AERA Invitational Education SIG

The Invitational Education Special Interest Group
of the
American Educational Research Association

Purpose: To further educational research in the area of invitational education. A self-concept approach to human development that focuses on the ways people and educational systems transmit messages that invite positive and beneficial relationships.

Primary Goals

To explore all aspects of the invitational process in which one person, such as a teacher, effectively encourages another to relate, assert, invest, and cope better in the world.

To provide opportunities for those interested in Invitational Education to exchange ideas and research findings regularly.

To invite all professionals to integrate the concepts and methods of the inviting process into their understanding of teaching and learning.

Invitational Education is a democratically oriented, perceptually anchored, self-concept approach to the educative process that centers on five basic principles:

People are able, valuable and responsible an should be treated accordingly
Educating should be a collaborative, cooperative activity
The process is the product in the making
People possess untapped potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor
This potential can best be realized by places, policies, programs, and processes specifically designed to invite development and by people who are intentionally inviting with themselves and other personally and professionally

Purkey, W.W., & Novak, J.M., (1996). Inviting school success: A self-concept approach to teaching, learning, and democratic practice. Belmont,CA: Wadsworth, p.3.