EL REINO DE LAS PLANTAS

Researchers make claims as to the benefits of consulting and students participation in schooling. These claims are based on the potential impact of student voice on students, teachers and schools and were derived from experiences and confessions of students and teachers. Commenting on the benefits of student voice in schools, Fielding et al, (2002) observed four dimensions of these benefits: organisational, personal, pedagogic and political.

2.8.7.1 Engagement in learning:

Research studies show that student voice in schools encourage and enhance student engagement in learning (Fielding et al, 2003). Hargreaves (2004) observed that consulting students enhance their engagement and motivation

67 in learning and in classroom activities. Student voice is geared towards

empowering students to engage in their learning (Vatterott 1999). Empowerment is “a process through which people and/or communities increase their control or mastery of their own lives and the decisions that affect their lives” (Kreisberg 1992:19).

Research shows that students are more engaged when they observed that their opinions were heard by school authorities and were acted upon to effect changes in their learning (Rudduck et al, 2007; Rudduck 2006; Beaudoin 2005, Fletcher 2005; Arnot et al, 2004; Burke et al, 2003; MacBeath et al, 2003). Beaudoin (2005) argues that by “listening to student voices, we can motivate and engage students in today’s schools, and that engagement can lead to greater achievement” (p.5). Student voice is geared towards creating partnership between students and teachers so that “teaching-and-learning is co-constructed by both” (Hargreaves 2004). Through consulting, students develop the ‘capacity’ to talk about teaching and learning in their schools and uncover ways to improve their schooling. The study by Wilson et al, (2007) shows six teacher behaviour patterns students said would help them to learn: good teachers push them to do their assignments, maintain order in

classrooms, offer them help, explain lesson topics thoroughly, understand students and vary classroom activities. When teachers react positively to students’ perceptions and problems, students confessed to an improvement in engagement and motivation regarding their learning as noted by a Year 11 boy in Flutter et al, (2004: 10).

Before, a lot of teachers just used to think I was useless and I would never try my best whereas now they like acknowledged that I am trying my best and that make it a lot easier to get on with work and motivate you to do things

68 2.8.7.2 Enhance positive attitude to school and learning:

Research (Rudduck et al, 2007) shows that when schools’ authorities validate and implement students’ suggestions on teaching and learning in their

schools, “students feel more positive about school” and they “develop more positive attitudes to learning” (p.140). Students feel a sense of respect and self-worth (Fielding et al, 2002) and identify with the educational goals of the school (Fletcher 2005). Student voice offers students, especially the poorly achieving ones the opportunity to discuss the aspects of classroom life they find difficult and request the type of support they need (Rudduck 2006). When these learning difficulties were attended to, students developed more

willingness to learn, more interest in lessons and school attendance improved (Ruduck et al, 2007). Through the activities of student councils, student

exclusion rate and bad behaviour have reduced in many schools (Davies 1999).

Consulting students helps them to make choices and decisions and develop their ability to work on things that are of interest to them (Rudduck 2007b). It enables them to take more responsibility for their learning and to take on more ownership of their schools (Hargreaves 2004). Goldman et al, (1998) argues that in schools where this culture of responsibility for one’s learning is initiated through student voice, poorly performing students can change positively because in such schools, the goal is “not to do something to students but for students to become productive workers and leaders” (p.7).

2.8.7.3 Enhanced relationship with staff and peers

Consulting students creates avenues through which teachers and students can engage in dialogue about school problems and on teaching and learning. This dialogue encourages community membership and democratic principles

69 in schools (Flutter 2006). This new relationship helps students develop a sense of belonging, ownership, inclusion, feel valued and trusted (Davies 1999, Fletcher 2005). This dialogue encourages openness, honesty, respect and a cooperative working atmosphere (Hargreaves 2004). Hargreaves

(2004) argues that when students are free to question any aspect of schooling and their opinions are validated and implemented, they perceive themselves as having a stake in their schools. This working-together becomes the culture of the school and urges students to expose their weaknesses and anxieties. Teachers are equipped to interpret students’ talents and interests and teachers will also discover their own voice (Heshusius 1995; Lincoln 1995).

Students do not view all teachers the same but have identity profiles for each teacher (Davies 2005). Through this new relationship based on trust and respect between teachers and students, teachers act as facilitators of learning and not “information givers, and leaders, not bosses, in the classroom, risk- taking, change and transformation are the norm” (Goldman et al, 1998: 7). The new relationship that develops through student voice, between students and teachers, is echoed in the work of Mitra (2008:75):

Student forum members observed an increasing willingness to collaborate with students and to engage in dialogue and a deeper growth in teacher understanding and receptiveness...students began to feel a part of the school’s learning community. Through multiple

interactions, students and teachers recognized that they had similar reactions to activities

2.8.7.4 Development of social and learning skills

Through engagement in active research and creation of a dialogue between students and school authorities, students develop the capacity to say what they do and don’t like about their schools, they develop speech making and

70 communication skills, leadership roles and imbibe the democratic skills

needed to become engaged participants in society at large. Through student voice, students develop the ability to listen to one another and to respect different opinions and this “provides the basis for learning about, and in, democracy and citizenship” (Hargreaves 2004:10). Kohn (2006) argued that students will learn democratic ideals through the experience of choice and negotiations in schools. These democratic ideals enshrine discipline in the students so that the students do things because they know and feel that they are the right thing to do. Giving students a voice helps them to make their “own decisions, to grow into ethical and compassionate people” (Kohn 2006:83). Students that engaged in the improvement work in Whiteman high school in the US (Mitra 2008) maintained that they have developed new skills and abilities relating to how to recognise and solve problems in their school; how to speak publicly and speak to adults, organizational skills, respect for the opinions of others and leadership skills as observed by one student I used to get in arguments with a lot of people before...now I tend to talk things out more before I get mad at somebody...it’s just a lot easier for me to have an actual conversation now than an argument (p.92)

Fletcher (2005) recorded some educational activities carried out by students in implementing student voice in their schools. These activities included students doing educational research, educational planning, classroom teaching and evaluation, being decision-makers and educational advocates. Through these activities students developed skills in planning meetings, research skills, teaching skills, evaluation skills and skills for the process of advocating for change in schools.

71 2.8.7.5 Teacher’s professional development

Research shows that students’ perspectives are a valuable source when studying teacher development (Davies 2005; Flutter et al, 2004). Fielding (2001) argued that student voice creates a context where teachers can learn from all participants in the school community in a manner he called “radical collegiality”: teachers learn with and from each other, from parents, from the school community and especially from students. He observed from his work at Sharnbrook school that “students see different issues and see issues differently” and that “teacher learning is both enabled and enhanced by dialogic encounters with their students” (p. 130).

Teachers’ listening to students’ experiences have the potential to solve educational problems in the school (Cook-Sather 2002). Consulting students is a good method of finding out “what works” in the classroom (Flutter 2004). Fielding et al, (2003) observed that consulting students offered teachers opportunities to experience a different way of working with students and gain insights that help their own professional development (p. 19). A teacher’s comment in MacBeath et al, (2003) highlights how student voice helped with teacher’s professional development:

We’ve had some very clear pointers from students about how they like to learn and I think it’s given an encouragement to different ways of teaching. We’ve modified things or developed things further – and had the courage of our convictions (p.6)