I have been thinking a great about student voice lately. Firstly, this week marked Student Voice Day. I’m not sure where #Studentvoiceday originated, but my Our Global Classroom PLF created a Flipgrid especially for Student Voice day which had so many contributions from classrooms and students all over the world. Check out some of the awesome things shared here.
I have also been thinking about it because I am researching the impact of mentorship on digital citizenship, digital literacy, and student voice and agency for my MEd project–did I mention that I am probably the luckiest student ever to have not one but two of the most prolific experts at Ontario Tech University (Dr. Janette Hughes and Dr. Robin Kay) advising me???). But I digress. I need to pace my research with data collecting so I don’t lose my mind and stumbled across the work of Dana Mitra. In her lIterature review for her article, Student voice in secondary schools, she shares a hierarchy of student voice:
At the bottom, is Listening. Listening is about students sharing their voices and opinions, while adults interpret information and possibly act on it.
Next is Collaboration, which is defined as adults and youth working together, whereby adults initiate the relationship and ultimately have the final say in what happens.
Mitra (2018) places leadership at the top of the student voice pyramid. In Leadership, students make decisions while the adults assist. She clarifies that most examples exist outside of school, but that there is greater benefit to youth and adults alike, if this model was assumed in school transformation.
That really got me thinking about the way in which I incorporate student voice into my own practice.
Last year, when I interviewed 48 students during their spare to inquire about makes the biggest difference in their learning, I recorded and thematically summarized the results, which I shared on my blog and with my colleagues. I was Listening. Did anything change? Not really.
When I invited a student to co-teach a lesson in an Art class, we were collaborating. The student gave us her expertise and showed us how to use Tumblr, but we gave it the golden seal of approval and created teacher example. Sometimes, we invite students to give input on school decisions or be a part of committees. This feels like collaborating as well; students see that they are a part of the process, but that the adult is the ultimate authority. Isn’t this good enough?
What I am seeing in the ONedSschat as I pour over tweets, write out the narrative of our journey, and re-watch the webinars is definitely leadership when it comes to student voice; and as Mitra suggests, is technically outside of school. I am also wondering about the PBL global collaborative project which does have students make their own choice of topic, questions, and action plan…Is this leadership in Mitra’s hierarchy? If I am evaluating it, then is it collaborating?
What are some of the examples in your own practice of student voice ? Does this hierarchy make sense to you? I am glad I stumbled upon this and would love to know what you think.
Mitra, D. (2018). Student voice in secondary schools: The possibility for deeper change.Journal of Educational Administration, 56(5), 473-487.
