Alison Cook-Sather
Biographic Data
| ID | 3701311 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alison Cook-Sather |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alison |
| FAMILY NAME | Cook-Sather |
| SIGNATURE | COOK-SATHER A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bryn Mawr College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 280 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Co-creation of learning and teaching as an equity-oriented approach
Efforts to share decision-making and responsibility for learning and teaching can be impeded by the hierarchical structures and practices of most institutions of higher education. However, without such sharing, inequitable practices can be perpetuated. Granting power to both learners and teachers disrupts traditional hierarchies, values the learner and the teacher role as agentic, and holds promise for co-creating more equitable practices. This o…
What do students and teachers talk about when they talk together about feedback and assessment? Expanding notions of feedback literacy through pedagogical partnership
Responding to calls for partnership among students and teachers in feedback and assessment, this study explores the question: What do students and teaching staff talk about when they talk together about feedback and assessment? We used reflexive thematic analysis to interpret 15 hours of conversation involving 14 students and 22 staff members as they collaborated to redesign feedback practices in eight courses by co-creating a plan for change. Th…
‘I was involved as an equal member of the community’: How pedagogical partnership can foster a sense of belonging in Black, female students
Research suggests that a sense of belonging is fundamental to students’ engagement, persistence and success in postsecondary education, and that racism systematically works against Black students experiencing these. Participating in student–staff pedagogical partnership can foster a sense of belonging, contribute to culturally sustaining pedagogy, and redress harms experienced by minoritised postsecondary students. Using a conceptual framework in…
Student voice across contexts: Fostering student agency in today's schools
Student voice is a concept and a set of approaches that position students alongside credentialed educators as critics and creators of educational practice. Student voice and student agency are closely linked when school stakeholders connect the sound of students speaking with students having the power to influence practices and analyses of education. In this article I draw on empirical studies conducted in a range of contexts to present an overvi…
Discovering Voices: College Students and Middle Schoolers Explore Identities, Differences, and Connections through the Structure of a Poem
Co-authored by a college professor, a middle-school teacher, a college undergraduate, and a 7th grader, this article focuses on college and middle-school students’ experiences of discovering their own and others’ voices. The discovery unfolds through composing and reflecting on poems in the form of Jacqueline Woodson’s “it’ll be scary sometimes,” which focuses on the experience of being different. The students’ dis-covering of voices deepens thei…
Translating learners, researchers, and qualitative approaches through investigations of students' experiences in school
This article uses the conceptual framework offered by 'translation' to argue for transforming students into authorities and agents in research on educational practice. Drawing on various definitions of translation and highlighting the influence of recent feminist perspectives on translation studies, the article presents two cases that illustrate how learners can be translated into co-researchers of educational experiences, translating researchers…
Students as Learners and Teachers: Taking Responsibility, Transforming Education, and Redefining Accountability
As has been the case throughout the history of education in the United States, the current structures and practices of U.S. schools and colleges are informed by particular ideals regarding the potential of education. Through this comparative descriptive analysis, I argue that a major reason why these ideals have rarely been realized is the way that students are positioned in educational institutions, dialogues, and reform. A preliminary argument …
Making Spaces to Learn
An essay review ofWhat the Best College Teachers Do(Bain, Ken. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004)
I Am Not Afraid to Listen: Prospective Teachers Learning From Students
This article describes a project that positions high school students as teacher educators within an undergraduate secondary certification program. A brief review of researchers' arguments for listening to students and a description of the project contextualize the perspectives of graduates of the program who teach or have taught in city schools. These teachers emphasize how the project allows them to reaccess the student experience in school; get…
Repositioning Students in Initial Teacher Preparation: A Comparative Descriptive Analysis of Learning to Teach for Social Justice in the United States and in England
Discussions of learning to teach for social justice generally focus on the social commitments, institutional structures, course content, and pedagogical processes that support prospective teachers. Missing from this array of foci is a consideration of how school students are positioned within teacher preparation and how their positioning and participation can inform prospective teachers' preparation to teach for social justice. In this article, t…
Resisting the Impositional Potential of Student Voice Work: Lessons for liberatory educational research from poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogy
Early 21st-century cautions regarding student voice work in educational research echo in striking ways some poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogies that proliferated in the early 1990s. Both warn against totalizing, undifferentiated notions of and responses to oppressed, marginalized, and/or disempowered individuals or groups while sharing a commitment to the encouragement of critical analyses of existing social conditions (wi…
Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and Reform
Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is premised on the following convictions: that young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching…
Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education
This article argues for attending to the perspectives of those most directly affected by, but least often consulted about, educational policy and practice: students. The argument for authorizing student perspectives runs counter to U.S. reform efforts, which have been based on adults’ ideas about the conceptualization and practice of education. This article outlines and critiques a variety of recent attempts to listen to students, including const…
Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education
This article argues for attending to the perspectives of those most directly affected by, but least often consulted about, educational policy and practice: students. The argument for authorizing student perspectives runs counter to U.S. reform efforts, which have been based on adults’ ideas about the conceptualization and practice of education. This article outlines and critiques a variety of recent attempts to listen to students, including const…
Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and Reform
Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is premised on the following convictions: that young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching…
Student voice across contexts: Fostering student agency in today's schools
Student voice is a concept and a set of approaches that position students alongside credentialed educators as critics and creators of educational practice. Student voice and student agency are closely linked when school stakeholders connect the sound of students speaking with students having the power to influence practices and analyses of education. In this article I draw on empirical studies conducted in a range of contexts to present an overvi…
I Am Not Afraid to Listen: Prospective Teachers Learning From Students
This article describes a project that positions high school students as teacher educators within an undergraduate secondary certification program. A brief review of researchers' arguments for listening to students and a description of the project contextualize the perspectives of graduates of the program who teach or have taught in city schools. These teachers emphasize how the project allows them to reaccess the student experience in school; get…
Repositioning Students in Initial Teacher Preparation: A Comparative Descriptive Analysis of Learning to Teach for Social Justice in the United States and in England
Discussions of learning to teach for social justice generally focus on the social commitments, institutional structures, course content, and pedagogical processes that support prospective teachers. Missing from this array of foci is a consideration of how school students are positioned within teacher preparation and how their positioning and participation can inform prospective teachers' preparation to teach for social justice. In this article, t…
Resisting the Impositional Potential of Student Voice Work: Lessons for liberatory educational research from poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogy
Early 21st-century cautions regarding student voice work in educational research echo in striking ways some poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogies that proliferated in the early 1990s. Both warn against totalizing, undifferentiated notions of and responses to oppressed, marginalized, and/or disempowered individuals or groups while sharing a commitment to the encouragement of critical analyses of existing social conditions (wi…
Translating learners, researchers, and qualitative approaches through investigations of students' experiences in school
This article uses the conceptual framework offered by 'translation' to argue for transforming students into authorities and agents in research on educational practice. Drawing on various definitions of translation and highlighting the influence of recent feminist perspectives on translation studies, the article presents two cases that illustrate how learners can be translated into co-researchers of educational experiences, translating researchers…
Students as Learners and Teachers: Taking Responsibility, Transforming Education, and Redefining Accountability
As has been the case throughout the history of education in the United States, the current structures and practices of U.S. schools and colleges are informed by particular ideals regarding the potential of education. Through this comparative descriptive analysis, I argue that a major reason why these ideals have rarely been realized is the way that students are positioned in educational institutions, dialogues, and reform. A preliminary argument …
Making Spaces to Learn
An essay review ofWhat the Best College Teachers Do(Bain, Ken. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004)
Authorizing Students’ Perspectives: Toward Trust, Dialogue, and Change in Education
This article argues for attending to the perspectives of those most directly affected by, but least often consulted about, educational policy and practice: students. The argument for authorizing student perspectives runs counter to U.S. reform efforts, which have been based on adults’ ideas about the conceptualization and practice of education. This article outlines and critiques a variety of recent attempts to listen to students, including const…
Sound, Presence, and Power: "Student Voice" in Educational Research and Reform
Every way of thinking is both premised on and generative of a way of naming that reflects particular underlying convictions. Over the last 15 years, a way of thinking has reemerged that strives to reposition students in educational research and reform. Best documented in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States, this way of thinking is premised on the following convictions: that young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching…
