Shifting power at school: youth participation in teacher professional learning settings as educational innovation

Abstract

This study explores the non-normative inclusion of students in teacher professional learning settings. It demonstrates the potential for change in top-down power relationships between teachers and students when students are included as legitimate participants in educational innovation and improvement efforts. In this community-based design research (Bang et al., 2015) in one urban indigenous school in Thailand, we found that the legitimate participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991) of students in dynamic, integral roles in teachers' professional learning was key in shifting power through (1) student ownership of ideas and (2) dialogue to shift teachers' deficit frames of students' expertise.