Making children’s and students’ voices heard
Schools have a key role in upholding this principle. At the same time, students need to be aware of both their rights and responsibilities.
Learning about human rights and democracy is a fundamental first step for becoming an informed and responsible citizen.
Students also need to participate in activities such as debating and community work. Skills, knowledge and critical understanding must be coupled with the attitudes and values that form part of a democratic culture. All this should be promoted through a whole-school approach.
Facts & figures
While students make up approximately 92% of any given school’s population, the decisions in school are routinely made by the remaining 8% who are adults.[1]
Students learn better when they are engaged partners throughout the educational process.[2]
What is student voice?
Student voice is the right of students to have a say in matters that affect them in their schools, and to have their views and opinions taken seriously. It encompasses all aspects of school life and decision-making where young learners are able to make a meaningful contribution, adapted to their age and stage of development. It stretches from informal situations in which students express an opinion to their peers or staff members to participation in democratic structures or mechanisms, such as student parliaments and consultations.
Student voice can vary from simple self-expression to taking on a leadership role in an aspect of school life. It can be characterised according to a 6-fold typology of increasing complexity and responsibility:
- Expression – voice an opinion
- Consultation – asked for an opinion
- Participation – attend and preferably play an active role in a meeting
- Partnership – have a formal role in decision-making
- Activism – identify a problem, propose a solution, and advocate its adoption
- Leadership – plan and make decisions
Given that the relevant activities are age-appropriate, student voice can be expressed anywhere in the school community, in and out of lessons, e.g., through inviting students to comment on teaching approaches and techniques, suggest topics for class discussion, participate in school policy committees and/or consultations, or just join in a casual conversation on school matters with a teacher or other staff member in their free time.
Why is student voice important at school?
Student voice is rooted in the concept of children’s rights and human rights. In particular, Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) establishes the right of every child to have a say in matters which affect them, whether in or out of school, as well as to be involved in decisions that affect them. More generally, the UNCRC includes other articles that seek to increase students’ voice, including the right to seek and receive information, to express their own views and to associate with others.
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 12
“Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.”[3]
Student voice can have many benefits both for schools and the wider society – for example:
- Participation in school decision-making fosters a sense of citizenship in young learners, helping them to develop important competences, e.g. co-operation and communication skills, self-efficacy, responsibility, civic-mindedness and respect for the value of democracy – all of which lie at the heart of the Council of Europe Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC).
- Contributing to their school community gives young learners a sense of belonging, develops self-esteem and can lead to more respectful relationships. This has a positive influence on school discipline and helps to reduce the incidence of problems such as drop-out, bullying, substance abuse and radicalisation.
- Engaging students in active learning activities in class has a positive effect not only on the classroom atmosphere, but also on the educational achievements of students and their peers.
What are the challenges?
There are a number of major areas of challenge facing the development of student voice in schools.
The first relates to the attitudes of other school stakeholders. Parents, teachers school leaders and others who have traditional views of schooling sometimes feel that children and young people should be ‘seen and not heard’ in school. They think respect for others and for authority are best developed in a culture of deference. To counteract attitudes of this kind school leaders need to introduce elements of student voice gradually, explaining the process clearly to school stakeholders and sharing the successes with them when they take place.
Some stakeholders may see empowering young learners through student voice as undermining their own power or position of authority in the school. Teachers may sometimes feel that students have more rights than they have. This merely underlines the importance of developing a whole-school culture in which all stakeholders feel safe to express their opinions freely and openly, and to have their opinions taken seriously. Student voice goes hand in hand, therefore, with the creation of a general culture of democracy and human rights in school.
The second major area of challenge is ensuring that student participation is genuine participation and not tokenism or ‘window-dressing’. This means giving students opportunities to make a real difference to their lives and the lives of other school stakeholders, and helping staff to be more open to sharing their decision-making with young learners.
The Ladder of Children’s Participation
Roger Hart, in the book Children's Participation: The Theory And Practice Of Involving Young Citizens In Community Development And Environmental Care, developed the concept of a ‘ladder of participation’ which can be applied to student voice. He suggested eight different levels or degrees of student voice, from the simplest - which is little more than the manipulation of students for the school’s benefit - to activities where decision-making is genuinely shared between adults and young learners.
A third area of challenge is the difficulty of making opportunities for student voice equally open to all students. The problem arises to some extent on account of the perception that student voice applies only to formal school structures, like pupil parliaments. For stakeholders with more traditional attitudes towards teaching and learning it can be difficult to see student voice as integral to, rather than separate from the learning process in classrooms. Another aspect of this problem is that it is the more confident and out-going students who are prepared to voice their opinions openly or stand in class or school council elections. How to integrate student voice into learning and to involve a wider range of students in the process is a whole-school responsibility and needs to be taken seriously as an area of whole-school planning and as an important topic for teacher professional development.
