Student voice is the individual and collective perspective and actions of students within the context of learning and education.Fletcher, A. (2003) "Broadening the bounds of involvement: Transforming schools with student voice." SoundOut.org.SoundOut. Student Voice Tip Sheet. Accessed 12/18/06.Fletcher, A. (2014) The Guide to Student Voice, 2nd Edition. Olympia, WA: CommonAction Publishing. pg 2. It is identified in schools as both a metaphorical practiceBritzman, D. (1989). "Who has the floor? Curriculum teaching and the English student teacher's struggle for voice", Curriculum Inquiry. 19(2), 143-162. and as a pragmatic concern.Rogers, A. (2005). "Student voice: Bridges to learning." Seattle: University of Washington. Tech educator Dennis Harper noted that student voice gives students "the ability to influence learning to include policies, programs, contexts and principles."Harper, D. (2000). Students as Change Agents: The Generation Y Model. Olympia, WA: Generation Y.
Practice According to Adam Fletcher, student voice is a phenomenon that has always been present in schools; what makes it noticeable is the willingness of educators and others to listen to student voice.Fletcher, A. (2017) Student Voice Revolution: The Meaningful Student Involvement Handbook. Olympia, WA: CommonAction Publishing. Rebecca Coda and Rick Jetter also argue that student voice should not be viewed as a form of "treason", but rather should be viewed as a partnership between adult and student.Coda, R., and Jetter, R.(2018). Let Them Speak! How Student Voice Can Transform Your School. California: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
Student voice work is premised on the following convictions: Young people have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and schooling; Their insights warrant not only the attention but also the responses of adults; and They should be afforded opportunities to actively shape their education.Cook-Sather, A. (2006). Sound, Presence, and Power: Exploring ‘Student Voice’ in Educational Research and Reform. Curriculum Inquiry 36, 4 (Winter), 359-390
Several typologies differentiate the practices that identify as student voice.Fielding, M. (2004). “New wave” student voice and the renewal of civic society. London Review of Education 2, 3 (November), 197-217Lodge, C. (2005). From hearing voices to engaging in dialogue: Problematising student participation in school improvement. Journal of Educational Change, 6, 2 (June), 125-146.Thiessen, D. (1997). Knowing about, acting on behalf of, and working with primary pupils’ perspectives: Three levels of engagement with research. In A. Pollard, D. Thiessen & A. Filer (Eds.), Children and their curriculum (pp. 184–196). London, Falmer Press. One identifies multiple roles for students throughout the education system, including education planning, research, teaching, evaluating, decision-making and advocacy.(n.d.)Examples of Meaningful Student Involvement. SoundOut website.Fletcher, A. (2017)
Administrative approaches The presence and engagement of student voice has been seen as essential to the educational process since at least the time of John Dewey, if not long before. In 1916 Dewey wrote extensively about the necessity of engaging student experience and perspectives in the curriculum of schools, summarizing his support by saying:Democracy and Education. John Dewey, 1916 The essence of the demand for freedom is the need of conditions which will enable an individual to make his own special contribution to a group interest, and to partake of its activities in such ways that social guidance shall be a matter of his own mental attitude, and not a mere authoritative dictation of his acts.
Today student voice is seeing a resurgence of importance as a growing body of literature increasingly identifies student voice as necessary throughout the educational process.Alison Cook-Sather, Authorizing Student Perspectives: Towards Trust, Dialogue, and Respect in Education (2002) http://www.aera.net/publications/?id=434 Areas where advocates encourage actively acknowledging student voice include curriculum design and instructional methods, educational leadership and general school reform activities, including research and evaluation.Student Voice Links from the SoundOut website
Curricular approaches Specific types of activities that can specifically engage student voice include learning by teaching, education decision-making, school planning, participatory action research, learning and teaching evaluations, educational advocacy, and student advisories for principals and superintendents.Meaningful Student Involvement Guide to Students as Partners in School Change Adam Fletcher, 2005.
Service learning Engaging student voice is a primary objective of service learning, which commonly seeks to entwine classroom learning objectives with community service opportunities. Student voice is also present in student government programs, experiential education activities, and other forms of student-centered learning.
Student as education decision-makers Engaging students as educational decision-makers is the practice of actively teaching young people responsibility for their education by systematically engaging them in making choices about learning, schooling, and the education system in areas ranging from what affects them personally to what affects an entire student body to what affects the entire school system.
