Student voice or empowerment? Examining the role of school-based youth-adult partnerships as an avenue toward focusing on social justice

Drawing on the parallel literature on increasing student voice in the field of education and on building youth-adult partnerships in the youth development field, this article examines the place of young people in efforts to increase social justice in school settings. Through an examination of thirteen youth-adult partnership initiatives, it considers the ways in which students and adults can collaborate to examine issues of equity and injustice that they experience in their lives, in their schools, in their communities, and in broader society. The findings identify that the groups' intended goals focused on addressing issues of equity and social justice on three levels - the system level by focusing on issues of intolerance and injustice, the organizational level by advocating for school change, and the individual level by fostering youth leadership and peer helping. Cooyright 2006 by the INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC JOURNAL FOR LEADERSHIP IN LEARNING.