Repositioning Students in Initial Teacher Preparation: A Comparative Descriptive Analysis of Learning to Teach for Social Justice in the United States and in England
Discussions of learning to teach for social justice generally focus on the social commitments, institutional structures, course content, and pedagogical processes that support prospective teachers. Missing from this array of foci is a consideration of how school students are positioned within teacher preparation and how their positioning and participation can inform prospective teachers' preparation to teach for social justice. In this article, t…
Resisting the Impositional Potential of Student Voice Work: Lessons for liberatory educational research from poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogy
Early 21st-century cautions regarding student voice work in educational research echo in striking ways some poststructuralist feminist critiques of critical pedagogies that proliferated in the early 1990s. Both warn against totalizing, undifferentiated notions of and responses to oppressed, marginalized, and/or disempowered individuals or groups while sharing a commitment to the encouragement of critical analyses of existing social conditions (wi…
I Am Not Afraid to Listen: Prospective Teachers Learning From Students
This article describes a project that positions high school students as teacher educators within an undergraduate secondary certification program. A brief review of researchers' arguments for listening to students and a description of the project contextualize the perspectives of graduates of the program who teach or have taught in city schools. These teachers emphasize how the project allows them to reaccess the student experience in school; get…
Students as Learners and Teachers: Taking Responsibility, Transforming Education, and Redefining Accountability
As has been the case throughout the history of education in the United States, the current structures and practices of U.S. schools and colleges are informed by particular ideals regarding the potential of education. Through this comparative descriptive analysis, I argue that a major reason why these ideals have rarely been realized is the way that students are positioned in educational institutions, dialogues, and reform. A preliminary argument …
Making Spaces to Learn
An essay review ofWhat the Best College Teachers Do(Bain, Ken. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004)
Translating learners, researchers, and qualitative approaches through investigations of students' experiences in school
This article uses the conceptual framework offered by 'translation' to argue for transforming students into authorities and agents in research on educational practice. Drawing on various definitions of translation and highlighting the influence of recent feminist perspectives on translation studies, the article presents two cases that illustrate how learners can be translated into co-researchers of educational experiences, translating researchers…
Discovering Voices: College Students and Middle Schoolers Explore Identities, Differences, and Connections through the Structure of a Poem
Co-authored by a college professor, a middle-school teacher, a college undergraduate, and a 7th grader, this article focuses on college and middle-school students’ experiences of discovering their own and others’ voices. The discovery unfolds through composing and reflecting on poems in the form of Jacqueline Woodson’s “it’ll be scary sometimes,” which focuses on the experience of being different. The students’ dis-covering of voices deepens thei…
Student voice across contexts: Fostering student agency in today's schools
Student voice is a concept and a set of approaches that position students alongside credentialed educators as critics and creators of educational practice. Student voice and student agency are closely linked when school stakeholders connect the sound of students speaking with students having the power to influence practices and analyses of education. In this article I draw on empirical studies conducted in a range of contexts to present an overvi…
‘I was involved as an equal member of the community’: How pedagogical partnership can foster a sense of belonging in Black, female students
Research suggests that a sense of belonging is fundamental to students’ engagement, persistence and success in postsecondary education, and that racism systematically works against Black students experiencing these. Participating in student–staff pedagogical partnership can foster a sense of belonging, contribute to culturally sustaining pedagogy, and redress harms experienced by minoritised postsecondary students. Using a conceptual framework in…
What do students and teachers talk about when they talk together about feedback and assessment? Expanding notions of feedback literacy through pedagogical partnership
Responding to calls for partnership among students and teachers in feedback and assessment, this study explores the question: What do students and teaching staff talk about when they talk together about feedback and assessment? We used reflexive thematic analysis to interpret 15 hours of conversation involving 14 students and 22 staff members as they collaborated to redesign feedback practices in eight courses by co-creating a plan for change. Th…
Co-creation of learning and teaching as an equity-oriented approach
Efforts to share decision-making and responsibility for learning and teaching can be impeded by the hierarchical structures and practices of most institutions of higher education. However, without such sharing, inequitable practices can be perpetuated. Granting power to both learners and teachers disrupts traditional hierarchies, values the learner and the teacher role as agentic, and holds promise for co-creating more equitable practices. This o…
Pedagogy (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Psychology (10 works) · Higher Education Practises and Engagement (8 works) · Mathematics education (8 works) · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies (6 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Collaborative Teaching and Inclusion (4 works) · Children's Rights and Participation (3 works)