RESEARCH

Eve Mayes and Rosalyn Black, “Feeling Voice: The Emotional Politics of ‘Student Voice’ for Teachers,” British Educational Journal 46, no. 5 (October 2020): 1064-1080. DOI: 10.1002/berj.3613.

In recent years, student voice has become a popular school reform strategy, with the promise of generating relations of trust, respect, belonging and student empowerment. However, when student voice practices are taken up by schools, student voice may also be associated with less affirmative feelings: it is often accounted for in terms of teacher ‘fear’, ‘resistance’ or ‘uncertainty’ about altered power relations. Such explanations risk individualising and pathologising teachers’ responses, rather than recognising the complexities of the institutional conditions of student voice. This article considers the affective politics of student voice: that is, the contestations that attend who gets to name how student voice feels in schools. Working with data from an evaluation study of three Australian primary schools who engage in ‘exemplary’ student voice practices, we listen to school leaders and facilitating teachers’ accounts about the responses of other teachers at their schools to student voice. Parallels are drawn between the construction of some teachers as reluctant, and previous analyses of ‘silenced’ student voices in schools. We argue that, in order to analyse the enactment of student voice in more nuanced tones, it is necessary to consider the profoundly emotional experience of teaching and learning, the ambivalences of teachers’ experiences of student voice, and contemporary reconstitutions of teacher subjectivities.

Dana Mitra, “Student Voice in Secondary Schools: The Possibility for Deeper Change,” Journal of Educational Administration 56, no. 5 (2018): 473-487. DOI: 10.1108/JEA-01-2018-0007.

This article considers the role of student voice in secondary school reform. It defines the concept of student voice within bodies of research on youth participation internationally, noting the ways the United States is distinct and lagging behind. It then looks at the broadening scope of ways that young people have become involved in change efforts. It considers ways that student voice can deepen implementation efforts and strengthen classroom practice. The paper ends with a discussion of the importance of attending to issues of power in youth-adult relationships, including ways to avoid the co-optation of young people.

Dana Mitra and Stephanie Serriere, “Student Voice in Elementary-School Reform: Examining Youth Development in Fifth Graders,” American Educational Research Journal 49, no. 4 (2012): 743-774. DOI: 10.3102/0002831212443079.

The present research examines the developmental outcomes of elementary-aged students engaged in student voice efforts. Using a case study of fifth-grade girls, the authors compare their experiences to research examining secondary school. The authors find marked similarities in the growth of agency, belonging, competence—the ABCs of youth development. The authors also notice two additional dimensions—the need to engage in discourse that allows an exchange of diverse ideas while working toward a common goal. The authors also observed the emergence of civic efficacy, or a belief that one can make a difference in their social worlds. The authors also examine the contexts and conditions that support positive youth development in this case—scaffolding youth learning, establishing inquiry as the framework for teaching and learning, and establishing a clear vision of the school as a place that fosters student voice.

Dana Mitra and Stephanie Serriere, “Youth Participation in U.S. Contexts: Student Voice Without a National Mandate,” Children & Society 28, no. 4 (2014): 292-304. DOI: 10.1111/chso.12005.

Unlike the United Kingdom and other nations that mandate youth participation to some degree, U.S. policies instead tend to inhibit child participation rather than encourage it. Given these policy contexts, it can be challenging to locate spaces where robust opportunities for democratic participation and student voice exist. We use this article as an opportunity to examine the disciplinary, philosophical and methodological approaches that have framed youth participation in youth contexts. We conclude by identifying critical issues of citizenship and belonging that must be considered in participatory research.

Dana Mitra, Donnan Stoicovy, and Stephanie Serriere, “The Role of Leaders in Enabling Student Voice,” Management in Education 26, no. 3 (2012): 104-112. DOI: 10.1177/0892020612445678.

This article explores how leadership can help to enable student voice to occur in schools. We find that the relationship between teachers and the school leader is a critical context for enabling voice. Specifically, we find that the following concepts were important for efforts to enable and foster student voice: (1) clear vision of school that is incorporated deeply into practice as ‘the way we do things here’; (2) allowing opt-in strategies for teachers when possible; (3) recognizing that implementation across classrooms and personnel will vary depending on individual contexts, beliefs, and experiences.

Barbara Pazey and David DeMatthews, “Student Voice from a Turnaround Urban High School: An Account of Students with and without Dis/Abilities Leading Resistance against Accountability Reform,” Urban Education 54, no. 7 (2019): 919-956. DOI: 10.1177/0042085916666930.

The Every Student Succeeds Act redefines the priorities of our nation’s education system. Prior to its passage, turnaround strategies advanced solutions for low-performing schools. Research literature examining how these reforms impacted the schooling experiences of students attending these schools is lacking. We present the results of a qualitative case study of a reconstituted urban school in the Southwest United States, providing the perspectives of 10 students with dis/abilities and the effects accountability reform efforts had on their high school experience. Three expressed needs and desires were identified: (a) a positive school identity, (b) stability, and (c) to be recognized and heard.