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

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 Hilltribe school in Thailand, we found that the legitimate participation (Lave & 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 deficit frames and 3) recognizing the self in the “other” to layer on new frames of who holds the power to teach and learn at school.