How can schools get active?
There are a number of ways in which schools can develop more opportunities for student voice. These include:
- Encouraging teaching staff to consider how they can involve students in the learning process in the classroom, e.g., by creating more opportunities for students to express their own opinions, debate issues, make suggestions or draw up classroom rules;
- Creating mechanisms for student consultation on issues affecting school life, e.g., through questionnaires, suggestion boxes, surveys or focus groups;
- Establishing formal bodies or procedures, e.g., pupil parliaments, student committees and commissions, or ‘circle time’;
- Inviting students to sit on school policy-development committees, e.g., on gender equality, pupil safety or health and well-being;
- Teaching young learners the skills of public speaking and debate, e.g., discussion skills, active listening or argumentation;
- Providing opportunities for peer-led activities, e.g., peer education, peer assessment or peer counselling.
[1] https://soundout.org/why-student-voice-a-research-summary/
[2] https://soundout.org/why-student-voice-a-research-summary/ ; Beaudoin, N. (2005). Elevating student voice: How to enhance participation, citizenship, and leadership. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education
[3] UN General Assembly, Convention on the Rights of the Child, 20 November 1989, United Nations
Resources on Making children’s and students’ voices heard
Multimedia
Official texts
Policy documents
Studies
Higher education for democratic innovation (Council of Europe Higher Education Series No. 21) (2016)
Tools
Related schools projects
Address: M. PAPAIOANNOU 1, AVLONAS 190 11
Country: Greece
Project: Bridging languages and memories to foster multiple identities: “Never leave your backpack behind!” (“Backpack ID”)
Working language during the project:
- Greek
- English
- German
- Italian
- Swedish
- Farsi
Themes of the Council of Europe campaign “FREE to SPEAK, SAFE to LEARN - Democratic Schools for All” covered:
- Making children’s and students’ voices heard
- Addressing controversial issues
- Preventing violence and bullying
- Tackling discrimination
Competences from the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (CDC) addressed and where / how they were integrated:
- Valuing cultural diversity
The specific competence is among the main objectives of the project. The personal books, the e-book and the videos that were created by the students aimed at revealing the students’ multiple identities and diversity as a source of power and richness. - Linguistic, communicative and plurilingual skills
The project is based on students’ expression and communication. It encourages them to be flexible and discover ways in order to overcome obstacles so as to express themselves creatively and communicate using a variety of means. - Knowledge and critical understanding of the self
While working on their personal books as well as on the material produced by their classmates, the pupils were urged to express their thoughts and emotions, to reflect on their motives, values and beliefs, to challenge their prejudices and stereotypes and to work on the relationship between them and the wider context they live in.
Target group age range:
- 11-15
Level of education:
- Lower secondary education
Short description of the project:
1st Gymnasio Avlona is a secondary school in a semi-rural area in Attica. The area has been host to a large number of immigrants over the last decades. Furthermore, a refugee reception centre was set up very close to school four years ago. Adolescents from this reception centre are pupils at our school. As a result, some classes have up to 37% immigrant/refugee pupils. Therefore, issues such as inclusion, tolerance, diversity, intercultural understanding, human rights, discrimination, and culture of democracy in school everyday life are crucial for our school.
The above issues are the core of our project that is part of a 3 year Erasmus KA2 programme entitled: “Bridging languages and memories to foster multiple identities: “Never leave your backpack behind!” (“Backpack ID”) with 7 partners: two universities, one network, one municipal reception unit, one NGO, one research centr and our school.
The main purpose of the project is to promote the inclusion of refugee children and adolescents at school while fostering harmonious inter-group relations in local communities. As part of this programme, our school took part in the design of the project, in the production of the educational material and in the development of innovative practices. We also led the pilot implementation required for most of the stages.
More specifically, using a narratives multimedia approach, the pupils who participated created their Personal Books. The Personal Books are multi-dimensional and include written narratives, graphs, maps, photographs, videos, music, songs, hobbies or recipes, which reflect the pupils’ personal and family history as well as their contemporary everyday life. After the collection and selection of the Personal Books, we created an e-book and some videos. At the next stage, we developed teaching scenarios and we created videos reflecting the teachers’ experience, to be included in the anthology and the teachers’ kit that were produced.
In addition,
- a) The innovative Backpack-ID programme was implemented in front of the whole school during the thematic week which was closely linked to the notion of human rights.
