Student Voice Research

This work interrupts the current “consulting students” discourse that positions students as service clients and thus renders more problematic the concept of student voice in ways that it might be sustained as a democratic process. It looks at student voice holistically across realms of classroom practices, higher education, practitioner inquiry and policy formulation. The authors render problematic the “empowerment” rhetoric that is the dominant and insufficient narrative justifying consulting children and young people. They explore the many contradictions and ambiguities associating with recruiting and encouraging them to participate and the varying impacts of different circumstances on the ways in which student voice projects are enacted. They perceive that it is possible for student voice projects to be subverted from both above and below as varying stakeholders with varying purposes struggle to manage and control projects. Importantly, the book reports on research that identifies and highlights conditions for initiating and sustaining student voice and include “beyond school” dimensions that consider young people as “audiences” who can inform community facilities, their development and design as well as undergraduate students in universities. These cases are not reported as celebratory, but rather act as narratives that illuminate the many challenges facing those who chose to work with young people in authentic ways. It both advances methodologies for engaging young people as active agents in the design and interpretation of research that concerns them and offers a critique of those methods that see young people as the objects of research, where the data is mined for purposes that do not recognise that students are the consequential stakeholders with respect to decisions made in their interests.​

Student Voice Revolution: The Meaningful Student Involvement Handbook is the brand new mastery guide focused on student voice, student engagement, student/adult partnerships and more. Containing tons of details, this book is focused on engaging all students in every school as partners in every facet of education for the purpose of strengthening their commitment to learning, community and democracy. There are more than 75 examples from the author's experience and research throughout education literature. Never before published tools, new models and useful tips are featured, along with hundreds of citations, dozens of current and historical anecdotes and more. This book also highlights unique approaches, detailed assessment and critical examinations of school activities, all of which make this unlike anything else available today. It was written for educators, students, teachers-in-training, school leaders and advocates for education reform. Student Voice Revolution is an optimistic, realistic and practical wake up call for the future of schools in democratic society. Are YOU ready for the revolution?

High schools continue to be places that isolate, alienate, and disengage students. But what would happen if students were viewed as part of the solution in schools rather than part of the problem? This book examines the emergence of "student voice" at one high school in the San Francisco Bay area where educators went straight to the source and asked the students to help. Struggling, like many high schools, with how to improve student outcomes, educators at Whitman High School decided to invite students to participate in the reform process. Dana L. Mitra describes the evolution of student voice at Whitman, showing that the students enthusiastically created partnerships with teachers and administrators, engaged in meaningful discussion about why so many failed or dropped out, and partnered with teachers and principals to improve learning for themselves and their peers. In documenting the difference that student voice made, this book helps expand ideas of distributed leadership, professional learning communities, and collaboration. The book also contributes much needed research on what student voice initiatives look like in practice and provides powerful evidence of ways in which young people can increase their sense of agency and their sense of belonging in school.

Meaningful school reform starts with your most powerful partner—your students! When you take time to listen, you’ll find that students’ aspirations can drive your school toward exciting new goals—and when students know they’re being heard, they engage meaningfully in their own academic success. Using examples drawn from student surveys, focus groups, observations, and interviews, this groundbreaking book presents a blueprint for a successful partnership between educators and students. You’ll discover how to: Ask the right questions—and understand how to build from the answers Engage students in decision-making and improvement-related processes Implement the Aspirations Framework to guide students toward their full potential

This powerful resource is for researchers and educational leaders who are interested in understanding and applying research methods that emphasize youth voice. The authors argue that most educational research either omits critical understandings of youth or, even worse, presents inaccuracies due to faulty techniques. Researching how youth experience their schools and communities requires specific conceptual tools that address researcher bias, power dynamics, and the contextual considerations that impact meaning-making processes. Responding to these issues, the authors present the Student Voice Research Framework—an approach that both novice and advanced researchers can use to address assumptions and overcome bias as they engage with youth. Readers are provided with clear steps for implementing the framework, as well as examples of how some of the most innovative qualitative and quantitative researchers in the world are using it. The text includes numerous interview, survey, and other protocols with strategies that researchers can use immediately or adapt for their own studies. This comprehensive volume is a must-have for anyone doing research about and with youth. Book Features: Guidance for addressing persistent problems of bias in educational inquiry to better engage in study about and with students. Examination of student voice research as its own field with its own typologies and research questions.Chapters highlighting innovative qualitative and quantitative research methods and strategies with ready-to-use protocols and other tools.A forward-looking conversation about social justice and what democracy could look like in schools.A toolkit of research methods and school change processes to address difficult questions in education. Contributors include Alison Cook-Sather, Pat Thomson, Eve Mayes, Kate Wall, and William Frick.

The Student Voice movement of the United Kingdom influences discussion across various levels of education. Equally, international responses to Student Voice extend the debate and movement further. This text locates Student Voice within wider debates around empowered citizenry and the 'big society'.

This book examines the importance of exploring the varied and diverse perspectives of student experiences. In both academic institutions and everyday discourse, the notion of the ‘student voice’ is an ever-present reminder of the importance placed upon the student experience in Higher Education: particularly in a context where the financial burden of undertaking a university education continues to grow. The editors and contributors explore how notions of the ‘student voice’ as a single, monolithic entity may in fact obscure divergence in the experiences of students. Placing so much emphasis on the ‘student voice’ may lead educators and policy makers to miss important messages communicated – or consciously uncommunicated – through student actions. This book also explores ways of working in partnership with students to develop their own experiences. It is sure to be of interest and value to scholars of the student experience and its inherent diversity.

This handbook brings together in a single volume the groundbreaking work of scholars who have conducted studies of student experiences of school in Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, England, Ghana, Ireland, Pakistan, and the United States. Drawing extensively on students’ interpretations of their experiences in school as expressed in their own words, chapter authors offer insight into how students conceptualize and approach school. The book examines how students understand and address the ongoing social opportunities for and challenges in working with other students and teachers, and the multiple ways in which students shape and contribute to school improvement.