This essay critically reviews the application of Invitational Education (IE) beyond classrooms and schools by examining the activities of an educational volunteer program (The Atherton Gardens Homework Support Program). The authors advocate that in order to have a meaningful effect, IE needs to be implemented along with principles of other…

A review of the literature which concentrates on Invitational Theory and Practice (ITP) has revealed an inconsistent and oft times confusing or contradictory use of named concepts, labels, phrases, wordings, definitions, and other such titles of major ITP principles (Shaw and Siegel, 2010). Presented in a glossary type format, the purpose of this…

Invitational theory presents the concept of invitations as related to five factors: people, places, policies, programs, and processes (Purkey & Schmidt, 1990). In this article, the author proposes the addition of a sixth "P," politics. The assumption is that without addressing the political aspect of schools and school systems,…

Teacher education serves an important role in preparing teacher candidates to engage with diverse student populations. This study supports a need for candidates to practice Invitational Theory and Practice when teaching students from diverse backgrounds. To assess candidate growth, we used Schmidt's (2007) Six Elements of Diversity as a lens for…

This study describes the process of creating an Invitational Learning environment to improve the writing competence of middle school students in two special education classes. Teacher-student interactions were coded according to Purkey and Novak's (1996) Intentionality/Invitation Quadrant with levels corresponding to intentionally disinviting,…

A couple of decades ago, a visiting anthropologist agreed with some U.S. authors that the American intellectual on university campuses is basically dead and his/her demise is reflected in the superficial, boring, and uninspiring content to which students are exposed. More recent evidence indicates that things have not changed very much. In this…

In recent years, research has shown that school climate is one of the most important contributors to student achievement, success, and psychological well-being. In order to make informed decisions regarding school development, it is paramount for a school administrator to be aware of perceived school experience (school climate) of the major…

This article is a follow-up on a previous quantitative study (Steyn, 2007) which explored key aspects that influenced the effective implementation of Invitational Education (IE) in schools in the United States of America (US) and Hong Kong (HK). This is a qualitative study in which an appreciative inquiry (AI) is used to explain staff's positive…

Making educational places more inviting to learners is a key aspect of Invitational Theory. This paper introduces a simple technique for sensitizing learners and instructors to how their environment affects their feelings and ability to learn. It describes a learning exercise that may be used to assess, evaluate and transform places, to promote…

Over 15,000 military dependent students attend Hawaii public schools, about 8% of the total student population. The transition to Hawaii schools has been identified by many military families as a challenge and one more difficult than other transitions their families have made. A generally acknowledged negative perception of Hawaii public schools…

It is acknowledged, nationally and internationally, that Invitational Education is actively practised in many schools. However, there is a paucity of articles describing the relationship between Invitational Education and specific disciplines at the elementary and high school levels. As such, this article attempts to address this shortcoming by…

Invitational theory uses many elements to define, describe, and delineate its beliefs and practices. For example, the Five Ps of people, places, policies, programs, and processes are consistently cited in the literature and research as the framework for assessing inviting practices. Another example is the presentation of four areas of inviting:…

In this article, invitational theory is applied to the process of mentoring. The results of three research studies exploring mentoring of first-year school teachers led to factor analysis research in which 22 specific mentor related activities and behaviors in assisting first-year teachers are identified. These results were compiled to create the…

Genuineness, the condition of sincerity in behaving as one's unadulterated self, is a concept that is inherently congruent with inviting behavior yet is not directly addressed in the literature concerned with Invitational Theory. The author discusses the concept of genuineness, describes how it fits Invitational Theory and argues for its inclusion…

Examples from case studies and practices are used to clarify the theoretical framework and to illustrate the success of Invitational Theory as one of the theories taught in Waikato Polytechnic's Diploma of Adult Learning and Teaching. Concludes by pointing out many challenges Invitational Theory poses for adult educators in general and this…