Student voice
[13][14] 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:[15] 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[16] increasingly identifies student voice as necessary throughout the educational process.
[18] 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.
The Connect journal, published in Melbourne, features dozens of examples of student voice throughout education in its bi-monthly publication.
[21] Including student voice on district school boards was mandated by the Ontario Education Act in 1998.
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.
They meet regularly with the Calgary Board of Education's Chief Superintendent, Naomi Johnson, to discuss issues in the system and propose solutions.
The government's failure at meeting the core student proposals triggered the biggest social protests in Chile since the return of democracy, in 2011.
Tower Hamlets primary school children have learnt about Summerhill and their legal fight[32] for their children's rights; and regularly work with their local town hall to express their views with the support of HEC Global Learning Centre, including primary conferences.
[38] involver provides training, resources, ongoing support and access to a large UK network of schools.
Schools like Quintin Kynaston Community Academy are now recognised for having one of the largest and most active Student Voice 'faculties' in the country.
[39] Many national organizations and media outlets across the United States have addressed student voice recently, including KQED,[40] Edutopia,[41] The Washington Post, and others.
They are finding organizations like Student Voice, What Kids Can Do and SoundOut, as well as local efforts happening across the country.
Pushing Boundaries Consulting, LLC is dedicated to ensuring that student voice leads a reform in education through the Let Them Speak!
Project including the work of Rebecca Coda, Rick Jetter, and student ambassador Isaiah Sterling.
[43] In addition to projects across North America[44] and numerous academic citations of their works, SoundOut has also been recognized by UNICEF as "a helpful organization that focuses on promoting student voice in schools.
Through the use of their @Stu_Voice Twitter page, thousands have come together to speak out using the #StuVoice hashtag during weekly Student Voice chats.
[46] What Kids Can Do shares stories of student voice throughout the educational process, both within the school system and throughout the community.
"Your Voice: The Student’s Agenda" (2019) was an experimental 8 to 10-minute journalistic genre-blending news report series produced for Rhodes University's Oppidan Press in South Africa.
It was developed, funded and helmed by Banathi Mgqoboka, an award-winning South African multi-platform journalist, writer and media research scholar.
In a grassroots campaign style, the communicative ethos of the series aimed to unpack various hard-hitting contemporary sociopolitical issues that affect the communal student experience.
Rooted in the principles of Constructive, Engaged and Solutions Journalism practices, the series’ format progressively used a crowd-sourced approach to solicit problem-driven stories from over 7,000 students (via Twitter/X, Facebook and group email lists), whilst applying a solutions journalism approach to news reporting.
The pilot featured contributions from academics in the disciplines of ethics, feminist theory and psychology as well as responses from Rape Crisis Cape Town Trust (NPO), a support and safety organisation dedicated to empowering survivors of rape and other sexual offences.