Choosing curricula, calendar year planning, school building design, teacher hiring, and many more issues are often seen as the duties of a school principal or teachers. Today those roles are increasingly seen as avenues for student voice. Students are joining boards of education at all levels, including local, district, and state boards. Some education agencies engage students as staff in programs where they make decisions about grant making, school assessment, and other areas.(n.d.) Youth Leadership & Service Team Washington State Office of Supertintendent of Public Instruction Students are also participating in decision-making by establishing and enforcing codes of conduct and in personal education decision-making, such as choosing classes and deciding whether to attend school.
Worldwide examples Education reform has long been the domain of parents, teachers, school administrators and politicians. In some nations, however, there is a growing trend of greater student participation in scholastic affairs.
Australia The Connect journal, published in Melbourne, features dozens of examples of student voice throughout education in its bi-monthly publication.
The Victorian Student Representative Council is the umbrella or peak body of students in Victoria, Australia. It is supported with funding from the Victorian Department of Education and Training. The VicSRC is an organisation run by secondary school students, elected by their peers.
The New South Wales Student Representative Council is the peak student leadership consultative and decision-making forum in New South Wales.
Canada Including student voice on district school boards was mandated by the Ontario Education Act in 1998. Students in each one of the 72 provincial school boards are represented by a 'pupil representative', commonly called "Student Trustee". They are meant to represent the needs and concerns of students in discussions with the school board administration and the province. The Ontario Student Trustees' Association, OSTA-AECO, has become Ontario's chief student stakeholder, providing professional development to its members and advocates for students' educational interests.OSTA-AECO website. The Society for Democratic Education is an organization in Toronto that includes many aspects of heightened student inclusion in education reform policy. The Society for Democratic Education was founded in early 2005 by Bianca Wylie. It has published several essays and position papers that discuss the importance of wide-scale education reform, especially in how it applies to secondary level education and civic education.The Society for Democratic Education website.
Another Canadian organization of note is Learning for a Cause founded in 2004 by educator and poet Michael Ernest Sweet Learning for a Cause which promotes student voices for social change through creative writing and publishing opportunities for Canadian students.
Provincial governments and Ministries of Education across Canada are also getting on board with student engagement and student voice. Alberta Education launched Speak Out – the Alberta Student Engagement Initiative in November 2008 and thousands of students have been sharing their ideas on how to improve how education looks and feels for them.
Ontario's SpeakUp initiative seeks students ideas on what strengthens their engagement in their learning. Ontario's student voice program is centered on four main initiatives, the Minister's Student Advisory Council (MSAC), SpeakUp projects, SpeakUp in a Box and Student Regional Forums.
The Minister’s Student Advisory Council (MSAC) is composed of sixty students, from Grades 7 to 12, they are selected annually to share their ideas and submit recommendations directly to the Ontario Minister of Education. MSAC also determines the themes for Regional Student Forums taking place during the school year. The members of the Minister's Student Advisory Council have been selected in each year since the inaugural year including 2010, 2011, and 2012. SpeakUp projects are micro-grants for students. Student submit applications for projects they have designed that support the goals of the Student Voice initiative, over 1.2 million dollars in grant money is available yearly. Over 5000 SpeakUp projects have been led since 2008. Regional Student Forums are held across the province where students are invited to explore, discuss, and make recommendations about factors that facilitate/hinder their learning. Last, SpeakUp in a box allows students to hold their own forums for 30 people free of charge with the Ontario Ministry of Education providing the materials to do so. More information is available at SpeakUp.
The Calgary Board of Education, in 2010, launched the Chief Superintendent's Student Advisory Council – a group of high school students with student representation from each of the Calgary Board of Education's high school programs. They meet regularly with the Calgary Board of Education's Chief Superintendent, Naomi Johnson, to discuss issues in the system and propose solutions.Empowering Student Voice Information Package.
Student Voice Initiative is a national movement in Canada to give students a voice in their education. Student Voice Initiative operates on a foundation of support from policy-makers, school administrators, academics, and students from across North America and the world in support of giving students a greater voice in their own education. The core mandate of the organization arose from the success of the 'student trustee' position within the Ontario education community, which has fostered a student leadership framework ranging from student councils at every school, to student senates and student trustees at the regional or district school board level, to the formation of a provincial stakeholder in the Ontario Student Trustees' Association.
Chile A powerful example of student voice in school improvement comes from the 2006 student protests in Chile. Throughout the spring of that year, public high school students from across the country began a series of protests, school takeovers, and negotiations designed to bolster support for public education improvement. After seeing the massive effect of the students, government officials met their demands and are working to support ongoing reforms as necessitated by students.
The government's failure at meeting the core student proposals triggered the biggest social protests in Chile since the return of democracy, in 2011.
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