Student voice describes the distinct perspectives and actions of young people throughout schools focused on education. “Student voice is giving students the ability to influence learning to include policies, programs, contexts and principles.”
Definition
Student voice is the individual and collective perspective and actions of young people within the context of learning and education. It is identified in schools as both a metaphorical practice and as a pragmatic concern.
Practice
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.
Several typologies differentiate the practices that identify as student voice. One identifies multiple roles for students throughout the education system, including education planning, research, teaching, evaluating, decision-making and advocacy.
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,:
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. 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.
Curricular approaches
Specific types of activities that can specifically engage student voice include teaching, education decision-making, school planning, participatory action research, learning and teaching evaluations, educational advocacy, and student advisories for principals and superintendents.
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. Students are also participate 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 trend beginning to encompass a much larger element of 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 Student Councils in Victoria, Australia. It is supported with funding from the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) and auspiced by the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVic). The VicSRC is an organisation run by secondary school students, elected by their peers.
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. 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.
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. Over 2900 SpeakUp projects led by students have received grants. The 9 Student Voice indicators are the outcome of regional student forums held across the province. The members of the Minister’s First Student Advisory Council met in May and August 2009 and have made four key recommendations. The members of the Second Minister’s Student Advisory Council have been selected, and have already met in May 2010, and are to meet again in August. 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.
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.
United Kingdom
The English Secondary Student’s Association is the representative body for secondary students in England. It aims to support students in expressing their views about education by providing workshops and a network of support with other secondary school students. The National College for School Leadership provides career-long learning and development opportunities, professional and practical support for England’s existing and aspiring school leaders. Their goal is to ensure that school leaders have the skills, recognition, capacity and ambition to transform the school education system into the best in the world. The Phoenix Education Trust is the organisation that helped to found ESSA and currently provides the students with administrative support. It aims to explore and support education in which children are trusted and respected and their participation in decision-making is encouraged. involver support schools to develop sustainable structures for effective student voice, school councils and participation, and work with teachers and pupils in primary, secondary and special schools. involver provides training, resources, ongoing support and access to a large UK network of schools. The Organizing Bureau of European School Students Unions is the umbrella organisation for secondary school student organisations in European. Some state schools are also pushing student Voice internally and independently across the UK. Schools like Quintin Kynaston School are now recognised for having one of the largest and most active Student Voice ‘faculties’ in the country.
Ireland
In Ireland, the Irish Second-Level Students’ Union (ISSU) is the national umbrella body for second-level school Student Councils.
United States
SoundOut is the only nonprofit education program in the US solely focused on engaging student voice throughout education. SoundOut works with students, educators, administrators, policy-makers, and academics to raise the profile, substance, and effect of student voice in K-12 settings across the country. The National Youth Rights Association advocates for increased recognition for student rights in schools, including the right to privacy, student access to records, and student representation throughout the education system. What Kids Can Do shares stories of student voice throughout the educational process, both within the school system and throughout the community. Their highlights emphasize exceptional learning, belonging, and engagement of students in a variety of capacities for a variety of purposes, the greatest of which is in order to promote student voice. WKCD has authored several books about student voice, primarily written by Kathleen Cushman working with high school students, including Fires in the Bathroom: Advice from high schools students for teachers and Sent to the Principal’s Office. Education|Evolving integrates student voices with current major topics in education policy and maintains an online clearinghouse of student voices on education policy. Their website also has students describing the learning experiences on video. The High School Survey of Student Engagement works with high schools across the country to capture students’ beliefs and experiences, and strengthen student engagement in schools.
Outcomes
Student voice is increasingly identified as a pillar of successful school reform, as educational researchers, academic institutions, and educational support organizations around the world increasingly advocate for the inclusion of students in the reform process after identifying student voice as a vital element of student engagement.
Criticism
Critical educators including bell hooks, Paulo Freire, and Henry Giroux have voiced concern with the singular notion of a student voice. Another expert has written about this over-simplification, saying that:
It is not enough to simply listen to student voice. Educators have an ethical imperative to do something with students, and that is why meaningful student involvement is vital to school improvement.