- b) The Backpack-ID programme was linked to the “Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture”. More specifically, the same narratives multidimensional approach was used to help the pupils reflect on their democratic competences, speak about their experiences, and prepare their portfolio.
- c) The Backpack-ID programme was linked to the programme: “School for All – Integration of Refugee Children in Greek Schools” (Greek Ministry of Education, funded by the European Wergeland Center).
- d) A part of the Backpack-ID material will be included in the adolescent museum we are creating at school, the main aim of which is to make pupils’ voice heard on several aspects of their everyday life.
- e) The Backpack-ID programme was presented by teachers of our school to teachers and stakeholders involved in refugee education as an example of our school’s good practices (e. g. seminars: a) Teach4Integration (EKPA & UNICEF), b) “It Could be Me – It Could be You” (Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network & UNHCR Greece), c) Freinet schools network)
Aims/objectives
The main purpose of the project is to promote the inclusion of refugee children and adolescents at school while fostering harmonious inter-group relations in local communities. It also aims at empowering all students, both new-comers and majority-group members, and places emphasis on students’ own multiple group memberships and multiple skills and assets.
The main objectives pursued by Backpack-ID are:
- 1. Empowering students by encouraging them to draw on their cultural, linguistic, and other identity resources;
- 2. Creating a safe space, developing an inclusive atmosphere and promoting intercultural awareness in school;
- 3. Making children and students’ voices heard;
- 4. Promoting students’ ability to reflect on similarities and differences amongst them, and on the positive elements of diversity;
- 5. Mapping the variety and multiplicity of students’ identity resources on a comparative transnational basis;
- 6. Strengthening the ties between school, family and local community;
- 7. Producing a set of comprehensive, innovative educational materials for multi-media use by students and teachers.
Expected results/outcomes
Participants are expected to:
- Become familiar with the concept of multiple origins and multiple identities.
- Realise that multiple identities are elements of enrichment and empowerment, and realise the complexity of their own identity and their own origin.
- Recognise the pupils’ right to be heard and feel safe to express themselves.
- Develop the ability to recognise similarities and differences between people at different levels, and be open to learning about the differences in those around them.
- Be able to challenge their preconceptions and ask more in-depth questions about themselves, the differences they see in others, and the world around them.
- Develop their sense of self-esteem as a result of the systematic work with their identities.
- Improve their literacy in the new language.
- Realise and strengthen the bonds between their family, their school and their social environment/local community.
Changes
“Working with the Backpack in the classroom gave teachers the opportunity to design experiential lessons based solely on material created by teens. The students in the class worked on texts, videos, and drawings that had been created by their peers. This was something that both children and teachers experienced for the first time, as most lessons are usually based on textbooks written by adult writers. In contrast, during this project, we worked on material created by 12, 14 and 16-year-old students. This mobilised the pupils a lot. But beyond that, it empowered them. The students felt that it was possible for their own speech to be part of the school curriculum. They thus started talking in a way that most of them had never done before. Through this process, we got to know each other better, even those we thought we already knew well. Somehow, Backpack ID gave a voice to the children, gave a voice to the students and brought them to the fore.
The fact that the material is created by children from different countries - Greece, Italy, Albania, Germany, Afghanistan, Syria … led to this change. In addition, it is multilingual and multimodal. These characteristics particularly unlocked the refugee children. A comfortable atmosphere of tolerance and acceptance of various ways of communication was created. Our refugee students began to struggle to express themselves in many ways and in any language they could...” (from a video included in the teachers’ kit)
“What impressed me is the process of searching for family stories with the kids. Their initial attitude was awkwardness. But little by little, step by step, by insisting and being patient, we managed to lead them to discover details about their lives. The involvement of the family was something that excited all the members and the students and the parents. We, the teachers, as well, discovered and saw the children in a new light. This was a great joy. The parents embraced the whole procedure with great enthusiasm and were very supportive of their children's research. The children shared their stories not only with us but also with their classmates. This gave them the opportunity to get to know each other better, more deeply and, different relationships were thus developed.” (from a video included in the teachers’ kit)
Challenges you faced
The main challenges we faced were:
- How to link the project with the school curriculum
- How to create a safe environment which would help the participants to express themselves and communicate
- How to overcome students’ standard mode of expression or standardizing their mode of expression
- How to persuade ourselves – the teachers - to stand behind and give more space to the pupils.
Time-frame of the project:
1/9/2017- 31/12/2020
Council of Europe materials on citizenship and human rights education used while preparing or implementing your practice:
- Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture
- All Different – All Equal
- Compass
- Compasito
