Diverse student voice approaches across Europe

Abstract

The Student voice concept encompasses the right for learners to express their opinions, access people who influence decisions and actively participate in educational decision‐making processes. In this article, three features of a European Erasmus Plus project called “BRIDGE” are presented in a sequence ranging from theoretical considerations for school improvement to an analysis of school contexts and settings, followed by a presentation of results from working with one of the project’s student voice tools. Central in each example is the notion that working in partnership with students will enable students to become more self‐directed learners and active citizens.

Students experiencing and developing democratic citizenship through curriculum negotiation: the relevance of Garth Boomer’s approach

“…To visualize the curriculum negation model from the curriculum perspective, we designed an an illustration (Figure 1) of the curriculum negotiation process between the teacher and the students. The negotiation process is at the heart of the model (Bron, 2018;Bron, Emerson & Kakonyi, 2018). On the left side, we position teachers who use external requirements and materials such as national curriculum frameworks and textbooks to make decisions about J.bron@slo.nl Pagina 22…”

“…A promising approach is to promote the participation of students in decision-making about school or university affairs for a variety of reasons such as the promotion of student agency, motivation and participation. This is apparent in curriculum renewals in Australia and New Zealand amongst others (Sinnema & Aitken, 2013) but also in a growing number of European countries (Bron, Emerson & Kakonyi, 2018). This approach is increasingly being seen and that is often accompanied by a lexicon of partnership, student leadership, student agency and student voice (Rodgers, Freeman, Williams & Kane, 2011;Sinnema & Aitken, 2013;Black & Groundwater-Smith, 2014).…”

Student Voice and Student Feedback: How Critical Pragmatism Can Reframe Research and Practice

“…Situated amidst complex regulatory frameworks, schools at times operate between conflicting objectives. It can, therefore, be difficult to see ways in which student feedback and student voice research can navigate competing priorities, institutional contexts, and pedagogical beliefs (Bourke & Loveridge, 2016;Bron et al, 2018;Holcar Brunauer, 2019). Researchers have an important role.…”

“…Within the broader context of student voice, and by association student feedback, there are many rich discussions taking place across an international arena. Central to much of this is the acknowledgement that there are difficulties in accommodating national policies and competing priorities, differences in school contexts, and views that exist on pedagogical approaches, as evidenced by research emerging from countries who are working on collaborative European projects (Bron et al, 2018;Holcar Brunauer, 2019). We need, therefore, to appreciate the constraints and challenges imposed on schools endeavouring to meet requirements, wherever they are situated.…”

Partizipation in Lehr-Lern-Arrangements: Literaturreview und kritische Würdigung des Partizipationskonzepts

“…nichts von entsprechenden Möglichkeiten weiß, da relevante Entscheidungen oft ohne Einbezug der Lernenden getroffen werden. Bron et al (2018) berichten, dass ca. 75-80 % der befragten Lernenden keine bis wenige Partizipationsmöglichkeiten im Hinblick auf die unterrichtliche Themenwahl, die Auswahl von Hausaufgaben oder der im Unterricht eingesetzten Lehr-Lern-Methoden sehen.…”