Student voice: why it goes wrong - and how leaders can get it right

My belief in hearing the views of young people is the foundation of my work as an educator. This commitment was strengthened when I oversaw a student leadership team for several years.

Yet when I began thinking about the roots of student voice, I found myself asking: why do we have a committee at all? And why does feedback from student committee members consistently mention feelings of uselessness and superfluousness?

These questions inspired my Master’s dissertation, a part of which I will outline here - namely, why is student voice difficult to implement, and how can we get it right? The literature highlights three main areas standing in the way of successful student-voice implementation:

1. Perceptions of youth

An important aspect is adult perceptions of young people. According to Cook-Sather (2002), there is a need for radical change in the attitudes of many teachers who do not regard students’ opinions as relevant.

Cook-Sather’s studies on novice educators highlight the biases and beliefs about knowledge that impact decision-making. For example, how a teacher perceives the child in terms of their ability determines whether the teacher will be responsive or not.

This has a profound impact on whether students feel their opinion is taken seriously, and makes clear that successful student-voice initiatives depend on the degree to which teachers believe in students.

2. Power dynamics

Another issue is the entrenched notions of teacher authority in schools.

For example, research by Bahou in 2011 showed that some teachers feel their authority would be diminished by the foregrounding of student perspectives. In such situations, students become passive recipients rather than active participants.

Two years earlier, Cook-Sather (2009) looked at the same issue and found, similarly, that power dynamics within student leadership situations must change in order to reflect a more balanced distribution of student/teacher input.

Otherwise, there is a risk of teachers actively blocking student voices for fear of their own views being undermined.

3. Methods of implementation

Long-standing research also shows that the way in which student-voice initiatives are implemented can become a barrier to potential success.

For example, Hart’s pioneering research into student voice (1989) showed that, even when given a nominal voice, students often had no control over how or in what capacity it was expressed.

In some instances, poorly managed or misguided initiatives created divisions among students, distinguishing active participants while disenchanting others who saw such programmes as impositions from teachers.

A major criticism of student voice has been its perception as tokenistic and faddish, serving institutional interests rather than creating genuine student empowerment, and lacking genuine engagement from authority figures.

So what can leaders do to effect real change?

Setting the foundations

Senior leadership teams (SLT) must decide on what student voice means in their school, and why it is important. This definition will form the basis of how implementation works in their setting.

A clear vision for student voice should be established, with associated policies and procedures. This should be rooted in a rights-based approach. How many educators know about Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, for example? How might this change the way they view student voice in schools?

This ensures a consistent approach and a collective understanding of what is to be achieved.

Clear guidelines and frameworks

A dedicated staff member should be responsible for ensuring that student voices are heard by SLT, with school-wide steps taken to create the conditions for this.

Job specifications for student leaders should be accompanied by accountability processes, clear timelines and regular meeting schedules - including feedback loops - so students see that the aim is genuine engagement.

There should be integration into year-group and whole-school events such as assemblies, competitions, tutor times and academic initiatives.

Student committees should be visible and known, so procedures become a lived reality instead of a lost document.

Professional development

SLT should also focus on staff CPD so bias can be avoided and a more balanced power dynamic achieved.

The strengthening of student voice could be achieved through the creation of a dedicated coordinator or through it becoming part of the responsibilities of a member of the SLT.

The caveat here is that the role and its responsibilities should be clearly defined in the job description to avoid tokenism and lack of consistency.

It is recommended that senior leadership base its provision on creating a dialogic relationship between staff and students, where emphasis is placed as much on the process as on intended outcomes.

This is what will lead to authentic and genuine student-voice consultation.

Rafeef Kadhum is an English teacher at the British School Al Khubairat in the United Arab Emirates