybody's so far ahead now.

Louie: They're going to wish they paced themselves.

Devin: You guys are good pacers.

Jackie: The best!

Here, we see Devin respond to his classmates' statements, signaling his agreement with them. We see him express his worry that others will make fun of him for being slow. He implies how grateful he is that Louie and Jackie helped him resolve his worry about the conflict he anticipated would arise from him lagging so far behind the group. Each of these actions during this small event depicts the attributes of socially responsible empowerment (see Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3. Hallmarks of Socially Responsible Empowerment

Further, the actions depicted in Figure 1.3 are what the professional literature refers to as the social and emotional language that students must develop (Bernard & Newell, 2013; Hertel & Johnson, 2013). We will explore instructional approaches for teaching this language in later chapters.

Empowerment Through Adaptation

Because we live in a world that is continuously changing, adaptability is a skill everyone needs. Consider how the evolution of technology requires us to learn new ways to participate in social life, access information and entertainment, navigate transportation, and fulfill our professional and civic responsibilities. More and more, in school contexts and beyond, students are asked to adapt to changes, large and small, as they occur. After the shooting at Emma Gonzalez's high school, for example, students there were required to exchange whatever school bag they had been carrying for bags made of see-through plastic. Whereas once school delays or cancellations were almost exclusively responses to weather conditions or building conditions, today's students might also expect disruptions in the schedule due to student or teacher walkouts and demonstrations.

A less dramatic but no less important example of a kind of adaptation that all students must master is code switching—adapting the language that they use to the circumstances in which they find themselves (DeBose, 1992; Zacarian, 2013). These fluid adaptations are needed to communicate proficiently in a variety of languages, of course, but what we are referring to here is choosing among the wide and ever-changing range of vernacular varieties spoken in diverse contexts. In the United States, these might include African American English, Chicano American English, Latin American English, and Indigenous American Vernacular English, among others (Labov, 2006; LeMoine & Soto, 2016). And there are a wide variety of regional dialect and code differences that make each of these unique and richly specific (Delpit, 1995). Within a group of high school students, the informal dialect that they use can indicate the social group to which they belong (LeMoine & Soto, 2016; Zacarian, 2013).

Let's say we observe a student talking to a friend about a school dance that they attended, and we hear one say, "Hey, bro, that be dope what you did last night." We then follow the student to his math class, where he switches to the language variety that befits the academic subject matter in response to a teacher's question: "The quadratic equation? The quadratic is a squared plus b squared equals c squared." This switch in language usage from informal (the language dialect used to express his sociocultural identity) to formal (the language used to express his academic identity) is reflective of this type of adaptability empowerment. Students must be able to adapt what they say and write to the variety of settings in which they are situated socially and academically in school and out of it. In a nutshell, empowerment through adaptability is the ability to respond effectively to changing rules and regulations within an institution, and the ability to use language deemed appropriate to different situations.

The Interconnected Attributes of Student Empowerment

When elementary school teachers teach students about what plants need in order to grow and thrive, they share that plants need soil for nutrients, sunlight for energy, water to transport nutrients from the soil into and within the plant, and air for respiration. A teacher presenting a unit on this topic might use the illustration in Figure 1.4, featuring a giant redwood, as part of the classroom discussion.

Figure 1.4. Conditions for Growth

While the presence of these four elements is essential for the growth of an individual tree, in order for it to truly thrive, it needs a fifth element: a sustainable place in an ecosystem. Similarly, if people are to thrive—specifically, the young people we teach—that's what they need too: a secure place in the world where they are connected to and supported by the people, systems, and ideas around them.

Empowered students, aware of these connections, exhibit the following characteristics:

1. They know institutional rules and regulations.
2. They attend to the diversity within and beyond the classroom context.
3. They are socially responsible.
4. They can adapt to dynamic changes that occur in classroom and school settings and beyond.
5. They are capable of interdependent collaboration.

Student empowerment isn't a switch that can be turned on or a state that can be achieved by inspirational slogans. It's characterized by the development and interplay of all five of these attributes. The last of these, interdependent collaboration, is particularly important but all too often overlooked. Just as plants give off life-sustaining oxygen to animals, who contribute respired carbon dioxide in return, students are part of an ecology of giving and receiving. If students are to become empowered in our schools, it will be a result of an interdependent collaboration that includes other students, educators, families, and the school community, creating an ecosystem contributing to the enrichment and satisfaction of all. As illustrated in Figure 1.5, our ultimate goal is to create an environment that supports students and gives them what they need to be contributors to a thriving and interdependent community.

Figure 1.5. Interconnected Attributes of Student Empowerment

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In the next chapter, we look more closely at how we, as teachers, can begin this process of empowerment by reflecting on our own values, understanding what drives us to be educators, and making mindful adjustments to our professional practice.