How can you encourage students to become advocates for their own education?

Student advocacy, like other educational concepts, is learned, modeled, and scaffolded. It begins with student understanding. Students need to gain awareness of themselves, of educational tools, of goal setting and more. Then students need guided practice in identifying and setting goals and planning out paths for achievement. Over time, students will need less and less support, but will continue to need to be encouraged, equipped, and empowered.

La defensa estudiantil puede conceptualizarse como el fomento al libre ejercicio de dudar, cuestionar, experimentar y equivocarse. Los estudiantes toman conciencia de su aprendizaje al formar parte de la construcción de nuevos saberes, y la puesta en práctica de ellos, además de fortalecerlos al comunicarlos como una experiencia vivencial. Es indispensable que el educador adopte la figura de "Agente de transformación" promoviendo el aprendizaje autogestionado, esto guiará al educando hacia la internalización de valores asociados a su propio aprendizaje.

Encouraging student advocacy in education involves fostering ownership and empowerment. Promoting autonomy and self-directed learning, along with offering opportunities for reflection, helps students understand their needs and advocate for resources. Cultivating a growth mindset empowers them to overcome challenges and seek solutions. Creating a supportive environment where students feel valued encourages active engagement in advocating for their educational goals.

De acuerdo con los cinco niveles del Dominio Afectivo de la Taxonomía de objetivos educativos de Krathwohl, podemos identificar al estudiante como responsable de la atribución de valor al fenómeno, objeto o circunstancia, en este caso su aprendizaje. Analizando el nivel tres "valoración", que se subdivide en tres niveles: Aceptación, preferencia y compromiso con un valor, será este último donde el estudiante desarrolle un elevado grado de convicción y lealtad a una posición, grupo o causa. La persona es percibida por el resto como poseedora de este valor, y de acuerdo con su personalidad, existe la posibilidad de que actúe de forma que aquello en lo que cree, se desarrolle, crezca, se extienda, se comparta y sea defendido.

To truly empower a student to take control of their learning requires three things: time, patience, and support. Time not just in terms of the allocation to exploring student passions and interests, but to unlearning the traditional methods of classroom teaching. Following a teacher created lesson plan is the safe and accepted method of teaching, you cannot play it safe if you want to change the way a student interacts with their learning. Hand them the reins and support them to steer in the areas that pike their curiosity. Patience, because students will need a period of unlearning, as may staff, to make this a sustainable reality. Support is required to all stakeholders. Everyone will find this difficult and challenging but worth it

Develop an environment that encourages, self-assesses, and welcomes growth. Maintain a library of resources and a database of individuals that can be helpful to students. Teach students both research and communication skills so that they are equipped to seek out their own resources and to use those you can provide them access to.

Empowering students is a crucial part of our job as school leaders. We need students who can confidently go out in the world and be success and in order to do that they must be able to advocate for what they need. School can provide that place that students can learn, practice and hone this skill by providing opportunities for voice and choice throughout the learning experience. Make it a priority at your school that students have the agency to choose which supports they need while learning to be successful or which product would allow them to best express their ideas. Teach them options. Coach them along the way. Guide your faculty to become coaches to your students so they listen as well as guide.

Step one is to make sure the education is relevant, meaningful, and purposeful. Students won’t advocate for their own education until they understand their own education. This requires, in many cases, a shift from the traditional, compliance based model toward an engaging, immersive, innovative, applicable, and collaborative based model. If we involve students as co-creators and reimagine the role of teacher as facilitator or coach instead of gatekeeper of information, we can spark passion and curiosity that can help develop life-long learners. Students need to care first and then become excited about learning because they care… if they care deeply and want to make an impact, self-advocacy will be a byproduct

I advocated for my education at The University of Scranton for ten full calendar years. Academically it took only seven and half years. I spent most of my time in my middle years going to school while working close to eighty hours and seven days and seven nights a week back in 2000. My belief was to hurry up in five years. To this day, close to nearly fourteen years later after finishing a Bachelor's degree in Communication and a theater minor, advocating still for time to appreciate a good education. Remembering a good education begins with yourself. Ask yourself, "is advocating for a good education worth it?" The answer should be yes.

These are all good ways to encourage students to become advocates for their own education. I will like to add that sharing stories of people who advocated for one thing or the other and their voices were heard can motivate students to become their own advocates. When their success stories are shared, it can spur up the students to do same. Secondly, sharing with them the benefits of advocacy can also encourage them. When people know the benefits they are going to derive from a thing, they go for it.

To encourage students to take ownership of their education, it's essential to guide them in discovering their passions and aligning them with their ambitions. By helping students identify what truly interests and motivates them, you empower them to actively engage in their learning journey. Once students connect their passions to their aspirations, a sense of ownership naturally emerges. They become more invested in their education because it aligns with their personal goals and interests. This approach not only motivates students but also instills a lifelong love for learning, as they see the relevance and purpose in what they are studying.

Define, model, teach, empower, celebrate, sustain are all ciritcal pillars to instilling a desire to advocate for oneself in education. However, a point of guidance or advice would also have to be motivating students to have a vision. The envisioned endstate is just as important as lighting the fire within student to demand more. Still further, simply informing students that they should have some sort of a goal or a set of milestones to pass may not be enough. Students should be challenged to think all the way through their educational experience and what may lay on the other side of that. True, a lot of students may not be ready to think that far but nothing says that students can't dream big while they are just getting started.