نبذة مختصرة : Children in under-resourced schools are often subjected to a pedagogy of poverty, in which their school days consist primarily of independently completing worksheets and preparing for assessments. By contrast, children in more affluent schools often experience engaging, hands-on learning opportunities. This discrepancy is identified as an opportunity gap in which some students are given chances to develop both academic and non-cognitive skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration, and perseverance, while others are not. This opportunity gap could potentially be narrowed by implementing free-choice/choice-based learning experiences. The focus of this study was to examine the implementation of choice-based learning in selected under-resourced schools. I sought to learn about the decision-making processes of educators and their implementation of choice-based learning. I conducted a multiple case study in which 20 classroom teachers and school/district leaders from six schools shared their experiences and perceptions with me via interviews, written responses, and artifacts. Grade levels from kindergarten through 12th, in urban, rural, and suburban communities from the U.S. West Coast to the Mid-Atlantic region were included. Participants reported several reasons for implementing student choice, including their own K-12 experiences and the support of school/district leadership. They also cited student outcomes, such as the development of non-cognitive skills, as reasons for continuing to implement student choice in multiple ways. Unbeknownst to the participants, the implementation of choice in these schools aligned with guidelines from a pedagogy of plenty and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). A discussion of these results is presented, as well as recommendations for school leaders, teacher educators, and educational researchers, which, if followed, could help to expand implementation of choice-based learning in under-resourced schools.
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