"Elevating Student Voice" Excerpt
I believe in the magic of student voice. Honoring student voice is an essential part of great schooling. Yet the literature contains very little on student voice in contemporary schools. Sadly, what should be a reality in American education is instead a rarity.
I have come to trust student voice as a powerful tool for school improvement, a liberating force for student engagement, and a crucial element in educating for participatory democracy. I have written this book to convey the magic of student voice to all who value these goals.
A recent exploration on the Internet took me to an article that talked of professional educators ignoring student voice “to the extent that it is considered to be immature, frivolous or ephemeral.” (Edward G. Rozycki, Cloning Student Voice, 1999). In my experience, student voice is rarely any of these.
True, students themselves may be immature. But they come to school as they are, and professional educators need to listen to them if we value their participation and engagement in school. In these pages, readers will discover ways to develop student voice—indeed, a fairly organized, established protocol for doing so—and find story after story of how students respond when we heed their voices.
Nor do I consider student voice a frivolous matter. I take educating for citizenship seriously. In order for our country’s experiment in democracy to endure, educators must allow students to practice the necessary skills. In The Big Picture: Education Is Everyone’s Business, Dennis Littky writes that in many cases, students go through twelve years of schooling without making one democracy-inspired decision. Shame on us! I hope that this book will help schools promote citizenship and become laboratories of democracy.
Finally, in my experience student voice is far from ephemeral. Rather, it has constituted the underpinning of schools where I have worked. Schools that promote student voice reap benefits not only for individual students, but for school climate and public relations as well. There is no better engine to pull the train of school reform than student voice, and once it picks up steam it is difficult to derail—a fact that will be unmistakable as this work unfolds.
How can educators find and use the magic of student voice? First of all, we may need to make some adjustments in how we think about school and about students. In the first chapter of this book, Changing the View, I explore the beliefs and attitudes that best support student voice. In the next, Changing the Practice, I encourage school leaders to embrace these beliefs and attitudes, and I suggest a number of leadership practices that promote student voice.
Chapter 3, Paying Heed to Student Voice, brings to the forefront the strategies, programs, and procedures that promote student voice within the formal structure of the school day. Where can students speak to their teachers and to other adults in school? What happens when we pay heed?
In Chapter 4, Linking Classroom and Community, I offer vivid examples and detailed descriptions of student voice in action. Through community service, student-directed events, service learning and experiential learning, students explore their power to make a difference in their own education and the wider community. Chapter 5 brings us back to the school grounds for a look at the extra- and co-curricular activities that showcase our students’ talents, build their skills, and tap into the growing strength of their voices.
Chapter 6, Educating for Citizenship, turns to the powerful role of schools in creating opportunities for students to practice democracy and civic responsibility. Chapter 7 highlights First Amendment Schools: Educating for Freedom and Responsibility, a national reform initiative that supports schools seeking to model and apply democratic principles.
Finally, Chapter 8, Finding Inspiration for the Journey, provides examples of student voice and participatory democracy from schools across the nation. These snapshots of existing practice offer a glimpse of the many and varied ways in which school communities can embrace student voice.
I hope readers of this book will come away with a new perspective on student voice and its potential for enhancing student engagement and leadership in our schools. I hope teachers and administrators will recognize how readily they can adapt current practices and procedures to incorporate student voice in daily routines and in school improvement efforts. I trust that readers will be convinced of the indispensable need to teach and practice democracy in our schools. Finally, I predict that student voice can work magic wherever school leaders have the courage to pursue it.
© Nelson Beaudoin and Eye on Education 2005
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